UT Tyler students head to Costa Rica for service project

TYLER, Texas (KLTV) - A group of UT Tyler students will travel to Costa Rica this spring break, but not for a vacation. It’s a mission trip known as “alternative spring break.” This is the university’s first international service trip.

“I want to see how other countries do school, how they teach,” student Karla Jaime said. “Maybe I can learn something from there that I can bring back home. Maybe they could look up to one of us and be like ‘one day I want to do that’ and that way, we make the world a better place.”

Students will be involved in several projects while in Costa Rica, including teaching conversational English at a local elementary school and helping the school build a community garden. Students will also take a traditional Caribbean cooking class and learn about Calypso music and dance.

“We’ll do about half a day of service each day and the other half a day we’ll spend getting immersed in the culture,” Assistant director of student engagement Camry Tharp said.

“In college you have so much time and it’s all up to you what you do with it and so I think when you go out and you decide to give back, it kind of like creates this little bug and it makes you want to continue to do that because you can see the product of your good work,” Tharp said.

The trip lasts from March 13 through March 18.

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