News

In the spring of 2023, Landmark High School students and chaperons went on a service trip to Costa Rica.

The adventure to Costa Rica started with months of planning and coordination by Mr. Ferguson and Ms. Gosse, who in the past have done service trips to Jamaica and to the Dominican Republic. After two years of no trips due to Covid, they were able to plan a trip to Costa Rica through a service program run by Rustic Pathways. The group was made of 18 students and three chaperons who wanted to give back to the community and push their comfort zones. The goal was to travel to a town called Turrialba in Costa Rica to work on a project at a local elementary school and immerse themselves into the Costa Rican culture. 

After 2 flights, one layover, and a 4-hour transit ride, the group finally made it to Turrialba, Costa Rica. The next day they went into the town to meet locals and spend a couple of hours in homes learning Costa Rican customs such as the famous Pura Vida! saying. Many students learned to make different types of traditional Costa Rican foods such as empanadas, gallo pinto, and tortillas. For the next few days, the group went to the local elementary school, where they sanded and painted the exterior walls of the classrooms, bathrooms, offices, and cafeteria. Aside from the physical nature of the project, it also gave students an insight into how the education system works in another country as well as being able to interact with the local elementary students. When the group wasn't working at the school, the days were filled with trips ranging from a coffee plantation tour to a waterfall hike through a river to ziplining and rappelling through the Costa Rican rainforest. No matter the challenge or job, Landmark students woke up every day in Costa Rica with the will to complete the service trip with the best efforts and to keep on pushing their boundaries in a foreign country.