Students in the Media School can now travel to Puerto Vejo, Costa Rica, during Thanksgiving Break as part of the school’s new alternative break service learning program.
The Media School worked with the Rich Coast Project, an organization founded by IU alumna Katie Beck, to create a storytelling alternative service program.
Students who attend will make a series of podcasts about the local community and will teach locals how to do audio storytelling.
The podcasts will be a part of the Rich Coast Project’s archive to preserve information and stories from the southern Caribbean coast of Costa Rica.
Audrie Osterman, Media School director of experiential education, said one of the best parts of the trip is allowing students to connect with people in another culture.
“This is a really good experience for students,” Osterman said. “The more students interact with people in the community, the more they learn from that experience.”
The Rich Coast Project is an archiving project dedicated to protecting the land rights and cultural heritage of people in the southern Caribbean coast of Costa Rica, according to the website.
The main goals of the project are to empower citizens in the community and increase access to information.
In law school, Beck began researching land rights along the Caribbean coast. She became interested in how land and its ownership affected the communities, most of which was negative, Beck said.
One of the biggest things she noticed was a lack of information about land rights.
The archive is a way to fill the gap with this access of information. The podcasts students create will be a chance to add to this archive and share knowledge and stories from the community.
“There are very few people who understand the legal history of land and the requirements for it,” Beck said.
Anyone who has a major in the Media School can apply by Sept. 6 to attend the trip.
It’s a good opportunity for students with different majors and concentrations in the Media School to interact, work together and get to know each other, Osterman said.
One of the best parts of this trip is students can get involved in the local community in Puerto Vejo, Beck said.
At the end of the trip, students will have a public workshop on audio storytelling to teach the community how to tell these stories.
When students visit, the community members also become more motivated, Beck said. There are a lot of positive effects on the community and creating a lasting database for future generations.
“Puerto Vejo is a very special, very unique place,” Beck said. “There are so many stories to tell.”
