Geography graduate student John “Jay” Ritterbeck will be traveling to Costa Rica this summer (June 6 to September 18, 2003) to help lead a series of community development projects. Each session will be two weeks long and have 10-15 undergraduate students. These projects will address a number of different issues within some of the most rural areas of the countries. The projects not only help the communities, but also give the student participants hands-on experience in examining and wrestling with these issues in real-life settings. International Student Travel (IST) is coordinating the effort. Collaborators include tourism, environmental, and planning agencies from Costa Rica, Australia, Dominican Republic, New Zealand and the United States.
Jay is a first year Ph.D. student in the Department. He has five years’ experience working in the Urban Planning and Economic Development for the City of Stow, Ohio. His current research interests are in tourism development, carrying capacity, and its social and economic impact.
