I, like most other Spanish majors, had always dreamed about the opportunity to study abroad. However, as a three sport athlete on the cross country and indoor and outdoor track and field teams here at UMass, studying abroad during the academic school year was simply not an option for me.
So, I set my sights on going abroad during the summer. I wouldn’t let myself miss out on the study abroad experience, as I knew it was an important step in my quest to becoming fluent in Spanish. And beyond language fluency, I also saw the priceless value of having the opportunity to delve into the culture of a Spanish-speaking community, live with a host family, and go outside my comfort zone to experience life outside of the United States.
During my search for summer study abroad options, I happened upon a program called, Beyond Sports, a program specifically designed for student-athletes like myself. It offered study abroad experiences in Costa Rica during the summer months and would provide facilities for training throughout the program. As a long-distance runner with a pretty intense summer training program, I was excited by this opportunity. However, I was quickly discouraged after I saw the steep cost of the program. I realized the cost of summer study abroad programs would be problematic for me since they are not covered by the tuition that I pay for UMass, as most semester-long study abroad programs are. Still, I was determined and began applying to study abroad scholarships through the Spanish department, the College of HFA, and the Honors College. I was very fortunate to receive a scholarship that covered a large amount of the cost of the program and for this I am so, so, so grateful.
In July, I flew off to Costa Rica. During the month that I spent there, I lived with a host mom (my Mama Tica) in San José, the capital city. I took a class called The Cultural Heritage of Latin America (with a special focus on Costa Rica) which met for four hours every morning at Universidad Veritas and was taught completely in Spanish. I also had an internship working at a school called La Casa de Los Niños in Tirrases, a very impoverished area of San José. There, I worked as a teacher’s assistant and worked to develop a sports program for the students at the school.
My favorite parts of my experience:
1.) Being able to incorporate sports into my study abroad experience was really special to me. Sports have always been a part of my life and, because of this, I’ve taken for granted how much they’ve contributed to making me the confident, strong and determined person that I am today. The students at La Casa de los Niños didn’t have access to sports programs, like most youth do in the United States. It was amazing to see the confidence that many of the students gained after just three days of participating in sports clinics that I worked to organize and run. Helping the students learn new skills and work together in teams, and seeing the pride that they had in what they were doing was one of the highlights of my trip. Furthermore, sharing sports with these students was such a special way to connect with them. When we were playing and practicing sports together, the differences in our cultures, languages, ages, backgrounds, etc. didn’t stand in the way of our goal of coming together to be the best athletes we could be and developing positive life values and traits. In fact, sports allowed us to learn more about all of these differences that existed between us and embrace these differences. For example, the students taught me new Spanish sports vocabulary words as I explained the drills to them. They told me about their favorite soccer players on the Costa Rican team and what their community does to celebrate when the national team wins important games. Some of them told me about their older siblings who had played a sport and, through this, I came to learn about their families and backgrounds. They asked me questions about running in the United States and going to college. Sports was our way of learning about each other. Through sports, I connected with these students in a way that I couldn’t have inside of the classroom. We didn’t even have to talk to connect. I’d give a student high five after they mastered a move that I’d watched them work on over and over all afternoon and the biggest smile would spread across her face. Or the students and I would all laugh together after all twenty of them chased me around, tirelessly trying to steal the soccer ball from me, the “soccer ball monster”. Those were moments of special connection that sports provided that didn’t require any language – just sharing in the experience of practicing and playing together. I realized through these experiences that sports really do have the power of connecting the world.
2.) Living with my host mom. Our conversations every night at dinner gave me more opportunities to practice Spanish and have someone who I could share the little details of my day with. She cooked delicious Costa Rican gallo pinto and warm, homemade tortillas. She told me the best spots to explore in the city. We’d watch the news together in the mornings, and she’d explain what was happening to me when I had trouble following everything or understanding the ins and outs of all the politics. We still stay in touch, sending messages and voice recordings in WhatsApp. Just this morning, she sent me a Costa Rican news article that she said had made her think of me.
