ISA Study Abroad in San Jose, Costa Rica

My month in Costa Rica was a trip to remember! I loved my homestay family and the friends I made with other students in my program. My Spanish skills improved by leaps and bounds. My Spanish class supported my learning in fun and engaging ways, and living with a host family gave my the opportunity to practice my skills in the real world. I loved the opportunity to travel around the country on the weekends. I got to spend time on both coasts and make a trip to Arenal Valcano. I can't wait for my next opportunity to travel to Costa Rica!

I loved the process of studying abroad with ISA starting from applying, getting credits approved, being in Costa Rica, and even coming back. Applying was easy by doing it online and ISA's employees consistently checked in on me while I was deciding. Their options for Spanish-speaking countries with classes that would transfer back to my school were great. Other options from other programs kept me from studying abroad with them. Being in Costa Rica was also the most fun summer I've had. I learned so much about the culture because of the cultural activities ISA had for us. We walked to the Jade Museum in San Jose, and I thought that was a nice touch because that's probably how locals get there (because it was so close, unless they had a car). I also did service-learning, which helped me get to know other locals from different backgrounds. When I returned to the US, I even chose to become a Global Ambassador so that I can speak about my study abroad experience with my fellow students and convince them to go with ISA!

My time studying abroad with ISA in Costa Rica is still one of the highlights of my life, and it's been over five years since I was there. The ISA team was very helpful leading up to my departure, upon arrival, and throughout the three months of the program. I always felt cared for, and enjoyed interacting with the fun, on-site staff members. There were so many great people in my program, too! I've been lucky enough to stay in touch with my best friends from the program, and we've traveled all over the USA to visit each other.

Costa Rica is a fantastic country for people who want to practice Spanish, since Costa Ricans speak a very "clean," easy to understand version of the language. The only downside of studying in San Jose, rather than some of ISA's other options in Costa Rica, is that many locals speak English - and there are plenty of English-speaking students as well. It's not as immersive of an experience as a smaller town would be. Apart from that, Costa Rica is incredibly beautiful, full of outdoor activities, and easy to travel around. I'd recommend this experience to anyone!

A few months before I graduated I was struck with the paralyzing anxiety that life as I knew it was over and I would soon be entering into a decades long career that offered no flexibility, little vacation time, and zero opportunities for me to travel ever again. Ok, so I was being a little dramatic, but regardless, in that moment I resolved to delay my career for a few short months and instead, I flew to Costa Rica the day after commencement and spent two months studying Spanish, living with a local family and traveling throughout Central America. I chose the ISA Intensive Spanish program because it was incredibly affordable and placed an emphasis on language and culture immersion, something that I value when it comes to meaningful travel experiences. The ISA Staff were very attentive and supportive of my needs but not overbearing or intrusive. Costa Rica is a great country for solo-travelers and people who want to learn Spanish. I found the culture to be very welcoming to outsiders, easy to navigate and friendly. As a female traveler, I felt safe, I felt welcome, I felt comfortable in going outside of my zone to learn new things and engage with new people.

Choosing to study abroad in Costa Rica offers such a unique experience. While in Europe you have the chance to visit a multitude of countries, in Costa Rica you spend the time seeing the individual country itself. I learned to appreciate everything this place has to offer. I learned so much about the culture, the geography, the history, and the Spanish language. Every weekend was a new adventure. Not to mention, Costa Rica is "the happiest country in the world" and it showed through interactions with the locals. ISA's program made it super affordable and it was worth every penny.

These four months were a BLAST! ISA does a great job at ensuring that all of the participants stay safe and have a great time. The classes were a good challenge but not too time consuming. I never felt like they were getting in the way of my study abroad experience.

I had the opportunity to do an amazing internship with Fundacion Rahab, an NGO that helps women who were the victims of sex trafficking. This is a field that I have always been extremely interested in, so getting this opportunity was pretty big for me. I did a lot of fundraising for Fundacion, in addition to working on their budget. I became pretty close with the founder, and one day after my work was done she took me along to meeting she had with the Chilean ambassador and his wife!

ISA plans a few included weekend excursions which were a little nicer than our other weekends, which were usually spent in $15/night hostels (completely our choice). The included excursions were at three or four star hotels, and were a good way to get to know other students on the program.

I would have liked more activities that helped the program immerse more in the Costa Rican culture. In retrospect, I wish I had made more local friends but wasn't quite old enough at the time to have the confidence it takes to branch out like that. Additionally, I had a pretty tough home stay situation that I wish had been fixed earlier. My roommate and I reached out to ISA about our complaints, and no serious steps were taken to address them. Finally, we were moved out our final week for a few days. The good news is I don't think they'll be using that host home anymore, and no one else seemed to have any issues with host homes.

Overall, such a fun four months. ISA definitely understands the types of students that are coming to Costa Rica for a semester abroad and does a great job catering the experience to them.

I absolutely loved Costa Rica! I would definitely recommend this program! I would go to the ISA office almost daily because the ladies in the office were so welcoming and accommodating that I made friends with them. I was in intermediate Spanish which was not difficult but somewhat challenging. I wasn't honestly overly fond of the classroom but when you are there, the classroom is not the best place to learn Spanish anyway: the people are. If you really want to learn Spanish, then I would highly recommend that you make friends with the Ticos and not with Americans. Then use the classroom to facilitate what you learn from speaking with constantly with locals. With that being said, I didn't follow that advice very well. I made very good friends with other American students there with me and we spoke too much English (which was not my plan), but I forged friendships that were so tight that I still speak with most of them regularly almost two years later. I
I had a host family that I loved and we became so close that they even too me to a family reunion and later included me in their Father's Day family photo.
I also liked that ISA provided two excursions and left the rest of the weekends open. This way I was able to be lead in the first two weekends to get my bearings in the country and then my friends and I could plan our own trips after that (which were not very expensive at all).
Overall I can easily say that I had a 5-star experience!

In the three short months I was in this program, I had the time of my life and benefitted in different ways. One of my favorite memories was falling asleep in a rocking hammock, listening to the waves crash on the beach. It is the combination of all my memories that cause me not to want to change my experience for the world, but there is always some advice to be given! Be prepared to spend a little bit of money on taxis each week (bus routes are difficult to figure out at times and you cannot walk in the dark). Also eating out for lunch every day can get expensive, so I would buy cheap groceries for 1-2 weeks and make my own. You really won't wear shorts as often as you might think. At least my group wanted to fit in with the ticos/ticas as much as possible, and often times that meant wearing pants. Really integrate yourself with your family, local students, and ticos in the community--it will make the experience much richer! I made huge advancements in my Spanish-speaking skills because I took advantage of the immersion and necessity to use the language in daily life. I also gained new perspectives on life being in a completely different culture than I was used to, which made me more open-minded and has helped shaped who I am as a person today. Your experience truly is what you make it; seize every opportunity you can because time flies and you may never get the chance again!