Academic Program
Program Coordinator: Greg Lyons
Spend two weeks studying Spanish at the Instituto de Cultura y Lengua Costarricense, in Alajuela, Costa Rica. Earn 4 credits of college Spanish at your level of proficiency! Then move to the Caribbean-side tropical environment research facility at La Selva for two full days of birding and natural history tours. The rest of the week is spent at the University of Georgia’s tropical research station, Ecolodge, in the Monteverde Cloud Forest to study the mountain rainforest. Finally, move to Cabo Blanco, on the Pacific Coast, to study tropical dry forest ecology and marine biology. Earn 4 credits in Field Biology (variously numbered BI 141, 188, or 200). This biology course, designed for non-science majors, is open to all students with an interest in learning more about three distinct biological environments of the tropics.
Instituto de Cultura y Lengua Costarricense
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Itinerary
WEEK ONE: Depart from Portland, Sunday, June 24, 10:45 am, fly via Houston and arrive in San Jose, Costa Rica, at 8:40 pm. After the first night in an Alajuela hotel, on Monday, June 25, you travel by private bus (5 hours) to to the Monteverde Cloud Forest northwest of Alajuela and settle in at Ecolodge San Luis, a learning and research facility run by the University of Georgia. You spend five days learning about mountain tropical forest environments. On Saturday, you return to Alajuela and meet your host families, who will take you home to rest.
WEEK TWO: After visiting with host families on Sunday and becoming familar with the neighborhood of Carillo, you take a Spanish oral and written placement test and a cultural walking tour of the suburb of Grecia on Monday. Classes start at the Instituto de Cultura y Lengua Costarricense on Tuesday and continue through Friday. Afternoon activities include a welcome lunch and a cultural visit to Alajuela, traditional Costa Rican games and two biology classes. Friday afternoon features a visit to Zoo Ave. Wildlife Conservation Park for viewing native birds, reptiles, and mammals. On Saturday the group will tour INBioparque showing the flora and fauna of regional ecosystems and featuring a butterfly house in Heredia, near San Jose. On Sunday, optional activities include a guided Poas Volcano trip ($65, but this trip can also be done economically by public transit), whitewater rafting ($70), or a coffee farm visit.
WEEK THREE: Spanish classes continue Monday through Friday, July 13. Afternoon activities include a mini-course in grammar, a dancing class, and two biology classes. Friday afternoon you take a field trip to the World of Snakes near Grecia. Saturday is free for individual travel.
WEEK FOUR: Sunday, July 15, you bus (5 hours) to Palo Verde Field Station for biology activities in the Pacific-side forests and waterways. On Thursday, July 19, you take the private bus (7 hours) to La Selva tropical forest reserve for tours to the rich diversity of the lowland. Finally, on Monday morning, July 23, you bus back to the San Jose airport for a 3:00 pm departure, fly via Houston and arrive in Portland at 11:00 pm.
Instituto de Cultura y Lengua Costarricense
A private Spanish language institute, founded in 1992, specializing in teaching Spanish to foreigners. Located on top of a small hill with a view of distant fields, the Institute is surrounded by flowers and fruit trees and is only 10 minutes by bus from Alajuela (10 miles west of San José, the capital of Costa Rica). The ICLC is situated in Carillo, a suburb of Alajuela, about twenty miles northwest of San Jose, the capital city. Carillo homes will have most of the modern conveniences you are used to. The language school is about a 30-minute bus ride from your homestay. The ICLC campus, new as of 2006, has a small cafeteria/café, inside and outside classrooms, and a small library. With a population of around 100,000 and average temperatures of 74-80 degrees Fahrenheit, Alajuela offers the language traveler the relaxing environment of a small city and easy access to San José.
Ecolodge San Luis
High in the forested mountains northwest of San Jose, this research station is near Monteverde, Costa Rica’s famous montane cloud forest. Ecolodge also has its own pre-montane forest, rich in plants and animals, and valuable for teaching. Ecolodge is a University of Georgia branch campus, including student union, computers, library, dining hall, classrooms, dorms, individual cabins, and lab facilities. We will spend four full days here, learning about tropical ecology. Two terrific optional activities that yield a bird’s-eye perspective on the rainforest are the Sky Walk Canopy Bridge Tour and Zipline ($55).
