{"id":23585,"date":"2025-07-31T10:02:52","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T14:02:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.spcollege.edu\/international\/?p=23585"},"modified":"2025-07-31T10:05:40","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T14:05:40","slug":"spc-costa-rica-im-so-glad-i-was-able-to-be-a-part-of-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.spcollege.edu\/international\/spc-costa-rica-im-so-glad-i-was-able-to-be-a-part-of-it\/","title":{"rendered":"SPC Costa Rica: I\u2019m so glad I was able to be a part of it!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This was my first study abroad trip, and I wasn\u2019t quite sure what to expect. Since I\u2019m an online student, I didn\u2019t know anyone else going on this trip. That made me feel a little nervous. When we got to Costa Rica, there was definitely some culture shock. I\u2019ve never been to another country where the first language wasn\u2019t English. I knew that was going to be different, but I didn\u2019t expect it to be as big a challenge as it was. I thought they would at least understand some English. The majority of people sort of did, but there were more than I thought that didn\u2019t understand or speak English at all. I found it interesting that several signs were in Spanish, and underneath was the English translation. It was little things like that that were so different and weren\u2019t what I expected to see.<\/p>\n\n\n

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As far as the experiences go, they were amazing. I had such a great time at each location we worked at. I think that was my favorite part of the whole trip. It was nice that we got to sightsee and experience some of the culture as well. We learned about the growth and making of coffee as well as the chocolate. Those experiences were fun and gave us insight into some of their productions in Costa Rica.

Our guide did a wonderful job showing us around the city of San Jose and educating us on the history of the country. The country is absolutely beautiful. We got to learn a lot about the animals that live there and are native to the country. We also got to see so many of them. We got to see and work with toucans, scarlet macaws, parrots, capuchin monkeys, spider monkeys, squirrel monkeys, marmosets, oceolats, sloths, kinkajous, coatis, raccoons, turtles, caimans, peccaries, dogs, cats, horses, chickens, and goats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We volunteered at four different refuges in Costa Rica. Three of them were wildlife refuges, and the other one was mostly with dogs and cats. They are Refugio Animal, Kids Saving the Rainforest (KSTR), Proyecto Asis, and Lands in Love. I enjoyed all of them, but my favorites were the ones with the wildlife because I haven\u2019t had experience working with wildlife before. I loved learning about the conservation aspect as well. We did a lot of food prep and feeding for the animals. We also cleaned their enclosures, created\/provided enrichment, and reorganized an enclosure at one of the work sites. At Lands in Love, which was the dog and cat refuge, my group helped clean some of the cats\u2019 ears and brush them. The second group helped with giving the dogs\u2019 baths, ear cleaning, tooth brushing, nail trims, and drying them. The last group helped with physiotherapy, which is rehab physical therapy for the dogs that can\u2019t walk due to deformities. I really enjoyed the food prep and creating enrichment for the animals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overall, the trip was really great, and I felt like I got a lot of experience with the side of veterinary medicine I\u2019m not used to. It was definitely a learning experience; however, I would have loved to experience more of the veterinary side of exotics while we were there. We did get to see a veterinary team perform a bandage change on a sloth that was electrocuted by a power line. We also learned about darting animals for certain medical treatments when it\u2019s challenging to capture the animal. The veterinarian gave us a lecture on wildlife restraint and immobilization. These experiences were all done at Kids Saving the Rainforest (KSTR). I thought they were great, and I wish we had gotten more experiences like that at the other sites, but I still enjoyed all of the experiences I did have. I think this trip had a lot of great opportunities, and I\u2019m so glad I was able to be a part of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 Bethany , SPC Costa Rica Vet Tech Study Abroad Program, July 2025<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This was my first study abroad trip, and I wasn\u2019t quite sure what to expect. Since I\u2019m an online student, I didn\u2019t know anyone else going on this trip. That made me feel a little nervous. When we got to Costa Rica, there was definitely some culture shock. I\u2019ve never been to another country where … Continue reading SPC Costa Rica: I\u2019m so glad I was able to be a part of it!<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1966,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[951,7,24],"tags":[],"coauthors":[923],"class_list":["post-23585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-costa-rica-vet-tech-2025","category-study-abroad","category-travel"],"yoast_head":"\r\nSPC Costa Rica: I\u2019m so glad I was able to be a part of it! - Center for International Programs<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.spcollege.edu\/international\/spc-costa-rica-im-so-glad-i-was-able-to-be-a-part-of-it\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"SPC Costa Rica: I\u2019m so glad I was able to be a part of it! - Center for International Programs\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This was my first study abroad trip, and I wasn\u2019t quite sure what to expect. 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