For Students & Families
Code of Conduct
An immersion depends on trust: trust between students and staff, and trust between our program and the communities who open their homes to us. These are the commitments every student makes before departure.
Respect for People
We are guests in someone else's home, country, and story. How we treat people is the clearest measure of our formation.
- ✦Speak to hosts, staff, drivers, and one another with courtesy, in public and in private.
- ✦Follow the instructions of GP staff and host partners the first time they are given.
- ✦No bullying, exclusion, harassment, slurs, or demeaning humor of any kind.
- ✦Ask before photographing a person, a home, or a place of worship, and accept no for an answer.
Respect for Culture and Place
Manuel Antonio is not a backdrop. Students are asked to enter local life with humility and to leave every place better than they found it.
- ✦Attempt Spanish, even badly. Effort honors your hosts more than fluency does.
- ✦Dress modestly and appropriately for churches, homes, schools, and rural communities.
- ✦Eat what is served with gratitude, and tell staff about allergies or restrictions in advance.
- ✦Leave no trace on trails, beaches, farms, and reserves. Do not handle or feed wildlife.
Safety and Supervision
Nearly every serious incident on a program abroad begins with a student leaving the group. These rules are not negotiable.
- ✦Never leave the group, lodging, or activity area without explicit staff permission.
- ✦Stay with your assigned buddy or small group at all times in public spaces.
- ✦Observe curfew and remain in assigned lodging and assigned rooms overnight.
- ✦Swim, surf, hike, and climb only where and when staff have authorized it.
- ✦Report injury, illness, or an unsafe situation to staff immediately, including for a friend.
Prohibited
The following result in immediate review and may result in being sent home at the family's expense.
- ✦Alcohol, tobacco, vaping, cannabis, and any illegal or non-prescribed substance.
- ✦Weapons of any kind.
- ✦Romantic or sexual activity, and entering the sleeping quarters of another student.
- ✦Theft, vandalism, or dishonesty about your whereabouts.
- ✦Leaving the program area alone or arranging independent travel.
Technology and Communication
Phones are permitted, but the immersion only works if students are actually present to it.
- ✦Phones stay away during class, meals, worship, service work, and host conversations.
- ✦Scheduled daily windows are provided for messaging or calling home.
- ✦Post nothing about another student, host, or child without their permission.
- ✦Share location details of host families and lodging with no one outside the program.
Academic Honesty
Field journals, projects, and discussion are the heart of the academic work.
- ✦Submit your own observations and your own writing.
- ✦Cite the guides, texts, and people whose ideas you use.
- ✦Come to Socratic discussion having done the reading, and argue in good faith.
How We Respond
Our first response is always conversation. Most issues are handled quietly and directly, with a staff member, in a way that restores rather than shames.
Repeated or serious breaches move to a formal conversation with the program director and a call home. Conduct that endangers a student, a host, or the program results in the student being sent home at the family's expense, with travel arranged by our team.
Students and families sign this code as part of enrollment. Accepted students will find the signable version, along with all pre-placement requirements, inside the student portal.
Questions about the standards?
We are glad to talk through any part of this with your family before you apply.
Inquire Now