Naia Buxbaum and Tommy Sprenger performing in the talent show / Shirley Lange
In April of 2026, a group of students from our school will spend nine days in Costa Rica. Culture and Travel Club, advised by Michael Shanks, is an ASB club at Orcas Island High School dedicated to sending students to foreign countries to learn about culture and language. Most significantly, the club aims to give students the opportunity to travel without making them pay a large fee. Shanks, as well as the club officers – including Joselyn Carpenter as president, Lucy Rios as treasurer, and Amaru Shanks Morales as secretary– generously donate their time and resources to give the students this possibility.
The members of the club were offered the choice to travel to either Oaxaca, Mexico, or Costa Rica, and they chose the latter. The trip is through the Arcos program, and offers a diverse itinerary in the area of Atenas, Costa Rica. Students will engage in activities that include ziplining, city tours, art and dance classes, cooking of traditional foods, hiking, playing sports, as well as free time to explore the area. Many of the members of Culture and Travel club are currently taking one of Shanks’s Spanish classes as part of their High School curriculum. In Costa Rica, they will stay with a homestay family, who will for the majority, only speak Spanish. This will give students a chance to practice their conversational Spanish skills in an environment other than the classroom.
A large goal of the club is for students to be able to take the trip without needing to pay a substantial amount. This is no easy task, because of the price of the program, airfare, and the amount of students who plan on attending. To cover the costs, the club is engaging in several different fundraising strategies. The club hopes to receive $15,000 from Give Orcas. In addition to this, on Dec. 8, they hosted a dinner for the community to raise funds for their trip. With significant help from The Island Market and Mijitas, as well as many other members of the community, the students successfully fed over 200 people with cultural food from Costa Rica. In addition, a talent show was performed by other students, showcasing dancing, singing, and musical instruments. The Culture and Travel club is extremely grateful for all those who helped out voluntarily, because the night could not have been such a success without them.
Many students have had the experience of living on Orcas Island their whole lives. While yes, the island is beautiful, and the community is rich with inclusivity and generosity, our home ultimately lacks a substantial amount of real and authentic diversity. So many of our students are unable to travel outside of the country – often, or at all – and as a result are not exposed to the cultures and histories that do not hold a place on this Island. It is important to bring light to other parts of the world, and other cultural perspectives and experiences. This is what the Culture and Travel club is motivated by. We hope that the club receives all the necessary funding they need, and are able to have a wonderful visit to Costa Rica in the spring.