Costa Rica highlights ACM study opportunities

Ripon College is one of a select set of member schools in the Associated Colleges of the Midwest (ACM) consortium. ACM is an organization that offers lots of opportunities for studying abroad or off-campus study for college students since 1958. Now, ACM provides Ripon College students with the Botswana program; Chicago Arts, Chicago Business, Entrepreneur-ship, & Society, Chicago Urban Studies programs; the Costa Rica program; the Florence / London & Florence programs; the India program; the Japan program; the Newberry Semester; the Oak Ridge Science Semester; and the Tanzania program.

Each program has its own Ripon College professor who advises.

Through these programs, a number of Ripon College students travel outside of Ripon and get a fruitful experience every year.

In particular, the Costa Rica program has a notable appeal to Ripon College students who are interested in studying abroad.

"The field work program in the spring semester in Costa Rica is the oldest ACM program. It got a long history and it has been successful over time because it provides a unique opportunity that almost no other study abroad program provides, which is the opportunity to do what you want as an independent research project over almost the entire semester. It provides a level of freedom to direct your own work that almost no other off campus program provides. Students who really want the freedom to pursue their interests have a variety of possibilities in the Costa Rica program. It is great opportunity for them," says ACM Costa Rica Program faculty advisor Soren Hauge.

The Costa Rica Program requires sophomore-level Spanish, recommendation from the Spanish instructor and faculty advisors, approval from the dean of students office, and preparation for a particular program. This program has a fall program and a spring program and each program has unique characteristics.

"The fall program is a study of Central American culture and society through literature, music, dance and social science like political science, politics and government, anthropology, and sociology, with some possibilities for studying environmental issues, and some aspects of natural science of particular interest in Costa Rica. For the spring program, it's much more important for students to have a strong preparation in one discipline in which they are going to do some kind of independent project," says Hauge.

A key characteristic of the Costa Rica program is that it provides freedom for independent research.

"As a Spanish major, I was trying to do research between Spain, Argentina, and Costa Rica. And looking at the programs, I realized that Costa Rica was of more worth to both of my majors, Spanish and Anthropology. The other interesting aspect was that you could actually design your own project," says senior Leeanna Shultz, who participated in the Costa Rica Program in her junior year.

"This program has four months. The first and last months, we had many historical and geographic lectures like field trips, seeing the different parts of the country, and environmental/conservational field trips. In the middle two months, you are going to do an independent part. I moved to other parts of the country, and did field research on Anthropology," says Shultz. She had a great experience in Costa Rica and felt a significant change.

Ripon College students have an opportunity to make their world wider. ACM programs can help this attitude effectively.