Summer is often a slower pace of life for the units in the College of Health, but for some in Kinesiology, it was anything but slow. Dr. Eric Klosterman, Associate Lecturer of Sport Administration and Coordinator of Undergraduate Sport Administration Program, and Tonya Skalon, Associate Lecturer of Exercise Science, lead a group of 15 students on an adventure to Costa Rica. While this trip focused more closely on sport administration and kinesiology, the students had a range of majors ranging from exercise science, sport administration and speech pathology to health promotion and business.

“Dr. Klosterman and I were thrilled to have this High Impact Practice for Ball State students. The other students, not in exercise science, still had a valuable experience and found ways of incorporating their major of focus throughout the experience,” said Skalon.

The group departed May 7, flying into San Jose and taking up residence in the Crowne Plaza hotel.  The students were enrolled in the course, Kinesiology 299X, International Business and Sport Careers, but their lessons weren’t limited to the time they spent at Santa Paula University for lecture and workshops.

“The primary experience was to look and experience how sport administration/management and exercise science is operated, viewed, and experienced in Costa Rica, both similarly and differently, then the United States. Within this framework, we looked at how sport business and tourism (all-encompassing disciplines from sport business-related topics) impact Costa Rica’s economic development and impact to the country,” Klosterman said.

These students connected with a local organization, Escules Deportivas, for a community service project. And, they worked with students at a school in Rio Azul as well.

But they also got some time to explore the beautiful country, with planned excursions in sports tourism of many types. The group went hiking in the La Paz Waterfall Gardens and toured an animal sanctuary. They went to the Arenal Volcano and white water rafting on the Balsa River. To round out their experiences, they went on a zip lining excursion at Mundo Adventura and visited the famous Crocodile Bridge.

 

The group scheduled a beach day in the town of Jaco for some surf lessons, a catamaran excursion, and snorkeling in the beautiful Pacific Ocean. The group finished up their adventures with a guided tour through the Manuel Antonio National Park before heading back to Muncie! If you’d like to learn more about the adventures in Costa Rica, the entire trip was chronicled on the trip’s facebook.