The semester-long Outdoor Leadership and Resort Management (OLRM) course is designed to introduce students to the field of outdoor education.

In Costa Rica, the class, led by instructor Dr. Mark Gibson, will engage in a water scuba certification course; attend surf school, study Spanish and study at a sustainable treehouse community. The treehouse community coincidentally is owned by two Western graduates, Erica and Matt Hogan. It is called Finca Bellavista and is located at the base of a primary rainforest mountain on the Southern Pacific Coast.

Gibson shares that this course will be a chance for the students to do community service, learn about other cultures, study outdoor leadership, and develop outdoor living skills.

The OLRM program is working with the Extended Studies program at Western. Layne Nelson, director of Extended Studies, shares that there may be opportunities for other disciplines to study at Finca Bellavista, such as biology or environmental studies.

The class will be blogging for the duration of their stay in Costa Rica. Their blog is at: http://core-costa-rica.livejournal.com

For more information about this course, visit: http://www.western.edu/recreation/fieldsemester.htm

To learn more and view pictures of Finca Bellavista, visit http://www.fincabellavista.net