The Institute and Living Routes Program- El programa del Instituto y Living Routes

"The Living Routes Program: Tropical Ecology, Development, and Social Justice began as a spring pilot project in the Spring of 2011; since 2011-2013, it has been offered fall and spring semesters.  Living Routes, a non-profit organization focused on intentional communities and located in Amherst, MA, has a number of international programs. While the University of Massachusetts, Amherst grants academic credit for the courses, the program is open enrollment and has drawn students from many different universities and colleges, including Stanford, Sarah Lawrence, Cornell, Smith, the University of Vanderbilt, etc.. 

The Program in Monteverde urges students to "explore how international and national trends and policies have affected local sustainable development, environmental conservation and social justice efforts"   This Program stresses experiential learning, community building, and personal sustainability (including yoga).  Students take four courses: Ecological Relationships in the Tropics (primarily a field course), Community Service Learning in Costa Rica: Theory and Practice (also a field course that involves a heavy internship component), Sustainable Development and Social Justice, and Spanish Language and Costa Rican Culture (students pick appropriate language level).  While classes are held at MVI and in forest reserves, much service learning (such as creating material for a rural school) and personal knowledge comes from the small agricultural community of San Luis where students live with a local family."

By: Leslie Burlingame

The Monteverde Institute has as one its goals to offer an integrated education to our students, which includes an active participation in the community. This involvement allows mutual learning experiences where our students learn from the community they live in and the community learns from our students.

As an example, last semester our students from the Living Routes program who live with homestay families in San Luis, worked on projects in both schools (Alto y Bajo), also worked in permaculture projects in Finca la Querencia and helped establish an ecology program for schools in the Monteverde Butterfly Farm.

In the last year, two of our students were really impressed with the community and decided to offer extra support once the program was finished: Lauren Wallace donated funds for an English program in the San Luis schools and Emily Barbour decided to finance the entire tuition for the final year at the Creativa (CFS) for a San Luis student.

tuition for the final year at the Creativa (CFS) for a San Luis student.

Our students leave with positive and transformative experiences and we would like to thank the community for helping to make this possible.

This video was made by one Sarah Fletcher about her internship and the butterfly farm:​

​http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t221X7FGgmc&feature=youtu.be

El Instituto Monteverde tiene como una de sus metas ofrecer una educación integral a nuestros estudiantes donde se incluye una participación activa en la comunidad. Esto tiene como fin que haya un aprendizaje mutuo: los estudiantes aprenden de la comunidad y la comunidad de los estudiantes..

A modo de ejemplo el semestre pasado nuestros estudiantes del programa de Living Routes que se hospedan con familias en San Luis, trabajaron con las escuelas del Alto y Bajo, además hicieron unos proyectos de permacultura en Finca la Carencia y ayudaron a establecer el programa de ecología para las escuelas del Mariposario Monteverde.  

El año pasado dos de nuestros estudiantes quedaron realmente impresionadas con la comunidad, y decidieron apoyar un poco más una vez que terminaron el proyecto, Lauren Wallace dono fondos para un programa de ingles para las escuelas de San Luis, y Emily Barbour que decidió financiar el ultimo año de estudio en la Escuela Creativa (CFS) a un estudiante de San Luis.

Nuestros estudiantes salen con experiencias muy lindas y queremos agradecer a la comunidad ayudar hacer esto, por compartir con ellos.

​Living Routes students chilling with kids from San Luis Monteverde