Costa Rica: Introduction

I realized half way into this trip that I never explained what I was beginning to get myself into. Honestly, I didn't realize it till I got this trip.

Back in November at the beginning of the school year, a couple ISV reps came though my organic chemistry class pitching the program. Well I attended an information session. The International Student Volunteers is a nonprofit organization that combines a volunteer experience with an adventure tour/travel towards college students who want that experience. ISV is a host organization that sponsors individual nonprofit groups within different countries and categorized within community development, environmental conservation, animal habitation, and things like that.

Costa Rica caught my eye as I browsed through my options across the globe. Its culture is set up such that the community is so intertwined with its environment. Hence, their community projects are both about helping people as well as the environment-exactly my career goals. I am majoring in Chemical Engineering with a specialty area in Environmental Engineering as well. It might sound cheesy, but I want to change the world. I joined this because I thought it'd be a good way to get my foot in the door to making a difference. It might take awhile, but where there is a will, there is a way!

The organization is nonprofit so I did have to pay into the program. The standard program consists of 2 weeks of volunteer work and 2 weeks of an adventure tour across the country. One of my bucket list items is actually to travel to at least 3 countries on every continent. So I opted into the standard program. The bad thing about ISV is that they don't really explain the project agenda very well. All of us really had no idea what we'd be doing, just that it was in community development. Most of them wanted to work with kids, actually. I wanted to work with biodiesel and biodigestion.

Jonathan Cerdas is our project leader and founder of Green Communities - a branch off his originally company Santos Tour. He studied tourism but is truly passionate about sustainability. One of the great things about Costa Rica is their initiative on ecotourism. Jon has set up a nonprofit group to recruit volunteers on making communities here sustainable while still giving them a great cultural experience. His project we'll be working on in Providencia right now is working on paving an important hill for farmers and the community, recycling, and promoting organic farming for these two weeks. Other green projects he's introduced before have been biodiesel, biodigestion, ecostoves (gasifiers), ecolatrines, and the list goes on. You can find out more about his passionate goals at his new website www.greencommunities-cr.org :). You might see me promoting him here and there, just because what he is doing is such a great cause. I agree with so many, if not all, of his initiatives. He's changing the world a step at a time, and that's something to really look up to. This guy is a real inspiration, and its been such a pleasure to work with him!