Guiding Statements

🎓 Mission

Costa Rica International Academy is a U.S. and Costa Rica accredited college preparatory school serving both Costa Rican and international families. We inspire a passion for learning and equip students with the skills, values and courage to become responsible leaders in their communities and the world.

🌟 Vision

We aspire to be a world class international school with a culture of high expectations, high performance, and accountability that supports continuous growth, improvement and student success.

💙 Values

We respect all creeds, religions, and points of view. The school does not undertake religious instruction nor blend secular and sectarian education. At the same time, moral values and spiritual issues have a place in the educational process. Values such as resilience, gratitude, self-reflection, compassion, integrity, and the Golden Rule are taught without a religious label. Faculty and staff conduct reflect these values and serve as models for the students.

🏫 Philosophy and Objectives

In keeping with the mission, vision, and values of the school, we strive to:

1.	Provide for the development of intellectual, social, aesthetic, and moral values that satisfy the needs of our students.
2.	Serve students from the expatriate and local communities.
3.	Maintain high academic standards and foster a love of learning.
4.	Provide a rigorous program that focuses on skills in English (reading, writing, speaking, listening and literature), science, math, social sciences, Spanish (reading, writing, speaking, listening and literature), physical education, and the arts.
5.	Maintain a structured plan for learning, which clearly articulates curriculum content.
6.	Evaluate student learning frequently with a variety of assessment tools to ensure that each child is progressing appropriately.
7.	Help students acquire lifelong skills for a world of rapid change in which continuing education, creative thought, the ability to use technology, including the ethical use of AI as a responsible digital citizen are essential.
8.	Value and teach cultural understanding and knowledge of the complexities of our world.
9.	Teach and model honesty, compassion, diligence, kindness, loyalty, respect, responsibility, safety, a growth mindset and the “Golden Rule ”.
10.	Prepare students for admission to universities in North America, Costa Rica and around the world.

🎓 CRIA Profile of a Graduate

The Profile of the CRIA Graduate reflects the Mission, Values, and educational program of the school and articulates the knowledge, skills, and dispositions students develop over time.

Our CRIA students demonstrate a strong academic foundation in the following areas:

Knowledge and inquiry processes that allow informed decision-making
Thinking and communicating mathematically and scientifically
Coherent production of English and Spanish in the four modalities of language learning (reading, writing, listening, and speaking)
Responsible, ethical, safe, and effective use of technology to demonstrate a high level of digital literacy for education
Analytical and critical reading of a wide range of texts

Our CRIA students can utilize the following thinking skills and learning approaches:

Innovative thinking and 21st Century skills that encourages students to embrace challenges, develop persistence, learn from, and apply feedback, and see effort as a path to mastery
Curiosity as demonstrated by a desire to explore, generate questions, and seek answers
Organizational skills, study habits and effective time management
Apply thinking skills independently, critically, and creatively to recognize, approach and solve complex problems

Our CRIA students can actively and meaningfully contribute to various communities by:

Demonstrating thoughtful reflection about one’s role as a community member on a local, national, and global level
Working successfully both independently and collaboratively
Respecting and caring for our planet through active stewardship
Exhibiting respect for people of different backgrounds, including ethnicity, learning differences, country of origin, race, nationality, sexual orientation, gender, and/or beliefs

Our CRIA students exhibit the following personal qualities:

Integrity through adherence to moral and ethical principles, and by accepting responsibility for one’s own actions
Leadership as illustrated through self-discipline, effective communication, initiative, and compassion for others
Mental flexibility in the face of challenges
High quality decision-making concerning the emotional and physical well-being of oneself and others