¡Hola, I am Abby Santora and I just finished my first year at the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering! I am currently majoring in Bioengineering and minoring in Chemistry. At school, I am involved with the club tennis team, club pickleball team, BioMedical Engineering Society, Asian Student Alliance, and Chinese American Student Association. In my free time I enjoy playing sports, hanging out with friends, and traveling. In August 2023, my family and I traveled to Costa Rica for a family vacation, but I am excited to return as I believe this time will be very different. I will be seeing Costa Rica from an entirely different perspective, learning about sustainability and agriculture, which both are topics I care deeply about. 

To me, Costa Rica is a country worth visiting again because of their rich history, biodiversity, and their efforts to conserve the natural beauty of the country. While Costa Rica has only pushed for more sustainable practices within recent decades, their efforts have paved a path for many to follow. When I visited Costa Rica in 2023, I was truly blown away from the beauty of the country. I distinctly remember standing in the cloud forest, Monte Verde, and thinking only a very small percentage of people will ever get to see the true beauty and biodiversity this singular forest holds. I was disappointed to know the ecosystem of all cloud forests and other environments a like are at risk of being destroyed, solely because of climate change. It made me appreciate the efforts Costa Rica was putting into place like protecting their rainforests, becoming carbon neutral, and sustainable tourism. Costa Rica has proven themselves to be truly one of the leading countries in environmental sustainability. I believe their actions are worth studying and even implementing into our daily lives or globally on a larger scale. 

For these reasons, I am even more excited to be going back to the same country I love to learn from a new point of view. This time I will also be more immersed in the language and culture which I am looking forward to experiencing with my peers. ¡Pura Vida!