Sustaining Costa Rica (3cr.)
Spend 10 days studying sustainability in Costa Rica, a country well known for its progressive environmental and sustainability policies. Costa Rica is the only country to meet all five United Nations Development Programme criteria established to measure environmental sustainability and plans to become carbon-neutral by 2025. On this program, you will experience many aspects of sustainability first-hand, from local to global, as you study “payment for ecosystem services” programs, community recycling initiatives, climate change initiatives, sustainable farming, cultural preservation and park conservation.
Experiences you will have during the Costa Rica program
Learn more about the O’Neill in Costa Rica program
2025 dates coming soon!
For reference, 2024 program dates were: July 7- July 16, 2024
Sustaining Costa Rica (3cr.)
Program Director: Sarah Mincey
O’Neill in Costa Rica is a three-credit course (E482/E582/V482/V582).
Costa Rica’s global reputation for environmental and sustainability practices is impressive, but these practices are relatively new following a period (from 1950-1990) of extreme forest loss and environmental degradation. How did Costa Rica make this dramatic shift toward sustaining its common pool resources and its people? What has it meant “on the ground” for local individuals and communities? How do internationally and nationally coordinated sustainability initiatives influence the every-day lives of Costa Ricans? And in turn, how do local Costa Ricans contribute to the sustainability of their communities, their nation and the world?
The goal of this course is for you to immerse youself in the history and current context of this global sustainability leader to explore critically these cross-scalar (local to global) questions from an integrated economic, social and environmental perspective that distills best practices and lessons learned. Sustainability initiatives related to food and agriculture, forests, energy/resources and community are the main media through which the course explores these themes. A social-ecological systems perspective frames course goals, offering students a foundational understanding of the work of the late Elinor Ostrom (IU distinguished faculty and Nobel Prize winner in Economics) and the relevant theory related to her body of work focused on the sustainability of coupled natural-human systems, namely common pool resources.
IU Bloomington Undergrads: See how this course counts towards your major/minor at O'Neill here.
- Meet with leaders from the Costa Rican government agency FONAFIO on the country’s exemplary ‘Payment for Environmental Services’ program. Then visit a small landholder involved in this program to hear firsthand about the experience from the community perspective.
- Visit El Toledo, a small coffee farm, led by a family that has been growing organic coffee for the last two decades. We will have tour of the coffee plantation and learn about sustainable coffee production and processing. This fun visit will offer insight into Costa Rican culture, small business, and the largest source of exports for the country for the majority of the 20th century.
- Hear from national and local leaders for Costa Rica’s climate action.
- After an informational talk about MareBlu and their work, we’ll do a beach cleanup along the Guacalillo River, weighing and sorting the garbage we collect and then help them build an artificial reef.
- Visit Manuel Antonio National Park and learn about the government’s conservation efforts through the park system.
You will be housed at various hotels throughout the country that suit the various locations detailed in the itinerary. The first few nights will be spent near UPEACE in an eco-art hotel that will provide a perfect experience in sustainable living. Students will share a room. Each room will be furnished with beds and its own bathroom. A main house reserved for our course is centered among the hotel rooms and has a full kitchen, group dinner table, living room, study room, as well as wireless internet access.
All O’Neill International programs are academic, credit-bearing courses that take place abroad. As such, your bursar will be charged two amounts for participation in this program:
- Program Fee for O’Neill in Costa Rica (made in two payments)
- Tuition for the course (3 credits of IU Bloomington tuition, rate based on your student status (res/non-res; grad/UG, etc))
2025 Program Fee: Will be finalized by November 1
For reference, the 2024 O'Neill in Costa Rica Program Fee was: $1,900
The Program Fee for this program includes:
- Lodging for 10 days in Costa Rica
- Site visits and guest speakers
- Cultural excursions
- Several meals
- International health insurance
The Program Fee will be charged to your IU Bloomington Bursar account in two installments:
- A $550 non-refundable pre-payment will be charged shortly after you confirm your participation in the program
- The remaining balance will be charged in March prior to departure
Tuition: 3 credits of IU-Bloomington tuition
Students will pay for 3 credit hours of tuition based on their student status (resident/non-resident, graduate/undergraduate, etc.) on the Bloomington campus. Note for students from other campuses: the tuition rates on the Bloomington campus may differ from your campus.
Additional Costs
Students will pay for their own flight to and from Costa Rica, meals that are not included in the Program Fee, and other personal incidentals.
For a full breakdown of costs, please see the Costa Rica fee sheet.
Scholarships
The O’Neill International Office offers several scholarships to support students studying abroad. The O’Neill International Equal Opportunity Scholarship is a need-based award available to help O'Neill students from IUB and IUI to be able to study abroad. Please visit our scholarship page for eligibility requirements and application deadlines. Other need and merit-based scholarships are available on a competitive basis. Students are encouraged to apply widely to all scholarships they are eligible for. Please email us at oio@iu.edu if you want help navigating different funding resources.
The program will be open to IU undergraduates and graduate students with a GPA of 2.9 or higher. Students from across IU will be considered, and the instructor will review student applications and make the final decision on admission to the program.
During the application period (November 1 - December 1) an "Apply Now" button will be available at the top of this page. You will need to submit the online application by 11:59pm on December 1.
Please review our detailed application instructions!
If you have any issues or questions throughout the application process, contact us via email: oio@iu.edu
People who don’t travel cannot have a global view, all they see is what’s in front of them.
— Martin Yan, Chinese chef, writer, and TV host