Costa Rica: Soccer Beyond Borders™

Highlights

There’s no better way to become immersed in the local culture of Costa Rica than through the common language of fútbol.
  • Organize soccer camps for local youth
  • Play scrimmages and a co-ed beach soccer tournament with local teams
  • Train with FIFA-certified coaches
  • Play a friendly match at Guillermo Vargas Roldán Stadium
  • Go ziplining, visit a natural hot spring, and partake in surf lessons
  • Float down the river on a whitewater rafting excursion

On This Program you will...

Experience Costa Rican fútbol at its finest. Every town has a soccer field, where local aficionados play in heated matches. Here, soccer has a history: not just as an organized sport, but as the neighborhood game—you don’t need a field, official balls, or cleats to participate. In a town with few paved streets, the rules are stripped away. All that remains is pure passion, and all the time in the world to practice ball control, technique, tactics and movement. Be immersed in the raw energy of Latin America’s most popular sport while building a more inclusive world through sports.

Program Type:

Sports Leadership

Your Adventure is Just Around the Corner!

Community Service

Soccer can be an effective vehicle for positive change and connecting cultures. Work on improving sports facilities and running youth soccer camps in a quiet, picturesque mountain town. Collaborate with a local organization that strives to increase sports participation for girls: As popular as soccer is in Costa Rica, female participation rates are still significantly lower than male. You’ll participate in a variety of projects to benefit the local community. 

Immersive Learning

Learn about yourself as a player and how the sport fits into Costa Rica’s culture and identity. Drill technique and strategy for your specific position from FIFA-certified coaches, build strength and speed in athletic clinics, scrimmage against local teams and play in the stadium where some of Costa Rica’s soccer legends made their debuts. Expand your knowledge of the game on an international level and learn the signature Latin American style of play. Learn about the challenges the local community faces through guest speakers and nightly group activities.

Adventure

Explore Costa Rica’s lush rainforests and pristine beaches. Go on an excursion to the Arenal Volcano, where you’ll enjoy a rush of adrenaline while rafting through white water rapids! Rest tired muscles in natural hot springs at the base of the volcano. Visit the pacific coast of Costa Rica for surf lessons, beach soccer, and a ziplining excursion through the rainforest opening up to spectacular views of the coastline. Take a cooking class and learn how to make local cuisine.

Lodging

Home Base will be a beautiful Eco-Lodge in the middle of a coffee plantation! We’ll tour the property and learn how one of Costa Rica’s world famous coffee is made. The property includes our own private soccer training mini-field, common areas, dining facilities, and a campfire site. Students will stay with roommates in cabins built from local wood, and have access to Western-style bathrooms.

Program Type

Are you passionate about fostering a love for sports in others?
  • Volunteer leading a day camp or youth sports clinic for children in the community, where you’ll teach kids new sports and games
  • Promote a healthy lifestyle in communities where there is limited access to organized sports and nutrition education
  • Refurbish playing fields and playgrounds to provide a safe, inviting space for local youth to come together and stay active
  • Experience a small-town community and Costa Rica’s traditional rural culture

Dates & Tuition

Costa Rica

Soccer Beyond Borders™

14-Day Program
2020 Dates
 June 24 – July 7, 2020
 July 10 – July 23, 2020
Duration: 14 days
Tuition: $3,899
Student/Staff Ratio: 6 to 1
Community Service Hours: 20
Language Hours: N/A
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Fundraising

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Tuition Includes All In-Country Expenses Including:

  • All educational materials
  • Lodging
  • 3 meals per day
  • All in-country transportation
  • Airport pick-up/drop-off
  • Professional full-time staff and experts from the USA/Europe
  • 24/7 Parent Support Hotline during the program
  • Secondary medical and travel insurance
  • All cultural activities, lectures and weekend excursions
  • Pre-departure materials and support

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Custom Group Travel Option

Global Leadership Adventures offers open enrollment on this program to any high school student who wishes to join any of the summer session dates listed above. Students will meet other teens from around the country and the world who sign up for the same program dates and destination.

Alternatively, this program is also available as an option for custom group travel any time of the year for those looking to put together their own group trip.

GLA Custom Group Travel works with educators, group leaders, or self-led students to create a tailored experience for their specific group of 12 or more students. Select a pre-designed itinerary or select your own countries, themes, and learning objectives. GLA’s service-learning methodology is the vehicle through which students learn, grow and challenge themselves and their fellow travelers; our host communities welcome students’ energy and helping hands.

Leadership and personal growth are the core components of all of our programs, regardless of duration, destination or theme type and can be woven throughout every aspect of the experience through our intentional design as desired by the group leader. Our programs aim to ignite participants to become inspired to be the change.

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