3.) Meeting locals (Ticos, as Costa Ricans call themselves)! This took lots of going outside of my comfort zone, but made my experience studying abroad worth it! I didn’t study abroad to only spend time with students from the United States (this is very common in study abroad programs, specifically in the summer, where there are lots of students from the US studying abroad at the university), so I made it my mission to strike up conversation with any Ticos that I could! I befriended the security guards at my university and talked with them everyday when I was coming and leaving classes, I made a music video project with a friend in my program and we asked locals to dance with us for the video, I sat with Tico students at lunch in the student dining area (even though most of the students in my program from the US all sat together in a different area). One day, I saw a group of Tico students at my university working on a design project. I stopped to ask them about their project and offered to help them finish painting. I became really good friends with one of the girls, named Melania, who studies design at Universidad Veritas. The next weekend she and her family took me on a journey to Volcán Irazu and gave me a full tour of the beautiful mountain towns outside of San José and took me to the most delicious Costa Rican restaurant ever! If I hadn’t gone outside of my comfort zone to strike up a conversation with Melania and her group of friends in Universidad Verítas, I would have never had that experience (which turned out to be one of my favorites from my time studying abroad.)
My Advice:
1.) If you are an athlete (or if you just love sports), research opportunities to get involved in local sports where you are staying before you go abroad. Ask your program or university if they know of any local opportunities. If you can’t find anything before you go, ask the locals when you arrive or just look around for people playing sports and go outside of your comfort zone to ask to join in! Chances are good that you’ll see a pick-up soccer game going on within the first few days of your travels anywhere in Latin America. Ask to play! Even if this is outside of your comfort zone, you will be so happy that you did! You will meet people that share the same love for sports that you do and have an activity to do together that will help you form connections with locals and have something to share with locals. And then, from meeting those people, you will make more connections to other locals. Find a local pick-up sports group to join, find locals who love to run and can show you the best running routes in the area, find a youth sports program that you can volunteer at! Whatever it is, sharing your love of sports with others will enrich your journey so much!
2.) Live with a host family! Bonding with a host family can sometimes be effortless and natural while other times it is more difficult. One way that my host mom and I really bonded was that one night I asked her if I could show her pictures from my life. I brought out my laptop and showed her different photos. This lead me to open up with her so much and share about important moments and people in my life. She gained a greater understanding of who I am and she started sharing stories from her life as well. Going forward, we had more to talk about and ask each other about and areas in which we could relate to each other. My other piece of advice about living with a host family is to let them know that you are really looking to improve your Spanish by speaking with them and encourage them to help you with your Spanish! This way, they know that you are excited to practice with them and that you are open to them correcting you! It will make you feel more comfortable making mistakes around them and make them feel more comfortable helping you! The more that you have conversation with your host family, the more that your Spanish will improve! I also brought a game called Taboo, (which consists of describing and guessing words) to play with my host mom to practice my Spanish! From my experience, if you are excited about practicing and learning Spanish, your host family will be excited about helping you.
3.) GO OUTSIDE OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE! Constantly remind yourself that you are only studying abroad for a short amount of time. Don’t let any shyness stand in the way of you making the most of your experience. Your trip will become so much more fun and exciting and memorable if you go up to a local and ask a question or strike up a conversation. You will learn about people’s life stories, you will discover beautiful places that you wouldn’t have found as a typical tourist, you will feel more connected to where you are, you will learn more about the culture and you will improve your Spanish!
About training for athletics and studying abroad:
I specifically chose the program that I studied abroad with because it was a program with a focus on athletes like myself, and I thought that this would best allow me to continue to train throughout the summer. However, the cost of this program was definitely more expensive than some others. Having done the program, do I think that it was necessary to do this specific program in order to stick to my training plan? The short answer is no. Yes, it was helpful to have a gym membership included in my program. (Especially because I quickly learned that gyms are not as common in Latin America as they are in the US, and other training facilities, such as tracks and playing fields, are not open to the public like they are in the US). But, besides the aspect of having access to a gym, most of my training was still very much on my own. As a runner, I got my miles in every morning around the city (which was often more difficult and dangerous and required more creativity than I had imagined before me trip). I wish that I had found some locals to train with earlier on in my trip that knew good, safe routes to run. It certainly took a new level of dedication to train in Costa Rica, but it was, without a doubt, worth it to have the experience to study abroad. So, my advice is that as a student-athlete, you don’t necessarily have to find a program that is designed specifically for athletes. However, I highly recommend doing thorough research before you go and right when you arrive to figure out how you can connect with locals or other travelers that you can train with. Not only will this improve your training but it will enrich your experience as a whole! Most of all, don’t let being a student-athlete be a reason that you can’t study abroad! You absolutely can! Studying abroad will be an experience that allows you to grow, all around in so many ways! And, you know what? This Fall, after studying abroad over the summer, I had my best cross country season yet! So, even though the training in Costa Rica was tough and required some extra creativity and determination to make it happen, it has payed off!