Las Nubes Archives - Global Engagement

Future business leaders drive social innovation in Costa Rica

amaav — Fri, 25 Apr 2025 13:08:00 +0000

By Deirdre Kelly

In the lush hills of Pérez Zeledón, Costa Rica, 91��ɫ’s Las Nubes EcoCampus shows how education can cross borders.

At its centre is Casita Azul, a modest one-room library that serves as a hub for cultural exchange, community empowerment and collaboration.

Recently, Casita Azul received a donation from Kellogg-Schulich Executive MBA (EMBA) students at the Schulich School of Business – a gesture inspired by their experience during the program’s capstone course. But, this story is about more than a donation; it’s about how a week in Costa Rica is reshaping how future business leaders see their role in addressing global challenges.

Kellogg-Schulich Executive MBA students in Costa Rica.

Three years ago, Schulich’s EMBA capstone was redesigned to focus on social and environmental issues, challenging students to apply business tools in unfamiliar contexts. The course culminates in a week-long immersion in Costa Rica, where students work with local youth to co-create business models using the social business model canvas. The goal: integrate economic, social and environmental priorities into innovative, culturally grounded solutions.

Geoffrey Kistruck, professor and RBC Chair in Social Innovation & Impact at Schulich, calls the experience transformative. “The alternative business models co-designed with local youth combine solid business principles with highly contextualized realities,” he says. “It’s not just academic – it’s about creating solutions that work within their lived experiences.”

Unlike typical study tours, the capstone is an intensive learning sprint. Mornings start with classroom sessions; afternoons, students collect insights and collaborate with local entrepreneurs. Evenings are for reflection and refining strategies. The business models they develop must be viable and address pressing social and environmental challenges.

Casita Azul plays a key role in this exchange. More than a library, it anchors the community and brings 91��ɫ’s work in advancing United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Its programs include literacy workshops, environmental education for schoolchildren and internet access – still rare in parts of Pérez Zeledón. The library also hosts cultural exchanges connecting 91��ɫ researchers, students and local residents.

Dana Craig, teaching and learning librarian at 91��ɫ, highlights Casita Azul’s role in fostering connections. “The immersive experience transforms expectations. Students leave not just educated but motivated to act – whether through donations, teaching workshops or sharing their stories.”

This spirit of engagement inspired the EMBA cohort’s donation – a gesture neither planned nor solicited but born naturally from their time at Casita Azul. While philanthropy isn’t 91��ɫ’s primary goal in Costa Rica, moments like this show how deep connection can spark meaningful action.

Rahim Dharamsi, director of development, institutional priorities, sees a deeper impact. “Las Nubes isn’t just a place – it becomes part of you. People leave wanting to contribute because they’ve been part of something meaningful.”

Kellogg-Schulich Executive MBA students during their capstone course in Costa Rica.

That sense of belonging and shared purpose is reflected in Casita Azul’s daily work. The library has become integral to life in Pérez Zeledón, offering internet access, books and workshops on entrepreneurship, computer skills and environmental stewardship. Its programs respond to local needs – supporting women’s groups, collaborating with schools and hosting classes led by local experts. By working alongside the community, Casita Azul advances 91��ɫ’s mission while building capacity and opportunity in the Alexander Skutch Biological Corridor.

Not everyone sees such programs as an unqualified good. Critics of “voluntourism” question whether short-term visits create lasting change or risk reinforcing power imbalances. Kistruck acknowledges these concerns but emphasizes Schulich’s focus on co-creation, not charity. “It’s not about coming in with solutions,” he says. “It’s about working together to design something that fits their reality.”

That collaborative philosophy now shapes Schulich’s global outlook. Drawing on the lessons learned at Las Nubes, the school is launching a similar capstone course in Tanzania, where students will partner with local co-operatives to develop business models tailored to local needs.

“As future business leaders’ skills evolve, we will continue to adapt how we educate and deliver value to both local and global communities,” Kistruck says.

Watch a video below.

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Las Nubes trip inspires 91��ɫ U’s future educators

amaav — Thu, 23 Jan 2025 14:42:00 +0000

Maya and Nayha Gill are budding teachers and are already planning how they will shape their future classrooms.

The identical twins may be a few years away from leading a classroom, but on a recent trip to Las Nubes, 91��ɫ’s EcoCampus in Costa Rica that stresses care of the environment and sustainability, they began to imagine future classrooms. The trip to the campus was life-changing for the third-year educational studies students who will begin the Bachelor of Education teaching certification program upon completion of their undergraduate degree program.

