Cyclone Battalion cadets Veen, Ripperger, and Lazo conduct Humanitarian/NGO assistance mission vicinity Costa Rica between 14MAY12 – 08JUN12 and 01JULY12 – 21JULY12 IOT gain cultural immerse and foster foreign relations with Costa Rica to work towards developing more cultural awareness and foreign language proficiency skills.
Key Tasks: Work in local communities, volunteer at local orphanages, schools, community centers, and attend a local language academy.
Cyclone Battalion cadets Veen, Ripperger, and Lazo successfully developed more cultural awareness, foreign language proficiency skills, as well as helped foster international relationships with the country of Costa Rica.
Both Costa Rican CULP deployments were successful in developing cultural awareness and foreign language proficiency skills. Cyclone Battalion cadets were able to assist local communities in tasks such as teaching elementary grade English, renovating a community center, and planning activities for children at orphanages. As a result, the local populace who interacted with cadets improved in their knowledge of English, gained a facility to utilize for future community activities, and provided a fun experience for local orphans. Cadets also attended rigorous Spanish classes multiple times a week, which in return greatly improved their Spanish speaking abilities.
Cadets Veen, Ripperger, and Lazo spent 21 days within the country of Costa Rica. Cadet Veen worked with the NGO Cross Cultural Solutions spending two weeks in Cartago teaching English at El Escuela de Guatuso and a third week renovating a community center in El Barrio la Cruz. Cadets Ripperger and Lazo conducted language proficiency at the Costa Rican Language Academy, located in San Jose, Costa Rica, four days a week. On other days, they volunteered at a local orphanage and took part in local activities such as football, salsa dancing, and cooking classes. On weekends, the cadets had the opportunity to travel to various historic and cultural sites around Costa Rica. All cadets spent one week, prior to and following their cultural deployment at Ft. Knox, Kentucky in order to conduct pre-deployment and post-deployment training.