Name: Visions and Dreams
Phone: 518-325-7444
Fax: 518-325-1671
Email: vivian@live-life.com
Website: visionsdreams.org
Director: Cia Ricco
Location: Costa Rica
Duration: summer programs of varying length
Program Type : Summer camp in Costa Rica, 5 different programs, varying in length from one to two weeks. Typically 10-15 kids in a program, with 3-4 staff per program.
Tuition: Varies with program, from $950/week to $2,600/two weeks
Curriculum: Cultural, ecological, language, community service, horse-back riding, farming, beach, civic engagement activities in beautiful Costa Rican surroundings.
Setting: A 200 acre rance on the Peninsula Nicoya overlooking the Gulf of Nicoya in Costa Rica.
Financial Aid: ISLS offers one needs based scholarship per summer. Students need to write a paper to apply.

Human Rights: Small Planet Project
JUNE 30TH-JULY 14TH - $1975 Includes everything except airfare
In this bi-cultural, bi-lingual program focusing on Global Citizenship, US and Costa Rican youth will work, play and live side by side for two weeks. Explore the Universal Declaration of Human Rights through a combination of excursions, community service projects, language immersion, team building, and human rights dialogues. Horse-back ride across the mountains. Visit local farms, industries, ecological sights, the town and the beach. At the end of our program there will be a celebration at the local community center open to the entire township where our community service projects will be unveiled and our exploration of human rights issues is shared.

ECOLOGY OF A CHANGING WORLD
JULY 16TH- JULY 30TH - $2600 Includes everything except airfare
This program for US teens will explore the diverse ecosystems of Costa Rica and focus on our Global Stewardship of the environment. A typical day will consist of a combination of Spanish lessons, team-building activities, ecological dialogues and community service. The program will also include a five-day excursion to some of Costa Rica's most famous natural wonders including the Monteverde Rainforest National Park and zip-line tour, and the Arenal Volcano and hot springs. Increase your awareness of pressing ecological issues and explore your own relationship with the natural world.

SOCIOLOGY AND ANTHROPOLOGY OF COSTA RICA AUGUST 2-9 - $1200 Includes everything except airfare
This course includes pre-Columbian history and we will spend a few days in the city of San Jose visiting museums and historical sites. We will also visit the reservations of the few remaining indigenous peoples of Costa Rica, learn from them and find out how we can best be of assistance to them. We will experience how people lived a few hundred years ago and see that there are still places where many of the same practices are carried out. During part of the program we will create primitive structures and cook and eat using only the tools that would have been available and what we can make ourselves.

A PLANET IN PERIL: BIOLOGY, CLIMATOLOGY, AND ECOLOGY
AUGUST 12-19 - $950 Includes everything except airfare
In this program we will take a look at the effects of global warming and other planetary climate changes, the hole in the ozone layer, and the deforestation of the planet. We will do our part by planting trees as a symbol of our commitment to giving back to the earth, and starting a community garden to help educate the community about healthful growing practices. We will learn about planting and harvesting by the moon - still the common practice here. We will learn about health and diet and will have the opportunity to harvest foods directly from the ranch and take an improvisational cooking class while we learn more about nutrition the fun way, and the fact that natural food and juices can taste good. We will have various guest speakers well known in their fields such as an entomologist, sustainable agriculturalist, a reforestation expert, and experts on herbal medicines, which have been used for centuries and which we can gather ourselves locally and learn to use. We will visit a zoo and make a trip by motorboat or kayak to see the vast variety of wildlife in Costa Rica that exists almost nowhere else in the world. We will travel to places where sustainable agriculture is being practiced and learn about the simple methods being used.

SPANISH IMMERSION AND CIVIC ENGAGEMENT AUGUST 22-29 - $850 Includes everything except airfare
This Program will combine intensive Spanish language studies with getting out in the community and helping with the work that needs to be done. In our tiny town of 75 people, no one speaks English but we will learn to work side by side and understand each other, not only through language but through opening our minds and hearts to cultural differences and finding that beneath it all we have the most important things in common.