In Costa Rica, the sisters stayed with a family who made a major impact. “Marianella, our homestay mom, the absolute best woman I've ever met in my life. She loved us like family,” says Nayha. They visited local classrooms, hiked the forest, painted Indigenous masks and baked cookies at a women’s co-operative bakery, all activities that stress education as a process of self-understanding, gathering resolve and forging deep respectful connections in the world, aligning with the vision of Las Nubes EcoCampus.

Sisters Maya and Nayha with Marianella

“It's an experience of a lifetime,” says Maya. “Hands-on activities resonate with you. You retain so much more … (The trip) added to our own personal pedagogies, the way we would be teaching. We will definitely be integrating hands-on activities, field trips, experiential learning. We have seen first-hand that you just remember everything so clearly.”

The Gill twins – nicknamed Los Gemelos by their homestay family, the Spanish word for twins – were students of Steve Alsop, a professor in 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Education. Alsop taught Education for a Sustainable Future in the summer at the Las Nubes EcoCampus. Unusually, the classes he leads there have a mix of undergraduate and graduate students (master’s and doctorate students) from many disciplines. The classes focus on: ecology and sustainability themes; feeling powers of local ecology and community and practicing reciprocity; respect and gratitude in learning environments set within farms, forests, mountains, schools, women’s co-operatives; and Indigenous communities.

“I have had the privilege of teaching there for the last few years. In summer courses, I go down there, and a group of students come and join me. We work together in a series of activities and thoughts and readings on place and land-based education,” Alsop says. “It's a beautiful, energizing and rewarding experience.”

He explains that at a time of great awareness of climate change, biodiversity breakdown and increasing social inequality, people are seeking ways to respond to and support one another. His Las Nubes courses offer that in a beautiful setting, celebrating ways in which all life is related and the responsibility to understand and support each other in life journeys. The setting and lessons offer “a clear advocacy agenda,” he says.

“It's quite a moving and humbling experience. At the end of the course, students come to me and say it was a profound and motivating experience. And often they say, it's a special life experience. It's really a moment of transformation.”

Nana Adu-Poku, a second-year PhD candidate in the class, felt that transformation.

“Dr. Alsop curated a great environment. We could feel the connections he had with the people in the town, the staff at Las Nubes,” says Adu-Poku. “He put thought into where he was taking us and what he wanted us to take away from it, the text he selected for us to analyze each day. It all connected to what we were doing. I appreciated that he took the time to make it a meaningful experience.”

Adu-Poku also stayed with a family – learning a little Spanish from watching Blue’s Clues with the family’s children – and took part in the field trips and cultural activities, including making chocolate at an organic cocoa farm.

The day and night hikes remain a particularly vivid memory for him.

“The hikes were really fun because it's like we got to see the same forest, but it was different from day to night. We saw different wildlife, and the views were different too,” Adu-Poku says. “There was a point in the night hike where we turned off all our phones, turned off all the flashlights, and just stood in the darkness. It was slightly terrifying, but at the same time, it was an experience to remember … Growing up where I grew up (Jane and Finch) that's not really something I was normally exposed to.”

Students and educators at the Las Nubes EcoCampus.

Plants used to tie dye during an activity at the Las Nubes EcoCampus.

91��ɫ students with local children from Santa Elena Public School.

All three students commented on the local community’s awareness of and care for the environment. The twins recalled walking with some children who picked up litter they saw along the way and put it in a garbage can without being asked to.

“What was really interesting was how conscious they were of the environment. Environmental studies is mandatory in their lessons so it's very normalized and near and dear to their hearts,” says Nayha.

Adu-Poku noticed how local perceptions of sustainability differed from a North American view. “In different parts of the world, different things are valued. A lot of that community is engaged with efforts to sustain the environment and the forest.”

Alsop emphasizes the importance of the students’ full experience in providing a comprehensive understanding of ecological conservation and community revitalization and our need to move beyond familiar doomism and techno-fixes (often central to reduce-reuse-recycle approaches.)

“I think the students really begin to understand and value those words differently: education; sustainability; future. They suddenly find themselves thinking, appraising and questioning Western modernity and associated assumptions. They find themselves reflecting on their own life, regarding what they know, need to know, what they desire and how they can contribute,” he says.

“And all of that, for me, are values which open and reframe education, sustainability and the future in potentially more generous and generative ways.”

