Tony Spanos

Professor of Spanish

Weber State University, Ogden, Utah

To whom it may concern:

My name is professor Tony Spanos and I teach Spanish at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah. For the past several years I have been the director of our study abroad program in Costa Rica and I´m writing this letter to highly recommend the language school ILISA located in San José, Costa Rica.
As a university, we have been taking students to Costa Rica for over twenty years, and we have always studied at ILISA.

WSU and the ILISA formulated an academic agreement so that our students would be able to receive university credit for Spanish courses they would take at ILISA. This academic agreement involved the teaching staff at ILISA using the same textbooks and following the same curriculum that our students at WSU use and follow to receive university credit. Thus far it has been a very successful agreement and we are of the opinion that our students receive excellent instruction from teaching staff at ILISA that is equal to or better than what they receive at WSU. ILISA has done an outstanding job of preparing their teaching staff (all native Costa Rican professors) with the latest techniques and strategies of teaching Spanish to North American Students. The Costa Rica professors always receive very high evaluations for their knowledge, passion, enthusiasm and interest in teaching Spanish.

In addition to the excellent instruction that ILISA provides, it also does a wonderful and exceptional service providing host families with whom our students live for one month. Our students have nothing but glowing remarks about the friendliness, helpfulness, kindness and interest that their host families have. The host families prepare our students two meals a day, breakfast and dinner, and they also do their laundry. The families and students form a close bond doing lots of things together like going to sporting and cultural events and helping the students with their home work plus lots of things.

The families are interviewed and chosen by the directors of ILISA based on very strict requirements, and as the director of the program I feel that having a caring and interest family for our students to live with is just as important as the academic instruction that they receive. In all the years that we have been going to Costa Rica we have only had a hand-full of incidents where we needed to place our students with another family. I can’t say enough about the quality of the host families that ILISA provides for the stay experience.

ILISA also works closely with the director of any study abroad program to organize and plan a variety of excursions for the students during the week and/or on weekends. This is an invaluable service for any director who doesn’t know what excursions are available and who, among the many travel agencies, is to be trusted and reliable. The staff at ILISA is more than willing to setup and provide all the excursions that any group would like to do in Costa Rica. We at WSU have always wanted our students exposed to the eco diversity of Costa Rica and ILISA can suggest a myriad of excursions of this type plus many other fun and exciting ones.

The directors of ILISA, Julio Salas and Hellen Rojas, are honest and trustworthy individuals and will provide the services that any study abroad program requests. You count on them and this is one of the biggest reasons why we return each year to ILISA plus the others mentioned above. I highly recommend that any university or college in the USA use their school for an incredible academic and culture experience. Please feel free to contact me at tspanos@weber.edu if you have any further questions.

Dr. Tony Spanos
Dept.of foreign languages & literatures
Weber State University