Designed to fit

Your budget, your timeline, your education.

This course was designed from the ground up to make world-class international education possible for more students: experienced travelers and first-time passport holders, students in every major, and students with jobs, families and full schedules.

A boat in the Pacific Ocean next to an aquaculture net.

Applied

Experience can be the best teacher.

Every day of the travel component is spent in the field, employing data gathering and analysis skills to learn directly from community leaders whether they are aquaculture entrepreneurs or nurses who are building more sustainable futures.

The skills transfer to any field: adaptability, problem solving, working across cultures, and seeing how organizations make things work on a lean budget.

Students cross a stream in the rainforest.
A yellow guest house in the rainforest.
Students walk along a trail in the mountains of Costa Rica.
A sign reads Centro El Tucan CEASPA Por y Con La Gente
The lock of the Southern Panama Canal.
A multi-story guest house in the Osa Peninsula forest.
A group of students in a boat on Gatun Lake Panama.
A group of students listens to a biologist in the forest of Costa Rica.
A professor looks out of a stone wall at a river in Panama.
A professor rides in a boat on Gatun Lake in Panama.
A small coati mundi looks into the camera.
A series of canons point out at the bay along the wall of a fort in Portobelo Panama.
A view from above of chairs at a hotel in Costa Rica.
The rainforest of Costa Abajo Panama.
A couple at their restaurant in Panama.
Two hammocks on the porch of a guest house in Costa Rica.
A group of students walk through the rainforest.

Affordable

On a budget?

One program charge covers the essentials: lodging, shared meals, round-trip airfare, private ground transportation with a professional driver, entrance fees for every park, museum and site, and international health insurance. You know the real cost before you commit.

Because this is a credit-bearing course, many students can apply their financial aid. Talk to your financial aid office early. National scholarships are also available to help.

A rocky and tree-lined coast on the Caribbean.

Short Term

Packed academic schedule with no time for a full semester abroad?

This is a full three-credit course that runs over winter term. You complete the preparation online before you leave, then spend two weeks in the field: two countries, sixteen days, and back before the next semester begins. A life-changing international experience that fits around your life, not the other way around.

Any Major, First Passport Welcome.

  • No prior travel or language skills are required, and all instruction is in English.

  • To enroll, you need to be in good academic standing (2.0 GPA or higher), have completed at least one semester of college, and hold a valid U.S. passport.

  • Our online pre-departure modules introduce the history, geography, economies and cultures of both countries, so you’re ready to learn from the first day.

  • Two faculty leaders travel with every group.

  • Private, professionally driven transportation for all program travel.

  • An itinerary planned to stay within about an hour of hospital-level medical care at all times.

  • Lodging and site visits arranged through partners with deep local knowledge.

  • A pre-departure orientation covering health, safety, water safety and cultural expectations, plus a written academic continuity plan in case anything disrupts the trip.