With files from Julie Carl

Originally published in YFile.

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91��ɫ U students engage in experiential learning in Costa Rica

amaav — Tue, 03 Sep 2024 14:25:00 +0000

91��ɫ students are stepping out of the traditional classroom to experience the principles of sustainability and ecology first-hand at the University’s Las Nubes EcoCampus in Costa Rica.

This summer, 25 students in the Faculty of Environmental & Urban Change (EUC) had the opportunity to visit the EcoCampus, located within the Alexander Skutch Biological Corridor in southern Costa Rica, as part of an experiential education opportunity.

Supported by the Fisher Fund for Neotropical Conservation, the EcoCampus aims to safeguard the biological, cultural and social values of the communities living in the area.

Students hiking in the rainforest in Costa Rica. Photo by Timothy Ong.

According to Ana Martinez, associate director of the Las Nubes EcoCampus, the program has had a profound impact on its participants, as it fosters both personal and academic growth.

“Many students find – or even redefine – their passion and drive through experiences enriched by deep cultural and natural immersion, gaining new perspectives on the interplay between the environment, culture and social issues,” said Martinez. “For some, the experience is transformative on a personal level, pushing them out of their comfort zones and instilling a sense of confidence and appreciation for new cultures.”

Several courses are offered as part of the Study Abroad Program in Costa Rica – Environmental Psychology, Global Eco-Arts Residency, Protected Area Management, Educating for a Sustainable Future and more – for both undergraduate and graduate students. The courses have condensed timelines, with summer courses completed in 10 days and fall/winter courses in nine days. Students can opt to take one course for a shorter trip, or back-to-back courses for a longer stay.

Timothy Ong, a fourth-year student in the Sustainable Environmental Management (SEM) program, describes a typical day studying in Costa Rica as beginning with a prepared breakfast from his homestay parents and getting picked up by a shuttle bus around 8 a.m. to head to his first activity of the day – which could be a hike, a visit to the farm or a trip to the EcoCampus. After an activity and lunch, students head to the EcoCampus for lectures until 5 or 6 p.m., when the bus drives everyone back to their respective homestays.

“In the context of Costa Rica as an international reference for conservation and sustainable development, we explore a number of initiatives that attempt to achieve the ideals of conservation, development and well-being,” said Felipe Montoya, an EUC professor and the director of Las Nubes, who teaches a course called Conservation and Development for Social-Environmental Sustainability and Well-being. “With the analysis of each case, we try to gain a greater understanding of the possibilities and obstacles for achieving these goals in and beyond Costa Rica.”

Students taking Montoya’s course will take part in hiking activities, allowing them to observe natural ecosystems that have evolved away from urban areas and learn about the theory and principles of ecology as they apply to sustainable development in a tropical environment.

Paula Kaston, a fourth-year SEM student, chose to go to Las Nubes because she wanted to witness how the different programs – agroecology, sustainability, Indigenous issues, etc. – are implemented.

Students visiting the Marvin Arias diversification farm. Photo by Timothy Ong.

“My favourite experience was when we went to the diversification farm,” she said, “because [the instructor demonstrated] so many different ways to be successful in maintaining a sustainable agroecological system.”

As a mature SEM student who will be starting a master in environmental studies next year, Kaston said this experience has given her hope that a sustainable future is possible: “It made me feel like there are a lot of people who are on the ground – feet on the ground, hands in soil – making sustainability accessible.”

Courses offered in the Las Nubes EcoCampus have no prerequisites and are open as electives to all third- and fourth-year undergraduate students and graduate students.

For more information about courses at 91��ɫ’s Las Nubes EcoCampus, who is eligible and how to register, visit the .

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91��ɫ U mature students take their studies abroad this summer

amaav — Fri, 12 Jul 2024 14:45:00 +0000

91��ɫ’s summertime, faculty-led study abroad opportunities continue to be popular post-pandemic, and it’s not only 20-somethings who are taking advantage of the chance to broaden their cultural horizons. Mature students, too, are registering for courses that take them across the globe.

, the University’s hub for both international students and international education programs, supports Faculties and academic units in offering study abroad opportunities led by 91��ɫ U course directors, and mature students are eager to participate.

Human geography PhD student F. Evnur Taran, for example, studied in Mexico City last month. Meanwhile, undergraduate student Paula Kaston is off to 91��ɫ U’s in Costa Rica and Richard Smith has headed to China. None of them had studied abroad previously, but their life experiences made them confident that they would succeed in an unfamiliar environment.

