Month: July 2015

Year 3 Costa Rica Day 10–Back to UWC and Back to

July 24, 2015: Today began with our final breakfast at EARTH University, followed by a quick visit to the bookstore for some students.  Then we returned to UWC in Costa Rica’s central valley.  We got to travel again through the beautiful Braulio Carrillo National Park.  The road takes over many rivers and through beautiful mountain…
Read more


July 24, 2015 0

Year 3 Costa Rica Day 9–White Water Rafting and Cultural Celebration

July 23, 2015: Today is highlight reel day for GYLI.  We began our day early with a pick up from the Farms in the La Argentina community to go to the Pequare River for White Water Rafting.  This is always a highlight for the students and teachers. It is such a fun and beautiful way to…
Read more


July 24, 2015 0

Year 3 2015 Day 8–Social Emotional Learning

July 22, 2015: While the students are at homestays living and breathing an intercultural experience, the GYLI Coordinators and Faculty Participants are learning the theories behind the importance of the experience and sharpening our skills on Social Emotional Learning (SEL). Often discussed as “soft skills,” research suggests that socially literate teens and young adults produce more…
Read more


July 22, 2015 0

Year 3 Costa Rica 2015 Day 7–Why homestays matter

Tuesday July 21, 2015: The GYLI students and teacher participants are enjoying great homestay experiences in the La Argentina Community.  This community of rural farmers has been hosting GYLIers since 2005–for 10 years.  What have we learned about leadership, community, and the environment from these families over the last 10 years? One key thing we…
Read more


July 21, 2015 0

Year 3 day 6–The homestay fun continues

Monday July 20, 2015: Today students woke up at their homestays and engaged in a variety of activities. Depending on which farm they were staying, students planted coffee, made soap, played soccer, worked on rabbit hutches, trimmed bushes and grass and repaired some fencing. We made our rounds this afternoon and visited each farm. All…
Read more


July 20, 2015 0

Year 3 day 5: Workshops and Homestays

We had a great day again, with the GYLI students and teachers represented themselves and their schools very well!  We had excellent EARTH-student-led workshops at the Organic farm and the Peri-Urban farm at EARTH University in the morning.  At the organic farm, students learned from two students, Anne te from Rwanda and Lucia from Kenya.  These…
Read more


July 20, 2015 0

GYLI Year 3 day 4

Today some of us started again with morning runs and walks, but this time at 6AM because breakfast was a little earlier at 7AM.  After breakfast we started our two different sessions. One was a nature walk Monkey Ladder Reservation on the Earth campus, a dense rainforest with an abundance of wildlife.  One group even…
Read more


July 18, 2015 0

Day 3: Welcome to Earth

Greetings! Our day (for some) started at 7am with a run around United World College. Breakfast started at 8am, which consisted of sweet pancakes, gallo pinto, fried eggs, and, (of course) authentic coffee. Then by 9am we were on the road to EARTH University. The three and a half hour bus ride was led by…
Read more


July 17, 2015 0

Year 3-2015–Day 2–Youth Led Workshops and Exploring Santa Ana

Hey guys! Our day started at 7:00 am with a variety of activities: soccer, running, and walking around Santa Ana. Our delicious breakfast included rice and beans, fried cheese, and bread. After breakfast, we split up into our watch groups and completed two workshops. The first one was systemic racism and the second one was…
Read more


July 16, 2015 0

Year 3 Day 1 2015

Hi Everyone, Welcome to our Costa Rica Blog for 2015.  We are South Watch. Today, we arrived at the airport and waited for a few hours for everyone (except for EA) to arrive– EA will show up later today. The food is great, and meeting everyone was really cool. We settled into our dorms, met our…
Read more


July 15, 2015 0