Palo Verde
The second part of the Field Biology tours is on the Nicoya Peninsula, at Palo Verde—an Organization of Tropical Studies research and teaching site. You travel by private bus northwest of Alajuela to the town of Bagaces and then southwest to the Pacific-side Guanacaste Province. Here, you will investigate some of the thirteen different habitats there, including mangrove and swampy forests, salty and freshwater marshes, and dryland forests. The marsh in front of the field station is an important feeding ground for 60 species of resident and migratory water birds. You will also take a boat tour of the Tempisque River to observe nesting waterfowl. Bring a small pair of binoculars if you have one!
La Selva Reserve
On Saturday after the second week in Costa Rica, we’ll go by bus to Sarapiqui, near this tropical rain forest reserve northeast of San Jose in the Caribbean foothills. Species diversity is amazing, including more than 1,850 species of plants, 350 of trees, 448 of birds, and 500 of ants! La Selva is one of the world’s most important sites for tropical ecosystem research, including projects on forest dynamics, biodiversity, nutrient cycling, and native species reforestation. Tours include an introduction to birding, natural history and research survey.
Course Offerings:
Before you leave Oregon, register for the level of Spanish that you have not yet studied (SPAN 101, 102, 103, 201, 202, and 203 are available). Some colleges have placement exams if you are unsure. At ICLC, students are also tested and placed according to Spanish language ability: Superior, Advanced, Intermediate, Novice. By Tuesday of the first week, classes are in full swing, and are taught entirely in Spanish—no translations. This is total immersion!
Beginning Fall 2008, PCC will have standard prerequisites of reading, writing and mathematics for general education courses. The standard prerequisites are
- Successful completion (grade “C” or higher) of WR 115, or placement into WR 121, and
- Successful completion (grade “C” or higher) of RD 115, or equivalent test scores, and
- Successful completion (grade “C” or higher) of MTH 20 or placement into MTH 60
PCC strongly recommends taking care of any missing prerequisites right away, especially to avoid an issues with study abroad registration. Students can meet with an academic advisor at any academic advising office for help in planning classes and getting questions answered about classes taken at another school. For more information go to the Prerequisites Begin Fall 2008 web page.
PCC students will take Biology 200 and one of the following Portland Community College courses in Spanish:
Biology Instructor
Ron Boldenowsays, "I earned a Ph.D. in Wildland Resource Science from UC Berkeley in and an M.A. in Forestry from Humboldt State. I have taught over thirty course titles within the disciplines of forestry and natural resources, including forest ecology, ecosystems analysis, soils and watershed processes. I have extensive experience in leading student field trips and taking students to professional conferences. My other professional commitments includes projects in fire management, watershed analysis, and fire watch for the Forest Service." Ron is looking forward to making some creative changes to the program based on last summer's student experience.
Language Classes
There are four students per instructor. Instructors are rotated, and groups can change as conditions dictate. Instructors utilize speaking, listening, music, video, literature and newspapers during the course of a day. Instruction is 4 to 5 hours per day, five days per week. Students easily accumulate the 40 hours of Spanish instruction required by the Oregon college system for one term of college credit. In fact, they can accumulate over 50 hours of instruction.
Upon arrival, each student is given an oral and written exam to be placed at a level that matches his/her knowledge. Depending on the placement by ICLC, PCC students will be placed into the equivalent PCC course SPA 101 (First Year Spanish), 102 (First Year Spanish), 103 (First Year Spanish), 201 (Second Year Spanish), 202 (Second Year Spanish) or 203 (Second Year Spanish). Because of the intensive immersion contact in Spanish (20-25 hours per week of classroom instruction), students will earn the equivalent of one term of Spanish in two weeks.
Extracurricular Activities at ICLC
The group program consists of 20 hours of small group instruction (maximum 4 students/class), from Monday through Friday. However, students have the opportunity to do more than just study. Organized activities are part of the program every afternoon each weekday. The activities vary from week to week to keep the program lively. Common activities include:
- Latin dance classes
- Costa Rica's forests
- Latin music
- Costa Rican cooking classes
- Central American issues
- Costa Rican literature & history
- Spanish grammar topics
- Costa Rican art
Costa Rica is a safe country, and students are encouraged to travel on their own during the weekend between the two Spanish instructional weeks. However, ICLC can arrange group outings, including rafting on the Paquori River and trips to various other points of interest in Costa Rica.