“I’m excited,” says Taran. Called Free Trade, Unfree Labour and Environmental Justice in Continental North America, it looks at the current North American free trade agreement. Students in this intensive course, led by Faculty of Environmental & Urban Change (EUC) Professor Anna Zalik, spend a week studying with peers at the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Mexico City and reconvened the following week at 91��ɫ U.

“It’s an opportunity to be in a university in another country and see what their system is like,” says Taran.

Taran loves both travelling and learning. Once her children were grown, she earned a second bachelor’s degree at Glendon College. Next came a master’s degree in international development studies, which led her to apply for the PhD program in human geography.

“I’m living my second youth,” she says. “I love to study and to be active, and I’ll continue as long as life permits me.”

Kaston, who is retired, is finishing her bachelor’s degree in environmental sustainability. She decided that a course at 91��ɫ U’s EcoCampus would be a wonderful end to her undergraduate studies.

Years earlier, career opportunities lured Kaston away from her university studies, so she is fulfilling her long-term goal now by earning a degree. In fact, she has enjoyed the experience so much that she is continuing on to a master’s program in environmental science this fall.

“Environmental sustainability has been a passion of mine for a long time,” she says, “and when I found the 91��ɫ program, I decided to go full on.”

Kaston registered for a course called Conservation and Development for Social-Environmental Sustainability and Wellbeing, led by EUC professor and Las Nubes director Felipe Montoya. The course explores the ways Costa Rica is succeeding with sustainable development.

“I want to see what these initiatives that we read about really look like on the ground,” Kaston says.

Smith, who retired from 91��ɫ U last year as director of institutional planning, began taking language courses prior to retirement. This summer, he embarked on an intensive course in Mandarin – Intermediate Chinese Language and Culture in China: Shanghai as an International and Chinese Centre – taught by Assistant Professor Gang Pan in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies. It brought him to China at the end of May.

“I’m fascinated by how people in other countries do the same things in different and often surprising ways,” he says.

To help support his trip, Smith received a $2,000 award from the Government of Canada’s Outbound Student Mobility Pilot Program Global Skills Opportunity (GSO). The funding is meant to offset the cost of travel while increasing the participation of under-represented groups in international learning opportunities.

Smith and 10 of his classmates studied at Fudan University in Shanghai for a month, lived in the residences there and ate in the dining hall. Their course was intensive, with five hours of language classes daily, but the month-long session ended with a five-day trip to the cities of Suzhou, Hangzhou and Nanjing, as well as the Shaolin monastery (the birthplace of Buddhism) and the countryside of Zhejiang Province to experience first-hand the culture, history and landscapes – and put their language skills to the ultimate test.

“I’ve been dropped into cities with a different language before,” Smith says, “but here, it may be hard to find English speakers, so I’ll pretty much have to rely on my Chinese.”

Ashley Laracy, associate director of global learning for 91��ɫ International, urges students of all ages to follow in the footsteps of these mature students.

“Faculty-led study abroad programs create a supportive space for students to travel abroad with a group of their known peers,” she says. “We’re excited to see the diversity of our student population reflected in our global learning programs. Our Global Engagement Strategy outlines 91��ɫ’s commitment to building and facilitating opportunities that are inclusive and accessible to our students. Global learning is lifelong learning.”

This summer, 91��ɫ has more than 300 students abroad as part of faculty-led programs. With the help of the GSO funding, the University has been able to increase its participation levels in summer study abroad initiatives, with more than 220 participating students receiving financial support towards their global learning.

For more information about 91��ɫ faculty-led abroad opportunities, contact yuabroad@yorku.ca.

Originally published in YFile.

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Costa Rica provides canvas for Eco-Arts Residency

amaav — Thu, 16 May 2024 14:54:00 +0000

91��ɫ’s Las Nubes Campus in Costa Rica is serving as a home base for its first-ever Eco-Arts Residency, an intensive, 10-day course being offered by two professors from the School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design (AMPD).

Professor Brandon Vickerd, a sculptor, as well as theatre and performance artist Laura Levin, director of Sensorium – a 91��ɫ research centre for digital arts and technology – are leading a group of 25 students in research centred on the Alexander Skutch Biological Corridor preserve and communities near Las Nubes.

The course focuses on developing research methodologies and strategies for building community-driven, site-oriented, collaborative approaches to art production.

