COSTA MESA : Travel Is Broadening for OCC Students

A group of Orange Coast College students who took part in the school’s first “semester abroad” program have learned there’s a world of difference between Costa Mesa and Costa Rica. But it was these contrasts--particularly the environment and language--that led to the creation of the program in Central America.

Botany and ecology professor John Lenanton and Spanish professor Susana Salessi put together the 15-week study program after a 1988 visit to the college by Carlos Rivera, a Costa Rican government official. The teachers were attracted by Costa Rica’s stable politics and educational opportunities.

“There is not another place that can compete with Costa Rica with regard to diversity of habitat,” Lenanton said.

Students were attracted by the opportunity to live in another country.

“I was always interested in the environment and I wanted to learn a language in a neutral country that has good relations with the United States,” student Julie Rona said.

The Orange Coast College group arrived in Costa Rica in January. Classes have been held at the Institututo Centroamericano de Asuntos Internacionales--the Central American Institute for International Affairs--in San Jose. The institute provided classrooms and a political science instructor, organized field trips and coordinated housing for students with Costa Rican families.

The course has taken students to Costa Rica’s two coastlines, to the volcanic mountain range that separates them and into three distinct tropical forest environments.

There have also been trips to museums, Latin dance clubs, the Legislature and the theater.