Cost: $2800 includes airfare from Atlanta
Length: 14 days
Group Size: 6- 20 students
Who we are?
About us Natural Spanish Institute is a Costa Rican organization that was created to organize exciting activities and an interactive environment to learn Spanish and experience authentic Costa Rican culture through student exchanges. We have been working with youths and teenagers since 2007. We have groups from all over the world to discover the richness of our country. They come to learn from our families and participate in tours and classes. The program allows participants to give back and contribute to our communities by bringing new experiences to our host families and helping with meaningful community service projects.
Our Goal
We strive to provide our groups a safe, fun, and well-organized cultural experience that they will never forget and nurture ways to help them to grow as better individuals.
Our Host Families
Host families are a great component of our trips. We have strict guidelines to select appropriate families that have experience hosting students. They have more than five years experience with Natural Spanish Institute and other organizations. San Ramón is a middle class community with well-educated residence and families. Most of our families have teenagers of their own who will be involved in the activities to help your child to have a closer experience to authentic Costa Rican life. Our host parents are united by a desire to know and welcome a young student from abroad as "their son" or "daughter". They will welcome them with the idea of bringing more understanding of our culture and teach them the good values of the Costa Rican culture.
What's included on the programs?
- Spanish classes using interactive settings: Learn beyond the text of a book! We will teach you how to go shopping downtown, interview teachers in local schools and universities, be in a classroom with native speakers your age and be part of their daily routine, take guided visits to sites of interest such as markets, galleries, sugar cane processing plants, coffee tours, museums, ecological reserves, and much more.
- Explore important ecological issues with members of the Costa Rican's naturalist and environmental non-profit organization, ARCA. Their mission is to protect San Ramón's natural beauty. They are raising money to create a new National Park in the area and you will contribute to that cause by joining our cultural program.
- Community Service programs: Students will help educational institutions with different projects that could include: teaching physical education, art and English classes for K-6 students, working with the green areas of the schools, caring for lawns and gardens, play areas, natural walls, etc. and painting classrooms.
- Zipline and hike through cloud forests.
- Weekend visits to a National Park (Volcano and Rain Forest)
- City Tour: A day in San José, capital of Costa Rica and visit the most important historical and cultural sites ending with a delicious buffet dinner and dancing shows.
- Travel Insurance
- Airfare: Round trip from Atlanta to Costa Rica
Where do we stay?
During the week in San Ramón, Alajuela, our amazing host families and our program coordinator will be on duty 24 hours who lives in the USA that was born in Costa Rica and fluent in English and Spanish. You will have 3 meals each day, laundry service, 24 hours internet access, and supervision from your host parents and the staff from NSI. During our weekend out of town, we will stay in a very clean and comfortable hotel or cabins, depending on the type of tour, and enjoy of all the accommodations mentioned above.
How much it cost?
$2800 includes airfare from Atlanta. |
