Ball State Students, Want to Come to Costa Rica With Me?

Who wants to go to Costa Rica? Yep, like everyone.

This summer I’ll be joining a Ball State Class from May 21-28 to visit banana, pineapple, coffee, and cocoa farms in addition to just soaking up all that Costa Rica has to offer. The class is a Summer I program and will include a few weeks of class using my books WHERE AM I WEARING and WHERE AM I EATING as the course texts.

Seriously, this is like the best class ever.

The last time I was in Costa Rica, I spent all of my time working on a banana plantation and visiting with banana workers. I met some great people, but there is so much of Costa Rica I didn’t get to explore. So…come and explore it with me!

The deadline to sign up for the course is March 1.

All the details about the course be found here and here is a longer course description:

SOC 328: Socialization and the Social World (3 credits)

Three hours of course credit can be earned for SOC 328, a UCC Tier 2 Course – Natural and Social Science Domain.
Students with credit in SOC 328 can opt for credit in SOC 355 and their projects will focus on the sustainability learning objectives.
This program represents “Year 3” of a four year cohort experience of the class of 2016 sponsored by Freshmen Connections. In “Year 1”, students read the Freshman Common reader “Where am I Wearing?” by Kelsey Timmerman. In “Year 2” students were invited to read “Where Am I Eating?” which was the Sophomore read. “Year 3” gives students a chance to join Kelsey Timmerman for a 1 week study abroad experience where they will look at the issues that he described in his books. In “Year 4” students will be invited to develop a Community Action Project proposal with the top three proposals receiving scholarships. Juniors will be given priority enrollment status but all students are invited to apply. Open to all majors.

Program Description:

This program will give students an opportunity to observe the effects of globalization first hand in Costa Rica. The course begins by asking students “How do you as a consumer know if your food and clothing purchases are helping or harming an emerging economy like that of Costa Rica?” How does our consumption of pineapple, chocolate, and coffee impact the sociocultural, economic, and environmental systems of the region? How can we best use our consumption habits to foster positive development in the region?

This Summer I course will include an 8 day trip to Costa Rica during Week 3 of the session (May 21 – May 28). We will begin on campus with a review of the globalization and sustainability literature. Students will identify the topic that they wish to explore and begin their research. After students have completed their preliminary exploration, we will travel to Costa Rica in order to tour numerous sites of sustainable agriculture and tourism. We will then return to campus to complete our reports and make our recommendations.

Some experiences will include: an exploration of the Sarapiqui region to explore the interconnections between community development and biodiversity; a visit to the Corsicana Pineapple farm to see what organic monoculture food production looks like and analyze the cultural and social impact; a visit to CoopeSaraiqui which is a coffee co-op and learn more about their community projects; a visit to La Fortuna to learn about the challenges and opportunities posed by sustainable tourism; a visit to a rainforest organic chocolate farm to learn about cocoa production and the efforts of the local Community development Association. Finally, we will visit the Tarcoles River where we will learn about the impact of tourism, development, and large scale agriculture on water quality and water treatment strategies.