Saline Students Bring Costa Rica Lessons Back Home

Saline High School students returned from Costa Rica with stories about host families, pineapple plantations, tropical wildlife and food they were still talking about months later.

They also came home more confident speaking Spanish.

Students shared reflections from the Costa Rica Cultural Immersion Experience during the May 12 Saline Area Schools Board of Education meeting, where the trip was featured as a student showcase.

The presentation echoed a similar Costa Rica trip shared with the board last year, when Saline students also described host families, plantation visits and using Spanish in daily interactions. This year’s group said the trip helped them grow more comfortable with the language.

Spanish teacher Astrid Leese thanked the students, families, chaperones, administrators and district staff who helped make the trip possible.

“Thank you for trusting us, for trusting the World Language Department to take the kids abroad and give them this experience,” Leese said.

The itinerary took the group through the San José and Alajuela provinces, with stops tied to Costa Rica’s environment, economy, food and history.

The homestays, however, became the heart of the presentation.

One student described evenings spent playing board games with a host family’s grandchildren.

“We would play board games, and we would interact and just learn about each other,” he said.

Another student said hearing Spanish constantly was difficult at first, but it made him want to speak and understand more.

“Just hearing a lot of Spanish made me want to talk Spanish,” he said. “It made me just have more of a passion to understand Spanish.”

For another student, meeting a host family was nerve-wracking at first, especially while relying on a language that did not yet feel comfortable. But that changed quickly.

“Within the first 15 minutes of meeting them and stepping inside their house, all my anxiety went away,” the student said.

The group also described a service project at a church, where they helped buy and prepare food for immigrant families from Nicaragua. One student said the work led to an hourlong conversation in Spanish with a mother there.

“It really put into perspective for me how impactful those acts of kindness are, whether it be there or here,” he said.

The travel also built friendships among classmates who had not known each other well before leaving Saline. One student said classmates became close during the trip and now talk daily in AP Spanish.

For Leese, those moments showed what students can do when they leave their comfort zones. She said the group showed compassion and teamwork throughout the trip.

“Everybody praised their behavior,” Leese said.

Board members asked how the district could help more students see global travel and language learning as an option. Students suggested talking about the opportunity earlier in Spanish classes, using social media and encouraging younger students to continue language study.

The visit also shaped how some students think about the future, including studying Spanish in college or traveling again to a Spanish-speaking country.

But the biggest takeaway, one student said, was the perspective gained from living with host families and taking part in daily life in another country.

“It’s really something that you cannot get inside of a classroom,” the student said.

Featured image: Saline High School students and staff gather after presenting on the Costa Rica Cultural Immersion Experience at the May 12 Saline Area Schools Board of Education meeting. Photo by Heather Finch