PSY and COM students travel to Costa Rica
0Written By A. Chaney
Last May, 15 UPIKE students and two professors visited Costa Rica. Students in Associate Professor of Communication Chanda Massner’s Intercultural Communication class and Professor of Psychology John Howie’s Ecotherapy with Nature in Mind class stayed for a week in a rural town near Arenal Volcano and near Quepos on the Pacific Ocean. “It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for students,” Massner said. They enjoyed a variety of outdoor activities such as zip lining, white water rafting, hiking through the rainforest, and visiting Manuel Antonio National Park. They ate lunch alongside iguanas and saw sloths and monkeys. They learned about Costa Rica’s emphasis on conservation of the environment as they spent a day volunteering at a women’s cooperative recycling site where students finished in two hours what would have normally taken the group two weeks to accomplish. Students visited the beach, a pineapple farm, and a coffee plantation, as well as attended multiple lectures about the culture and diversity of Costa Rica. Students also met children at an elementary school who performed a traditional Costa Rican dance for them. “It was a fun and very unique experience. The food was excellent. Learning a new language was different for me. But, in a week I learned (enough)Spanish. I would definitely go back,” senior communication major Brady McClure said.