Spanish Language and Costa Rican Culture Immersion and Study

Dmitri Wagoner Start Date: Feb 24, 2016 - End Date: Jul 2, 2016
  • Cultural Exchange
  • Educational/Research Trip
  • Study/Degree Abroad
  • Alajuela, Costa Rica

My Travel Story

by: Dmitri Wagoner Start Date: Feb 24, 2016 - End Date: Jul 2, 2016
  • Cultural Exchange
  • Educational/Research Trip
  • Study/Degree Abroad
My name is Dmitri Wagoner, I am seventeen years old from Washington State, USA and I am a humanitarian who has a strong desire to experience the beautiful unknown. Currently, I am enrolled in Skagit Valley College in Washington State where I benefit from the incredible oppurtunity to explore music, culture, and language.  In my home town of Burlington, WA,we have an incredibly wide ethnic and cultural diversity that has sparked my interest since I began going to elementary school. My involvement in cultural and language studies at Skagit Valley College has influenced me to seek out any possible way of studying abroad and learning as much as I can from the raw culture of another country.  July of 2016, I will be embarking on an international rotary humanitarian mission trip to Barbasco Cabañas, Honduras.  While in Honduras, I will work with other volenteers to continue building a school house, chicken coops provide water, books, school supplies, and many more things that will change the lives of people who are in need.  I am currently learning Spanish as quickly as I can in hope of communicating well with the people I will meet on my service trip, and I have taken a strong interest in the language and wish to learn as much as I can in order to communicate with more people.

A month-long spanish language intensive course in Alajuela, Costa Rica in August of 2016, has caught my attention and I want nothing more than to be immersed in the rich Central American culture with a language that is so captivating to me.  This program is my chance to experience a world beyond my own, and improve my skills with language which will, in theory, aid me in understanding cultural differences and similarities from the eyes of a different people.  This program will be acounted as 5 college credits, and will continue my progress towards my goal of becoming a translator for spanish speakers in my community.  Where I live, roughly 40% of students speak Spanish and hardly any of the teachers at my high school can speak or understand a word of it.  I want to be someone who can help bridge the gap for confused people and ensure their education no matter what language they begin with.

I am so passionate about this oppurtunity that I will stop at nothing to get there; I feel a calling to go to a new people and experience something new that God has created, yet has been beyong my reach.  So please, help me embark on a journey that will change my life and my community for the better.  Thank you.
  • Alajuela, Costa Rica

Updates

1

  • Thank You!

    Thank you to all who have made my humanitarian service project with the Rotary Y.E.S. program in Honduras possible! I need your help again as I begin to expand my abroad experiences. I have the opportunity to study Spanish in Costa Rica this August through a program with Skagit Valley College!