I am very thankful and honored to have received the Thomas Angelo Honors Scholarship.  This scholarship helped lessen the financial burden for my family and made it easier for me to attend Plus3 Costa Rica.  Once again, I am extremely grateful for the opportunity that the Thomas Angelo Honors Scholarship and Plus3 Costa Rica…

I cannot believe these two weeks are over.  I feel like it was just yesterday that we were getting off the plane and waiting in the long line at customs, but tomorrow is the day we head home.  Throughout these two weeks,  I have learned way more than I expected about the coffee industry, and…

Today we visited our final coffee plantation, Coopedota.   Coopedota operates as a coffee cooperative, where 900 individual farms send coffee beans to a central location to go through the milling, roasting, and selling processes. The end of the trip was very cool, as a barista showed how to make different coffee drinks! Coopedota operates as…

Today we visited two coffee companies, Starbucks and Café Rey.  I enjoyed both of these visits, as they were very informative.  I thought it was cool to see Starbucks’s research and development plantation and observe the differences between a research and development plantation and one used for actual production.  I also really enjoyed how Café…

Our visit to Life Monteverde was an amazing experience.  I did not realize how hard farmers work and how passionate they are about their jobs.  I really enjoyed the whole experience today especially because we were able to leave our own imprint on the farm by planting a tree.  I was also happy that we…

Today Marvin gave an interesting presentation on the history of Quakers in Monteverde.  His story was very entertaining and can be used to show how foreigners influence different aspects of other cultures.  In the past few decades, Costa Rica has started to become a very popular place for individuals to either move to or vacation. …

Our bus ride today revealed another side of Costa Rica.  Rather than seeing the hustle and bustle of the city, we were able to see Costa Rica’s natural beauty along the beaches of the Pacific Coast and in the mountain rain forests.  I observed many differences between Heredia and what I saw today during the…

Today we visited Veritas, a small private university that focuses on design and architecture.   I was shocked by how modern the university’s technology is, as they have 3D printers, Macs, and laser cutting machines. Automation is a very popular trend in many industries worldwide.  In the coffee industry, the packaging process has become more automated,…

Today we learned all about coffee from our visits to Doka and Café Britt.  Both of these visits included a tour of the plantation and a very informative presentation.  I was fascinated to see all of the steps that go into making a cup of coffee! Café Britt is a company that is known for…

Professor Joaquin Lizano gave a very informative presentation on this history of Costa Rica today.  I was fascinated by the amount and depth of knowledge Joaquin Lizano was able to present.  Prior to and during the presentation I thought of many questions that Lizano addressed which helped me to better understand Costa Rican culture and history….

If someone asked me what I thought a city in Costa Rica was like, before today I would have said dirty, old, rustic, and underdeveloped. I was expecting to see garbage on the side of road, graffiti on all of the buildings, and old rundown shops with boarded up windows.  After exploring Heredia today, it…

            Costa Rica has emerged as a global leader in environmental sustainability, ranking second in the World Energy Council’s global “environmental sustainability” ranking.  I think it is fascinating that Costa Rica is the only Central American country ranked in the top 20, because it seems they are taking on this initiative by themselves (they are not…