Costa Rican adventure offers students fun, sun, credits
By Matt Skates, nw news editor

     Need credit hours but don’t want to sacrifice vacation time to take a condensed course? NW Campus is offering an educational trip to Costa Rica and Guatemala Dec. 27-Jan. 6. The trip will enable students to travel while earning six hours of college credit: three hours of environmental biology and three hours of Spanish.
     Jan Mercer and Paul Sexton, trip advisors, will begin teaching classes on campus during the last week of November to help prepare students to deal with foreign culture and ecology.
     During the trip, students will learn about rain forest biology as well as cultural skills.
     “[Students] will see things they’ve only seen on the Discovery Channel,” Sexton said. “They will hear, see, smell, touch and taste—all the senses are involved.”
     Students will make stops at Poas Volcano, Tortuguero, Puerto Viejo, Selva Verde Guatemala City, Antigua and Biotopo Del Quetzal.
     Although they are tourists by definition, students will find themselves miles from a Holiday Inn as they will often sleep in primitive structures.
     “Some nights we stay in some bungalows actually in the rain forest,” Mercer said, “and at night we fall asleep to the sound of rain hitting the roof.”
     One of the goals of the course is to teach cultural awareness. And in doing so, students often leave with a different perspective on their own country.
     “You will never love the United States more than when you return to it from another country,” Sexton said.
     Along with the knowledge the students gain, both Sexton and Mercer say that on trips such as this, students form a strong emotional bond with one another, often resulting in tears when it is time to finally return home.
     Total cost for the trip is $2304.50 and includes transportation, accommodation, meals, guide services and applicable entrance fees. Final payment is due Friday, Oct. 27.
     For more information about the course, contact Sexton at 817-515-7210 or Mercer at 817-284-1818 or 817-515-7730.