Back in May this year a group of students from an extracurricular activity at Kapaum Mount Carmel School in Wichita Kansas met with Costa Rica’s President Luis Guillermo Solis at Kansas State University.

The objective of the students was to get an endorsement from President Solis to start a debate program at a selected high school in Costa Rica; naturally, President Solis agreed and invited them to visit the presidential house.

That visit took place recently when Gabriel Esquivel one of the students heading the group and his teacher traveled to Costa Rica to help implement the program; except that instead of one school, the idea will now be implemented in all bilingual schools.

“It’s something that I never realized the scale of, and now it is finally hitting me how much, how drastic this change could be and how much it could change people’s lives. I’m thankful to be a part of it and the support I had,” said Esquivel to local Wichita news channel KWCH12

Speech and Debate will be added to the curriculum of bilingual schools as of 2017; for this, Esquivel and his teacher will travel again to Costa Rica in February to help train teachers and students.