“Current studio courses focus on students’ artistic skills and don’t teach them how to go to a community, make connections and respond to the reality of the environment, the politics and the institutions while producing meaningful works,” said Vickerd. “This residency-based course provides such an opportunity.”

The students are living with families in the local villages, two per home, and taking part in a curated, daily schedule of activities and exploration. Their experience began in San José, Costa Rica’s capital, with two days of visiting theatre companies and museums before travelling to Las Nubes. Once there, they were able to get a sense of the landscape, the people, the economy and politics.

“They will engage with the larger questions of the course in a site-specific way,” Levin said. “They’ll visit local farms, and – informed by their readings on food sovereignty – they’ll learn first-hand about the challenges of individuals running small farms in the global food system.

“We’ll also travel to an Indigenous village that is the home of the Boruca people, a group that has developed over time an intricate mask-making tradition and a youth theatre company that imaginatively incorporates those masks. There will be a lot of hands-on engagement with cultural producers.”

One of the students’ other major tasks is to assist with producing ExpoCOBAS, an annual festival organized by the local community designed to celebrate and consolidate identity around the Alexander Skutch Biological Corridor. It’s an exercise that will include everything from making piñatas to putting on a student art showcase to brainstorming about activities that will engage young people.

“There are important lessons we’d like our students to absorb,” said Vickerd of the residency’s goals. “We want to show them that they can engage with the environment in a variety of ways. We also want them to understand what it means to engage ethically with a community and collaborate, to engage in social action. They need to understand what’s important about a culture and how they can contribute with support and understanding, meaningfully adding to its health.”

Levin noted that some students had never travelled to Latin America before undertaking this residency, offering an additional opportunity for some.

“We want them to learn what it means for artists not to be tourists and how to negotiate their experiences in a thoughtful way, rather than viewing the community as a spectacle to be consumed,” Levin said.

Vickerd and Levin are providing the students with creative prompts and exercises to help them engage with the unique landscape, such as participating in outdoor classes or hiking in the rainforest.

“They won’t be able to sit back,” said Vickerd. “This course is about engagement.”

Po Kuen Cheung, a graphic designer and mature visual art and art history student who is studying part time for a degree, is one of the students registered for the intensive Las Nubes course.

“I want to explore the wonderful world of art when I retire, and when I saw the Costa Rica course, it matched exactly what I want to do – explore what happens elsewhere,” said Cheung. “It will be an experience of a lifetime.”

Once he and his fellow students return home, they will have the opportunity to reflect on the experience and translate it into either an essay or artistic output.

“This experience allows them to think about how to explore and explain the world in a different way,” Vickerd said.

Their responses, whatever form they take, will enrich the understanding of others, giving what they’ve learned a broader impact.

Originally published in YFile.

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Grounded Project launches with film premiere and panel discussion, June 10

donan — Tue, 01 Jun 2021 18:50:00 +0000

Join 91��ɫ's Las Nubes Project on June 10 at 6 p.m. to celebrate the launch of the Grounded Project, a new pan-University and international research collaboration, with the virtual film premiere of More than Migrants.

The film screening will be followed by a panel discussion on the social determinants of health of migrant workers, chaired by 91��ɫ Professor Mathieu Poirier, the film's academic lead, with guest panellists Susana Caxaj (Western University), Douglas Barraza (Universidad Nacional de Costa Rica and Universidad Técnica Nacional de Costa Rica) and 91��ɫ Professor Felipe Montoya, director of the film.

This free event is open to the public. Attendees should RSVP online at .

More than Migrants follows the lived experience of nine people striving to make a new life for themselves and their families in Costa Rica. The stories, told in their own words, reveal the strength and resilience needed to overcome the challenges of building a new home with dignity and well-being. The documentary offers viewers a deeper understanding of the lives of migrants and the complex issues they face.

This film was made by the Las Nubes Project in the Faculty of Environmental & Urban Change (EUC) and the Faculty of Health (FoH) at 91��ɫ, in collaboration with the Universidad Técnica Nacional de Costa Rica and 91��ɫ Libraries, and with the financial support of EUC, FoH, 91��ɫ International and 91��ɫ Libraries.

The Grounded Project is a series of short documentaries filmed in rural Costa Rica on issues around environmental sustainability, biodiversity conservation, health and human well-being, with the idea of revealing structural elements that constrain the pursuit of social and ecological well-being as well as the opportunities that these grounded experiences offer for alternative ways of living. For more information about the Grounded Project, visit .

Originally published in YFile

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