Amanda Wood’s dream of teaching and experiencing a different culture became a reality when she learned that she will be student teaching in Costa Rica during the spring semester.

Her new home for the semester will be in Heredia, Costa Rica, which is about 10 kilometers north of San Jose.

While she will be student teaching at Pan-American High School, she will be living with a host family that does not speak English.

Each year, 10 Eastern students are chosen to student teach abroad by the Consortium for Overseas Student Teaching, and Wood, a senior English major with teacher certification, will be the only student to teach abroad in the spring.

She said one reason why the program interested her is because she hopes to go to graduate school for English Language Learners certification, and experiencing another culture would be beneficial.

“By experiencing another culture, I can see how the students are taught and I can spread the wealth by bringing that knowledge back here,” Wood said.

The program will also be beneficial to her in the future when she encounters students whose first language is not English, she said.

“Since I am planning to go into ELL (English Language Learners), I want to be able to relate to students and thought this would be a better way to relate to students through real-life experience,” Wood said.

Wood will be teaching English courses at Pan-American High School, which consists of about 250 students, she said.

Another reason she was interested in the program is to learn another language and to have more experience in a different country.

“I have only been outside of the country once when I went to Canada, but that was so long ago when you didn’t even need a passport,” Wood said. “I really wanted to go to a Spanish-speaking country and thought it would be a groovy experience.”

Eastern tuition and fees are waived for the program and Wood will be paying for travel and living expenses, she said.

Eligibility for the program includes completing all student teaching requirements, maintaining at least a 3.0 GPA, attending an informational session and going through an interview process.

Wood said she was able to list her top four locations she wanted to student teach abroad at and Costa Rica was her first choice because it was more vegetarian-friendly. Her other locations were Ecuador, Mexico and Hong Kong.

Wood is scheduled to leave on Jan. 23, 2012, and return on May 14.

Rachel Rodgers can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].