How teachers.net has Helped a Costa Rican Village

This is just a short blog on how teachers.net and social media has affected a small village in the mountains of Costa Rica. I moved to Costa Rica 10 years and all I wanted to do was to live in a rural village and raft the rivers of Costa Rica. The life is very relaxed and income is low. I wanted to start a business and had a little cash to invest. The families around the village I was in were some of the most nicest people you could imagine. We wanted to bring student groups down and show them Costa Rican culture and adventure offering an income to the families and fun for the kids.

Many business plans go through years of how they are going to market. I got on line one morning and googled "teachers websites" because I wanted to market to teachers and teachers.net came up. I contacted them and they were quick to guide me in the direction of the steps I needed to take to make the email blast happen. We were offering a Free Trip to Costa Rica for educators if they were interesting in bringing a group of students back the following year. We recieved 150 emails the first day after the email blast. The reality of this is that all that was done is that I got up, got on google, sent an email, and then teacher.net with their amazing network of teachers sent out all the emails which has resulted in 15 groups for our company this year.

Girls from the Village of Sitio de Mata, Costa Rica

Not only did teachers.net give our company 15 groups but they gave 20 rural families that live in a mountain village over a years salary for housing the 15 different student groups they have had this year. Its amazing what social media (now you can follow teachers.net on twitter) has done and I even have some of the kids in the village using my cell phone to stay intouch with some of the kids that have visited on a facebook account that we use. Just a short note of appreciation from a village that I know is extremely grateful for teachers.net.