Summer Two-Way Immersion Education in Costa Rica
This program invites students to develop their teaching skills at La Paz Community School, a pre-K-12, two-way immersion IB school on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. Very concretely, this education abroad experience will give you the opportunity to gain considerable contact hours in the classroom with students and teachers. More importantly, however, because these contact hours will take place at La Paz, you will learn directly about approaches that are the cornerstone of instruction at the school: two-way immersion education, place-based learning, cross-cultural competence, thematic instruction, and cross-grade learning.
Type of Program: Faculty-Led, UConn Summer
Prerequisites: This program is open to UConn undergraduates and graduates with an interest in education, languages, and culture. Proficiency in Spanish is beneficial, but not required.
Lead Faculty: Elizabeth Howard
Application Deadline: February 8
Scholarship Support: The Neag School welcomes applications to its global education scholarships each spring. UConn's Office of Experiential Global Learning automatically reviews student eligibility for its scholarships through students' EGL program applications; no additional application is required.
Questions?
Contact Elizabeth Howard with any questions about Summer Two-Way Immersion Education in Costa Rica:
Elizabeth Howard
Associate Professor
elizabeth.howard@uconn.edu
860-486-9275
Gentry 408
Hear From Students Who Completed the Program
"I will carry the methods and tools that I witnessed and used at La Paz with me for the rest of my life. ... We saw children learning math through knitting and French through cooking, as well as developing their own textbooks."
— Kiana Foster-Mauro ’20 (ED), ’21 MA
"Upon graduation with my master's from Neag, I decided to begin my teaching career while also traveling. I moved to the island of Curacao in the Caribbean. With the skills acquired from this program and dual language coursework, I was prepared to work with a diverse student body and staff with different cultural and language backgrounds. After six years teaching third grade at the International School of Curacao, I am ready for my next international adventure in Medellin, Colombia. My experience at La Paz Community School in Costa Rica set me on the path of international education and it's an experience I wish for any undergraduate/graduate student looking to become a more balanced, internationally minded, educator."
— Emily A. Baseler
