I first learned about iSEED while exploring other study abroad opportunities in Spanish-speaking countries, and I was super eager to embark on an opportunity to combine all my interests in medicine, engineering, global health, and Spanish. I have only left the country twice before to visit family and this would mark my first (and hopefully the start of many) chance to explore a different country and culture by myself and in a professional sense. I was a bit nervous knowing very little about how the experience would be managed given that many of my peers received training to study abroad n other countries. Despite this, I did attempt to learn more about Costa Rican culture and familiarize myself with the aspects I could control.
Upon arriving (and almost missing my flight), I immediately fell in love with the atmosphere. The Costa Rican appreciation for the environment and devotion to medicine and education was not something familiar to me in America, and it was super interesting to see how self-aware and put-together people were here. I decided to complete a day-tour with Carly the day I arrived and was very grateful to learn even more and explore the city I would live in for the majority of the month. It was also the start of me attempting vlogging which my friends back home were very excited for. Some pictures I took are shown below.
The view from the top of the Bijagual Waterfall Hiking Trail!
One of many doggos at Jaco Beach 🙂
OEDK’s mark at Simon Bolivar Zoo
super cute parrots!
Once we started with the medical innovation bootcamp, I was super excited to apply the engineering design process in another pediatric project. Because bioengineering classes often cram projects n a short time frame similar to the bootcamp, I felt prepared to handle the courseload and was very grateful for the guided schedule we had throughout the week. It was also nice to work with Costa Rican students and learn more about the culture through that. After the bootcamp, we also had the opportunity to explore parts of Costa Rica including Jaco Beach and the Bijagual Waterfall shown below.
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Although there were a lot of issues, it was a great learning experience and I was grateful to be able to improve my Spanish, explore more parts of Costa Rican daily life, and rely on my peers. I am excited to continue to explore Costa Rica academically and recreationally. With more time, I hope to immerse myself more within the culture, develop my vlogging skills, share my experience having mostly completed the bioengineering program at Rice, and work with underclassmen to create a novel device to help people in the future 🙂