Location

Costa Rica is the ideal location in which to study tropical biology and conservation. As a land bridge between North and South America, and with a complex geography and climate, Costa Rica offers high biodiversity of both species and ecosystems. The country is the center of tropical ecology research and teaching in the Western Hemisphere and a model for the rest of the developing world in conservation; twenty percent of Costa Rica is composed of extensive national parks and biological reserves.

Monteverde is a small, friendly, bilingual community surrounded by a cloud forest. Monteverde is free of biting insects and green all year. Monteverde's Cloud Forest has been studied for over 25 years by both visiting and Costa Rican biologists. This widens research opportunities and acquaints the students with practical biological problems associated with agricultural development, eco-tourism, and grassroots conservation efforts in developing countries.

Students wake to the sound of Howler monkeys, not city traffic. Living in a biological research station abutting the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve (the major tropical mountain forest research center in the Western Hemisphere), students have a unique chance to live next door to spectacular biodiversity. Together, the various Monteverde forest preserves make up over 25,000 hectares (over 57,000 acres).

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