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The Experience: Using a beautiful beachside village in Costa Rica as a base, students participate in a variety of activities including Spanish language learning, community service, environmental studies, and recreation. Putney Foundations staff, who are experienced with this age group, stress the development of a positive group dynamic, insure that students receive personal attention, facilitate interactions with local people, and encourage students to explore and to make discoveries about their new and fascinating surroundings, all in the context of structured, safe, and fun activities.
About Costa Rica: Over 50 years ago, declaring itself to be a peaceful nation, Costa Rica disbanded its army and has since enjoyed five decades of democracy and peace. Today, Costa Rica is well known for its astounding biodiversity, innovative approaches to ecotourism, warm and inviting people, and miles of tropical beaches. With over fifteen years of experience in Costa Rica, Putney’s extensive network of local contacts and talented staff bring safety, creativity, and expertise to all aspects of Putney Foundations.
The Villa: Putney Foundations is based in the small coastal community of Playa Hermosa, situated on Costa Rica’s northern Pacific Coast. Known for its friendly people, pristine white sand beach, gentle surf, and surrounding verdant mountains, this is one of the country’s most inviting and safe beach towns. Foundations’ students and staff live together in a small, family-run villa situated only 50 meters from the beach. Boys and girls live in separate double accommodations at the villa. Students and staff eat all meals on campus in an open air, palmroofed pavilion.
Daily Activities: Students begin each morning with a breakfast of cereals, eggs, and locally grown fresh fruit. Before splitting into smaller groups, they convene for a brief morning meeting to discuss the day’s activities and upcoming excursions. Morning activities allow participants to choose from among a variety of options such as beginner surfing lessons, planting a neighborhood hummingbird garden, or a Costa Rican cooking class. Many days, there are interactive language lessons, led by Putney staff and designed not only to improve Spanish skills, but also for students to get to know Costa Rican culture and society. On these days students are grouped by ability levels; while the advanced Spanish group may be interviewing Costa Ricans about their favorite musical groups, the beginning Spanish group may be down on the beach learning the names of different types of fish from a local fisherman. The whole group reconvenes for lunch at the villa. The afternoon begins in small groups pursuing more enrichment activities chosen by the students and led by Putney Foundations instructors. Over the course of their three weeks in country, students may observe howler and white-faced monkeys in their natural habitat, take salsa lessons, participate in drawing or painting workshops, or take a nature hike to a nearby waterfall. In the late afternoons and evenings, Foundations’ staff lead an array of structured activities ranging from a pick-up game of fútbol with local teenagers to a tertulia for students wishing to sharpen their Spanish skills. There are many more opportunities for surfing, kayaking to snorkeling spots, scavenger hunts, swimming, and reading on the beach. After dinner and a second community meeting, students may show off their talents in a program-wide talent show, tell stories around a bonfire on the beach, or collect their thoughts by journaling as they relax beside the villa’s pool.
Community Service—Life in a rural village: Every Putney Foundations student also completes a five-day stay in a small village. Students are broken into two smaller groups and each group rotates through the same village tucked into the mountains of Tilarán. Accompanied by two Putney staff, students lend a hand on much-needed projects in town. Examples of possible service projects include helping to build a classroom at the local schoolhouse, teaching English to Costa Rican children, painting a room in a community center, planting trees, and working with local farmers. During this stay, boys and girls live in separate, simple accommodations (classrooms or small houses in town). The group eats delicious meals together; each day, students form cooking crews to help local women prepare rice, beans, chicken, eggs, and fresh fruit and vegetables. Students also spend a day at a Biological Research Station, learning about the status of tropical forests and working on conservation projects. Projects may include building monkey bridges, painting trail signs, or planting trees with local school children. Students who successfully complete Foundations receive a certificate from Putney recognizing between 20 and 30 hours of community service work completed.
Excursions: Day and overnight trips from our villa allow students to explore the many diverse ecosystems found in Costa Rica. The group visits a number of beaches and national parks in northwest Costa Rica and also pays a visit to Arenal, one of the world’s ten most active volcanoes. Students may hike to the crater lake of Arenal’s dormant partner, crawl through muddy caves in the nearby Cuevas Venado, hike misty trails in search of howler monkeys, hummingbirds, and morpho butterflies, ride horseback through the rainforest, or fly above the cloud forest canopy on a zip line adventure. The cool evenings are best spent soaking in Arenal’s natural hotsprings.
Putney
Foundations offers participants the unique chance to become part of
the Putney community by living, learning, and actively engaging in
fascinating and beautiful Costa Rica.
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and
variety of seminars offered at an Excel program with the sense of
adventure and
active fun of a Cultural Exploration program, as well as the
immersion setting of a Language Learning program, and the meaningful
interaction that comes from participating in a worthwhile Community
Service effort. Putney Foundations is designed for creative,
energetic, and engaged students finishing the 7th and 8th grades who
want to transition from a traditional camp setting. With this
program as a foundation, students can move on to other Putney
experiences in future years.