The healthcare in Costa Rica program has been so informational and exciting because it involves learning about a topic that I am really passionate about, healthcare. The classes that I’m taking are Healthcare System in Latin America, Health and Vulnerable Populations in Costa Rica, Economics of Healthcare, and Spanish for Health Sciences.
We take classes Monday through Thursday, which is great because then we have Friday’s to travel and do more fun things on the weekend. However, our days sometimes seem long but that is because we don’t have any classes on Fridays. I think that having a longer weekend makes it worth it to have longer class days for sure.
Our classes are all taught by Costa Rican professionals, which I really enjoy because we are able to learn about their experiences here. Our Healthcare in Latin America class is taught by a doctor, who has inside knowledge on the healthcare system. For example, We are learning that even though Costa Rica had universal health care there are still many reforms that need to be made.
The next class we take is Health and Vulnerable Populations in Costa Rica. Our professor has her MPH in public health, and is passionate about studying social sciences. This is one of my favorite classes because of our professors extensive knowledge and willingness to know our opinions. I also think that one of the reasons I really like this class is because a lot of the topics we learn about are Public Health related.
Healthcare in Economics is definitely the most challenging class that I have this term, but the class is actually very enjoyable because we have a great professor. Our professor is a Costa Rican native who went to university in London and landed a high status position in the Costa Rican government. I really enjoy this class because he makes it very engaging and allows us to work with the concepts up front instead of listening to them in a lecture.
And our fourth and longest class is Spanish for Health Sciences. For the Spanish classes, our group of 19 students in the program were split up to be in intermediate or advanced Spanish. One of the things that will be interesting in this class is that we have to do simulations as if we were actually health professionals talking to a patient. I think this is going to be hard, but it will be good practice for if we need Spanish in a professional hospital setting. For me, Spanish is one of the most important classes. This is because, like many other students, one of my goals during this Study Abroad is to improve my Spanish speaking.
