Alumni Spotlight

Eleanor’s journey with EPI began when she was 15, on the Costa Rica course in 2002. She fell in love with leatherbacks and Pacuare Nature Reserve and returned the next year with EPI. As a high school senior Eleanor went on the Galapagos trip. By then she was dedicated to conservation and education.

The next four years following her trip to Galapagos, Eleanor returned to Pacuare as a volunteer in the summers, including a semester at the Universidad de Costa Rica. However, Eleanor was also exposed to the needs of students in US high schools, and after graduating college, became a Philadelphia Teaching Fellow, teaching Spanish at Germantown High School in 2009.

Wanting her students to have the same formative experience to connect with the natural world and travel as she had as a student, Eleanor worked tirelessly to raise funds with six of her students to go on EPI’s Costa Rica program. In April 2011, the “Costa Rica Six” made the journey to Pacuare – which was a HUGE deal, considering almost all of them had never left Pennsylvania, and only one student had a prior outdoor experience.

Says Eleanor,“Despite the sometimes overwhelming challenges they face in their neighborhoods and everyday lives, each member of the Costa Rica Six was deeply touched by their experience. As I watch them walk around one of Philadelphia’s more notorious neighborhoods with their heads held high and turtle necklaces around their necks, I know they will carry the lessons and light of Pacuare and Costa Rica with them for the rest of their lives.”

Check out more of the details about the story of the “Costa Rica Six” on EPI’s blog, coming soon!