2019 Year 3 Recap

We came together for our last year of GYLI excited to see our old friends and experience the many sites and sounds of Costa Rica. Our first stop was the unique and beautiful campus of United Wold College Costa Rica. There we engaged in some sessions led by GYLI students, such as 10Cs of awareness, and the GYLI 4 pillars: Collaborative Leadership, Religious Pluralism, Environmental Sustainability and Multi-Cultural Identity. We also had a great introduction mindfulness. What re the demographics of many communities who lack access to healthy food and clean water? How do different groups who want to make changes have access to the political systems?

From UWC we traveled through the beautiful national park to EARTH University on the caribbean side of Costa Rica and got to experience the wonder of the 8.000 acre campus for ourselves. EARTH students lead us through rainforest walk, the urban farm, the integrated dairy farm, and a tour of the waste management facility. These elements at EARTH make up the complete cycle of production and agriculture and we saw they way that students at EARTH are taught to focus on those systems to make lasting environmental change.

A highlight for everyone was our 3 night, 4 day homestay and rural farms in the La Argentina community. We were interacting and working all together with different people and getting to know their backgrounds and ethnicity. As one student said about the homestay: “I really enjoyed the work we did and felt totally at home by the end of the experience. It was so fun and the house was full of love. Our host family taught us as much Spanish as they could they were very patient and understanding. I really connected with the chaperones and other students at my home stays”.