Flores is a native Costa Rican, or as Costa Ricans say, a Tica. She is familiar with the surrounding beauty but not inured to San Luis’ easy charms or to the graciousness of its people. Welch works as an intern professor in the Monteverde region via the UGA San Luis Research Station for the University of Costa Rica’s Center for Research in Environmental Contamination. Meanwhile, Arce Flores, who is the academic programs and volunteer coordinator in San Luis, devotes much of her time to coordinating educational programs and the naturalists at the station. She is trained as an agronomy engineer, is in charge of the naturalists’ training, and also overseeing community programs involving local residents and the station’s visitors. Arce Flores herself arrived in San Luis for only a week’s study, and remained. Like her colleague and partner Welch, she plans to continue work indefinitely in San Luis, furthering community-collaborative research and programs such as the establishment of a local farmer’s market. “We build and implement our programs at the Costa Rica campus to fulfill the same mission as UGAAthens,” says Arce Flores. “Therefore, our involvement with the community plays a key aspect in academic programming. Students take on diverse activities that range from home stays with local families and teaching English in the schools to community service projects such as reforestation and helping to establish a medicinal plant garden. Being an active member of this community is one of the most important components to ensuring the long-term success of our campus.”
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Meanwhile, Arce Flores supports other UGA programs such as the first international undergraduate research symposium hosted by the Center for Undergraduate Research Opportunities, or CURO. Last May, 12 UGA students traveled to the Costa Rican campus to present research abstracts with 12 University of Costa Rica students.
Hibiscus and hummingbirds (of 30 varieties) are constants in the Costa Rican landscape, according to Justin Welch and Sofia Arce Flores. The conservationists, shown on page 24, were recently photographed at the State Botanical Garden of Georgia during a visit to Athens.
AN INTERACTIVE AND HIST O R I C 2 0 0 6 I N T E R N AT I O N A L SYMPOSIUM AT S A N L U I S The
cross-cultural and interdisciplinary symposium was instigated and designed by Pamela Kleiber, associate director of the Honors program and CURO. Kleiber developed the program concept after meeting with receptive UCR administrators, faculty and students. Arce Flores, who holds degrees from UGA and UCR, helped orchestrate the bilingual event, a first-time partnership between the two universities. Kleiber worked with Arce Flores and María Ruth Martinez, a UGA doctoral student in environmental and ecological anthropology. Martinez, now completing her dissertation in Athens, provided translation services throughout the symposium. As an advocate of the San Luis’ craftspeople, musicians and farmers, Arce Flores sought ways to showcase their abilities. During the evenings, she arranged to have San Luis musicians perform, and locals demonstrated needlecraft and other skills for the students. Dean Maureen Grasso of the Graduate School participated as a faculty discussant at the symposium, joined by Betty Jean Craige, director of the Wilson Center for Humanities and Arts, and Kleiber. Afterward, Grasso says several UCR participants
expressed interest in furthering their graduate research at UGA. “The CURO international research symposium in Costa Rica was the most dynamic study abroad program experience that I have witnessed at the UGA Costa Rica campus to date,” said Quint Newcomer, who directs overseas international education programs in Costa Rica. IN A PLACE OF GREEN FORESTS AND
CLEAR
WATERS As the
researchers wave to farmers traversing the busy road between San Luis and Santa Elena, Welch and Arce Flores discuss the locals’ receptivity to green practices. Welch mentions the case of the Finca La Bella project that has 20 farmers adhering to environmentally conscious and integrated agricultural practices. The research station itself is in close proximity to coffee plantations and dairies that dot the hillsides. Arce Flores points out a rubiaceae, a plant in the coffee family. She identi-