Trip Summary

So, I’m back home now and back into the swing of things. My trip finished up very stressful, getting everything done for my report in such a short time was very overwhelming. I’m all done now though and overall had a wonderful experience. I had to write an essay about my experience for the School for Field Studies and I wanted to share it with everyone, so here it is:

I participated in the 2011 spring semester Costa Rica School for Field Studies program. I lived in Costa Rica for three and a half months with 27 other students. I experienced great personal and academic growth from the program. I made new friends and learned about Costa Rica’s environment and the environmental issues they face. The water issues in Costa Rica really caught my attention. I learn how even one of the most environmentally friendly countries in the world still has a long way to go to fix all of their environmental problems. This program has helped me decide that I want to focus on sustainable agriculture in developing countries in the future.

The School for Field Studies program in Atenas, Costa Rica focuses on sustainable development. During the program we were taught about natural resource management, environmental economics, and tropical ecology. We took several field trips all over Costa Rica where hikes and field lectures were given. Several of the different types of forests Costa Rica has were visited. We hiked through cloud forests, dry tropical forests, transitional wet to dry forests, and mangrove forests.  The directed research portion of the program spilt up the students in the respective classes. I choose the environmental economic directed research project that focused on the socioeconomics impacts of tourism. A weeklong trip to Panama was taken by the entire group during the program. Participating in center projects helped maintain and develop the field station further. I helped make hydroponic raised beds in the green house, I helped maintain the garden and orchard, and I also helped make a constructed wetland for the student affairs manager’s house. We also participated in community outreach projects. These included recycling programs, painting a new sign for the local orphanage, and a language exchange with local students learning to speak English.

I experienced a great personal growth during my time in the program. I made wonderful and long lasting friendships with the other students in the program. Living in such close quarters with 27 other people was challenging, but I found rewarding aspects as well. Getting to know other people with similar interests as myself made me feel more confident in the career path I chose. I was homeschooled and being able to develop many friendships with people my age was very rewarding. Getting up early in the morning to pick oranges to make orange juice for breakfast made me even more appreciative of what real farmers do on a daily bases to supply us with food. With every ice cold shower I took, I came to understand how important the little things are. I also realized how wasteful America is and that it’s going to take a lot more work than I thought to change the way America thinks about its resources. My personal growth as far as the friendships that were created was one of the best parts of the program for me.

My academic growth was also greatly impacted by the program. During the directed research portion of the program, I gained valuable information on how to conduct a research project and how to properly write a research paper. I learned about tropical ecology which I had never studied before the program. I feel like I learned better and retained more material when a field lecture was given compared to a lecture in the classroom. Overall I feel like I learned more in the classes in this program than in the classes at my home institution. The difference between being shown a plant in the field and in a book amazes me. In the field I was able to see how big a plant was, I was able to touch it and smell it. I retained so much more information when in the field than in the classroom. For the rest of my life I will know what the characteristics of a mangrove forest are. This is because I learned about mangrove forests while sitting in a mangrove forest. Even if my career does not lead me to work directly with mangrove forests, this information is incredibly valuable to me because of the way I learned it. This program opened my eyes to the way I learn things best and that is a very useful and powerful tool I am grateful to have.

                

One of Costa Rica’s environmental problems concerns their use of water. Costa Rica does not have the proper infrastructure to supply water to the entire population. Clean drinking water is a right by law to every Costa Rican. The water that is not properly supplied is not regulated and therefore not paid for. Costa Rica also does not have a proper sewage system. All of the waste water runs into the streets and then the river and eventually to the ocean. Trash also pollutes the water in Costa Rica. Fifty percent of the population and 80 percent of the industry in Costa Rica live in the central valley. All of the waste from the central valley drains into the Tarcoles River Basin. This river is highly polluted and drains directly into the ocean. A large amount of the electricity in Costa Rica is powered by hydroelectric power plants. Hydroelectric plants do not produce the amount of greenhouse gasses as more traditional power plants, like coal-fired power plants. Building hydroelectric plants does have some damaging effects on the environment. It destroys habitat and uses one of our most precious resources for something other than drinking. The water used by agriculture, not to mention agriculture itself, is also damaging to the environment. This program made me aware to the fact that environmental-friendly forward-thinking countries still have pressing environmental issues.

The SFS program influenced my future goals. I now want to have a career with more emphasis on developing countries.  My major at Virginia Tech is agriculture and applied economics with specialization in environmental economics. I now know that I want to pursue a graduate program in sustainable agriculture. Sustainable agriculture is important to me because I feel that of all the environmental issues the world is currently facing, agriculture is one of the biggest. Having a sustainable, affordable, and adequate supply of agricultural products is essential to the human population. The SFS Costa Rica program helped me to decide where to specialize my future study and career.