Office of Study Abroad

Profile: Tyler Caine '25

Major/minor: Environmental Studies and Biology majors

Study abroad program: Ecological Resilience Studies in Atenas (SFS), Spring 2024

Reason you chose this program: It aligned with my major to fulfill the AppLE and I wanted to go to a Spanish-speaking country.

Favorite classes: Natural Resource Management- we mostly talked about the management of clean water throughout the country, and it was incredible to see how many dedicated people it takes to keep everyone in stock of clean water.

How did you incorporate your Brandeis areas of study into your study abroad experience? On my program, everything was about the environment. I had a really solid background in all the topics we discussed from my time at Brandeis.

Housing situation: I lived in a dorm building with the rest of the students. I had two roommates.

What were some parts of your identity that you thought about while considering study abroad? Being both Jewish and queer, I knew I had to be careful to choose a program where I would be safe within the country. Costa Rica is one of the safest countries in Latin America for queer people, and it has a thriving Jewish community.

Favorite memory: One of the last weekends, me and several others went on a final group trip, and some of us spent the day on a national park tour. We hiked, kayaked in the ocean and a river, and swam in the ocean, and we saw a huge number of animals. It was one of the best days I had.

Greatest challenge: The heat! I'm not good at dealing with heat, so it was really hard for me. I picked up a bedside fan and had a lot of popsicles.

What do you know now that you didn't know before? It sounds cheesy, but all people are more alike than they are different. So many of the people I met were just like me and my friends and family, and we're all driven by the same desire to make the world better for everyone who comes after us.

Fact about Costa Rica that you think people would be surprised to learn:
Due to a long history of immigration, Costa Rica is incredibly ethnically diverse.