Costa Rica Exchange Program
Donation protected
Dear Friends,
The Costa Rica Exchange Program is a keystone transformative educational experience for GSFS students, led by GSFS Spanish teacher and Costa Rica native Sandra Rodriguez. Running for the last 11 years and straddling both the 7th and 8th grades, this program is interdisciplinary: incorporating Spanish, language arts, social studies, science, service learning, and outdoor adventure. It is a major component of a GSFS education, AND one of the most authentic learning experiences that provides students enduring understandings of the world and their place in it.
This exchange is powerful and sustained over a full year. Currently, all twenty-seven 7th graders have been corresponding with their Costa Rican pen pals and will travel to Costa Rica in March 2016 to meet them and their families. Students will attend their pen pals' schools and experience rich cultural diversity. Students will travel to biological sites, visit an organic coffee farm and a sugar cane plantation, sky trek through the rainforest, white water raft, snorkel, experience the adventure of a lifetime, and form indelible bonds.
In the Fall of 2016 as 7th graders become 8th graders, the Costa Rican students will travel to Philadelphia for two weeks, stay with their GSFS partners, attend school, experience Philadelphia, and complete the exchange. Trips to Washington, D.C. and New York City round out the experience for these teens.
Every tax-deductible donation--big or small--brings the 7th grade one step closer to experiencing the Costa Rica Exchange Program as a group of astute, curious learners eager to embark on this unforgettable adventure AND serves to help bring the Costa Rican students here in Fall 2016.
We thank you for your support!
¡Pura Vida!
The Costa Rica Exchange Program is a keystone transformative educational experience for GSFS students, led by GSFS Spanish teacher and Costa Rica native Sandra Rodriguez. Running for the last 11 years and straddling both the 7th and 8th grades, this program is interdisciplinary: incorporating Spanish, language arts, social studies, science, service learning, and outdoor adventure. It is a major component of a GSFS education, AND one of the most authentic learning experiences that provides students enduring understandings of the world and their place in it.
This exchange is powerful and sustained over a full year. Currently, all twenty-seven 7th graders have been corresponding with their Costa Rican pen pals and will travel to Costa Rica in March 2016 to meet them and their families. Students will attend their pen pals' schools and experience rich cultural diversity. Students will travel to biological sites, visit an organic coffee farm and a sugar cane plantation, sky trek through the rainforest, white water raft, snorkel, experience the adventure of a lifetime, and form indelible bonds.
In the Fall of 2016 as 7th graders become 8th graders, the Costa Rican students will travel to Philadelphia for two weeks, stay with their GSFS partners, attend school, experience Philadelphia, and complete the exchange. Trips to Washington, D.C. and New York City round out the experience for these teens.
Every tax-deductible donation--big or small--brings the 7th grade one step closer to experiencing the Costa Rica Exchange Program as a group of astute, curious learners eager to embark on this unforgettable adventure AND serves to help bring the Costa Rican students here in Fall 2016.
We thank you for your support!
¡Pura Vida!
Organizer and beneficiary
Alexa Klein Dunn
Organizer
Philadelphia, PA
Teri Buda
Beneficiary