Hi! My name is Kimi and I am a current student at University of Central Florida in their graduate Clinical Mental Health Counselor program working towards being a future counselor/therapist. I created this go fund me as there is a study abroad opportunity coming up for students in the counselor education program to travel to Costa Rica to develop and enhance personal and intercultural skills necessary to be positive counselors and change agents, especially among marginalized communities.

As a daughter to immigrants from the neighboring country of El Salvador in Central America, I have be utilizing the privileges I have been lucky enough to have in higher education to build a profession for myself that will help those of a similar background. In the past, I have assisted develop and run an Art Therapy workshop in El Salvador and am still actively working in presenting this experience to the American Art Therapy Association to give exposure of art and mental health for this population. My hope is to have a future where I can give and expand exposure to my homeland and its people both in El Salvador and in the United States who identify as immigrant and its later generations.

This study abroad trip to Costa Rica will help me interact and understand how this can be possible in a Central American country where it will help me navigate what I want the future to look like for Salvadorians. What it is to work with NGOs and international organizations to make the work of mental health more attainable for marginalized communities.

This is where I need your help. This study abroad trip seems to be made for me, but as a full-time student working multiple part time jobs trying make ends meet; it is difficult to reach the financial commitment needed to be a part of this trip. I am navigating the cost of higher education without burdening my family by doing it on my own; but I dont want to miss out on this small window of a chance to learn tools that will help me in my future career goals. If you are able to help in whatever way you can, I am immensely grateful for you. If you can’t that’s ok! Sharing this is more than enough so it can reach more people.

Just know you’re helping a child of immigrants who would never have dreamed she would even get as far as she is today.

If you would like to know more about this trip you can navigate to this link which has all the details about the program: https://studyabroad.ucf.edu/_portal/tds-program-brochure?programid=11624

The cost break down is between $2,600-2900 dependent on how many students commit to the program but that excludes air fair and other travel expenses like meals and additional transportation which is why the goal is set to $4,000

There is a deadline of April 6th to cover the cost.

Here are some examples from the itinerary of what we will be doing on the trip:

Field Visit to Transforma: an NGO dedicated to helping women with job-training, leadership development, and mentorship to alleviate the cycle of poverty, addiction and community violence.

Field Visit to Casas de Escucha in Cahuita: an NGO that supports initiatives in the field of mental health, directed towards socially and psychologically at risk populations of Cost Rica. They have created diverse community youth homes in different areas of the country where programming around education and culture is offered in addition to providing psychological therapy for local youth and families.

Thank You!