"My favorite part of studying abroad in Costa Rica with ICDS was that the staff genuinely cared about all the students outside of academics. My most memorable experiences were weekend trips around the country with other students and hands-on community service learning twice a week for class credit. I learned so much by being in a flexible environment where we weren鈥檛 forced to memorize facts for tests. Instead, the professor鈥檚 encouraged creative critical thought that was the basis of all of the work we completed. Tests were replaced with projects where we got to choose how and what to present based on our interest level. This is something I really appreciated along with being in small classes with a student to teacher ratio of 10-1... Overall, my experience abroad taught me how to be more independent and adaptable to new environments. Despite the challenges, as there will always be, I loved my time in Costa Rica and would 100% do it again."
