Partners connects people and institutions across and within the Americas to create lasting solutions to the hemisphere’s toughest challenges through its Chapters, development programs, and exchange programs.
Explore our map below to learn about Partners’ current Chapters and programs by country.
Regions
Costa Rica
Partners has been working in Costa Rica since 1965, when the Costa Rica-Oregon Partners was founded. A long-time leader in educational exchanges in Costa Rica, the chapter also manages a popular high school exchange program, Amigos de Oregon. In addition to educational exchanges, we’ve partnered with the government of Costa Rica to build a network of Costa Rican and U.S. business professionals to foster exchange of ideas, experiences and best practices in successful business management, promoting cooperation, investment and international trade.
Chapters
- Capítulo de Costa Rica
Overview
- Adult exchange. Professionals from Oregon and Costa Rica carry out cultural exchanges.
- Youth exchange between Oregon and Costa Rica. This program is known as Friends of Oregon.
- Visits from Oregonians to teach English.
- Sister Schools. Communication by means of messages, chat. The aim is to reach the exchange of students and teachers.
Leadership
Chapter Email: [email protected]
Position Name Contact Information* President Alfredo Marin Badilla Contact Finance Director Elizabeth Villalobos Contact Secretary Ana Grettel Gamboa Guzmán Contact Treasurer Sarita Navarro Contact *(Users must have a PartnersConnect account to access - log in or create one today!)Useful Links
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100,000 Strong in the Americas
The 100,000 Strong in the Americas (100K) Innovation Fund expands opportunities for higher education institutions to create partnerships and launch innovative student exchange and training programs. This opens access to underrepresented student populations, improves workforce development training, increases public-private investment, and strengthens people-to-people ties between the United States and Latin America and the Caribbean.
Education exchanges have long been used as a tool to foster international cooperation and promote technical, linguistic, and intercultural skills development for students to operate in an increasingly globalized world. Created in 2013 by the White House’s National Security Council, the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, Partners of the Americas, and NAFSA: Association of International Educators, the 100K Innovation Fund is an impactful hemisphere-wide education initiative that creates dynamic regional collaboration across the private sector, foundations, government entities, NGOs, and academia to support higher education partnerships and increase the number and diversity of students in the Americas who have access to innovative training and exchange programs.
Unlike traditional scholarship programs, which support individual students or faculty, the 100K Innovation Fund stimulates innovation at the institutional level and provides critical funding on a competitive basis to higher education institutions across the Americas to build partnerships that result in innovative student exchange and training programs that are scalable and sustainable. To learn more about 100K Innovation Fund grants and other opportunities, visit https://www.100kstrongamericas.org.
$9.8Million in grants awarded25Countries and 49 U.S. states and territories benefited from grant programs572Higher education institutions formed partnerships for international collaboration7,100+Student and faculty beneficiariesImplementing a Culture of Labor Compliance in Costa Rica’s Agricultural Exporting Sector
Implementing a Culture of Labor Compliance in Costa Rica’s Agricultural Exporting Sector, a project funded by the U.S. Department of Labor (USDOL), aims to improve the enforcement of minimum wage, hours of work, and occupational safety and health laws in the agricultural sector in Costa Rica.As a sub-awardee to Fundación para la Paz y Democracia (FUNPADEM), Partners will support the project’s goals to strengthen mechanisms to report complaints of abusive practices, create and strengthen legal instruments and administrative procedures, and promote a culture of sustainable labor law compliance.
The project will be implemented in Costa Rica from 2019 to 2022.
1Plan developed to optimize the processes of the Labor Affairs Directorate of the Ministry of Labor and Social Security of Costa Rica (MTSS)1Course designed on occupational safety in the agriculture sector for inspectors of the MTSS2Courses completed to improve the abilities of MTSS staff to better serve workers
