SChedules

Guatemala

Quetzaltenango-Xela is the city where you will take your Spanish course at the Proyecto Lingüistico Quetzalteco (PLQ), which is an organization committed to quality language instruction in a context that gives students an awareness of the social, political, and economic realities of Guatemala and Central America ( https://plqe.org/). 

You will start the History/Gender course in Xela and then a short stay with rural families at Santa Anita La Unión. This community comprises ex-combatants who now own, live, and work on a coffee farm. Then, you will travel to La Antigua and Panajachel and stay at each place for about a week at a time. On most days, classes will be held in the morning, with personal reading and reflection time in the afternoon. Most sessions with speakers are scheduled during the morning. However, this might vary depending on the speaker’s agenda. A reflection on the conversation held follows the sessions with speakers.  During the visits to community-based initiatives, you will spend all morning/day at the communities, with short class sessions at the end of the day to engage in a dialogue about your reflections and questions. The program includes a visit to the House of Memory in Guatemala City where students will learn about the internal armed conflict that Guatemala faced for 36 years and that affected the lives of the Mayan peoples, they will also do a guided tour of Antigua Guatemala, and visit other community-based projects around the region. For example, students will have the opportunity to travel to Santiago Sacatepequez, a municipality where textile art is part of the search for justice, and they will have the opportunity to meet Indigenous women who are founders of the Asociación Femenina para el Desarrollo de Sacatepéquez (AFEDES), one of the most important Indigenous organizations in Guatemala. 

San Jose, Costa Rica

Class sessions will be held at the Universidad Biblica Latino Americana (UBL), supplemented with a variety of presentations and excursions both on and off-site. Students will visit La Carpio community, this visit will allow students to better understand immigration in the Costa Rican context and environmental discrimination. The visit to Longo Mai will provide students the opportunity to see sustainable development and community organizing.

Course Structure as it Relates to the Schedule

All students will take the following four courses, in a block format.  This program is travel-heavy and the courses are taken on a block schedule (one course at a time). CGEE also believes in experiential education as a key factor to learning and will frequently bring students on cultural excursions, have guest speakers, and visit local organizations. We also spend some time in traditional classroom settings. All of these activities and lectures will tie together the subject matter with real-world experiences and stories. The blocks are:

• Block One: Intensive and individualized Spanish Language course--beginner to advanced levels available

• Block Two: History, Memory and Justice in Centeral America HIS/WST 355

• Block Three: The Theologes of Liberation

• Block Four: Citizen Participation in a Globalized dEconomy, Costa Rica and Nicaragua cases: POL/SCI 310

• All students will also complete the Global Competence Certificate during the program.