International Education
Semester Program in San Pedro, Costa Rica

Courses at ICADS

SMCM students earn 16 upper-division ILCS Spanish language credits for participation in either program track.

Semester Internship and Research Program:

Block One consists of four weeks at the ICADS San Pedro Institute, where students participate in small (four students maximum) language classes for 20 hours per week. Classes are divided by ability based on a placement test taken upon arrival. Students attend three seminars, chosen from a set of offerings; sample offerings include The Formation of Ethnic-Cultural Development in Costa Rica, Women in Central America, Ecological and Environmental Issues in the Central American Region, and Survey of Central American Literature.

Block Two is an 8-week supervised internship, where students participate in applied fieldwork and research. ICADS offers over 85 structured internships and research opportunities (most in Costa Rica, some in neighboring Nicaragua) in the areas of women's studies, environment, education, health, development, and wildlife conservation. Placements will be made based on student interest.

Students who intern in Nicaragua travel together up to Matagalpa and are then accompanied by the Nicaraguan coordinator to their internship sites. In Costa Rica, ICADS will purchase students' bus tickets to their sites, will arrange another form of travel, or give them specific instructions for arrival, depending on the circumstance of each student. In most cases though, students will be traveling independently. During the internship, ICADS will communicate by phone with the students a minimum of twice a week. There is also a mid-semester meeting held in Matagalpa, Nicaragua, or San Jose, depending on the country in which the student is working.

Homestay placement during this time ranges from completely urban to completely rural and all degrees in between. Living conditions will be entirely dependent on the type of work the student wishes to conduct. Students will be fully informed of the living conditions associated with each site while they are making their placement decisions.

Block Three is a 2-week period which includes a four-day group excursion to Nicaragua and then return to the ICADS center to prepare a final written report and oral presentation of internship research.

Field Course in Resource Management and Sustainable Development:

Block One consists of four weeks at the ICADS San Pedro Institute, where students participate in small (four students maximum) language course for 20 hours per week. Classes are divided by ability based on a placement test taken upon arrival.

In Block Two, students travel as a group (6-12) with two faculty members (one social and one environmental scientist) for five weeks. Students carry out brief social and ecological research projects while living together in rural communities. They prepare written reports of their joint research and lead group discussions of project findings. The group visits three to five different areas of Costa Rica to be exposed to a diversity of ecological zones and systems of regional development. This program particularly trains students to explore the relationship among economic needs, human and social needs, and environmental needs.

Topics in Sociology Field Course
Topics in Ecology Field Course

In Block Three, students spend five weeks carrying out an independent study project in a location they've previously visited. The final week of the semester is spent preparing a written and oral report of their independent study project.

In general, past participants have found that ICADS academics are more intense in the sense that you will have classes all day long, every day, starting very early. Students also report having to write papers in a shorter span of time than you might be used to doing back at SMCM; the month of classes is extremely condensed in the internship program. But past participants also emphasize that the classes are engaging and highly worthwhile nonetheless.