Verto Education & CATIE
How a Private-Public Partnership Furthers Institutional Missions and Puts Students on a Path to Self-Discovery
Verto students enjoying a “noche de talento” in Turrialba (photo credit: Verto Education)
Written by Katie Modic
On a small plot of CATIE’s campus tucked behind the Orton Library and some of CATIE’s coffee research laboratories lies the Gamma Building. Historically used for post-graduate education classes, this area of campus was under-utilized during the past few decades until a strategic partnership between CATIE and another transformative educational institution ignited.
In 2020, Verto Education, a US-based study abroad company that specializes in first year abroad experiences for adventurous college students, visited CATIE in search of their Costa Rica home base. Mitch Gordon, Verto Education’s president and co-founder, was on that first visit. He and his team worked with Carlos Araya, CATIE’s Director of Development and Strategic Partnerships, to formalize the vision of using CATIE’s campus as the only Central American hub for Verto Education.
Verto students on CATIE’s campus (Photo Credit: Verto Education)
Verto’s mission is to transform access to higher education through a coming-of-age first-year experience abroad. They were founded to make travel the path of least resistance to a college education and uplift the values of inclusion, transparency, access, equity, and above all, the power of travel to foster empathy and kindness across cultures. Their unique study abroad model works in part because after students spend their freshman year studying abroad for credit, they have options to gain admission to Verto’s 70+ partner colleges.
Since 2021, Verto has welcomed more than 650 students to study abroad at the CATIE campus. The students live with other Verto participants and learn alongside a tight-knit community of Verto staff, instructors, and fellow travelers, and the Gamma building is their home base. The program takes full advantage of the “field experiences” right out the front door. Students study ecology while visiting the Turrialba volcano and do their Spanish practice at Turrialba’s local farmers market. True to its word, the experience is transformative for the students, many of whom are traveling abroad for the first time.
Jodi Marcus joined the Verto Costa Rica program in 2021. She is a native of Maine and had never left her home country before stepping foot into the land of green. “Within the past month, I have fallen in love not only with Costa Rica, but also the community my cohort has built,” she shared in a blog post after the program ended. “It seems as though everyday we are brought closer together and discover more things to bond over. I am overjoyed to have found people that I can connect so deeply with. We have truly become a family.”
This phenomena of self-discovery that accompanies students’ study abroad experiences isn’t new to Dr. Blaire Modic, Verto Education’s Costa Rica Country Director. For over 20 years Dr. Modic has developed and run study abroad programs across the globe from classic cities in Europe to medinas in Morocco. Following are a few of his reflections on what the partnership with CATIE means for Verto and where the program is headed:
Interview with Blaire Modic - Verto Education’s Costa Rica Director
What has been one of the biggest advantages of running Verto’s Costa Rica program from CATIE?
Catie is an educational and research institution so there is good alignment of mission and values. CATIE facilities allow Verto to run at a scale that would be hard to do elsewhere.
What limitations does the partnership run up against?
Some students find the location presents challenges. CATIE is located a mile out to town and the students say that independent travel is difficult.
What is one of the most transformative aspects of the program that you see for your first-year college students?
Community engagement with Turrialba. This helps students connect in ways that they never imagined. At first they feel and see a lot of the barriers, like language, but they find ways to meet peers and reciprocate the town’s hospitality.
Some examples include working with the Lions club to prepare meals for families in need. We work in schools helping with English. We help with clean up and environmental projects around town, like planting 1,000 trees, and community service projects on campus, like painting the communal spaces and playgrounds.
Why Costa Rica, Blaire?
Costa Rica has a wonderful image in the US, which means students and families feel comfortable signing up for 4 months of study. Spanish is also very relevant for a North American college student. It's a wonderful first international experience. We consider it a gateway experience that often leads to students wanting to stay abroad and continue to travel internationally and experience different places and cultures.
Not unlike the mission of CATIE’s Graduate School, which is to train ethical leaders who prioritize social responsibility and are capable of solving complex problems in an ever changing world, Verto Education helps participants discover themselves and the world around them by making education abroad a foundational and accessible part of a student’s college plan. Vertos mission is truly about access and they have achieved groundbreaking levels of diversity in the student body and brought that richness to Turrialba.
At the end of the day, private-public partnerships like the one between Verto Education and CATIE facilitate students from around the world coming together on a path of self-discovery as they strive to reach their full potential. All students walk away with much more than incredible memories and college credits in hand; they gain the confidence, self-awareness, and global perspective needed to thrive in life.
