After studying abroad in Costa Rica last summer, junior civil engineering student Sarah Yingling got a taste for more than just the local cuisine, but she’s still serving up the vibrant Pura Vida flavors of her unforgettable adventure in her own kitchen.

Story by Kaley LaQuea, Marketing Strategist
Graphic illustrations by Megan Rinker, Graphic Arts Designer

“I really miss sopa azteca and I’ve been making it now that I’m home,” she said. “It’s a regular meal for me.”

Through the National Science Foundation International Research Experience for Students (IRES), Yingling and civil engineering graduate student Payton Seats conducted wastewater research in one of Costa Rica’s magical forests. The six-week interdisciplinary program brings engineering and anthropology students together from West Virginia University, University of South Florida and California State University, Chico to collaborate on innovative solutions that address real-world challenges in sustainability, technology and community development.

Yingling learned as much Spanish as she could before going and used translator apps to help her communicate with some members of her host family. The trip was full of firsts for Yingling, who hadn’t yet traveled outside the United States or conducted research. She got a crash course in collecting field samples, working with large quantities of data and finding innovative solutions to a number of roadblocks that came up with support and mentorship from her fellow graduate students.

“Meeting other students and hanging out with people I never would have met — people from all different backgrounds — was a really cool experience,” Yingling said. “Seeing everybody warm up to you and having your inside jokes with your friends there was very nice. It was a good bonding experience.”

Seats served as the project’s engineering lead in the lab, and though the team encountered unique setbacks that required him to spearhead innovative solutions — like using white wine to measure phosphorus standards when traditional methods became unavailable — he says they helped him grow as a researcher.

“There were challenges, but I’m thankful for the way it went because it showed me that I can handle those situations — think on my feet and still deliver what may be considered a piece of nationally competitive research under really constraining conditions in the field,” he said.

A biodiversity hotspot, the 26,000-acre Reserva Biológica Bosque Nuboso Monteverde or Monteverde Cloud Forest in the Alajuela Province of Costa Rica is home to more than 3,000 species of plants and animals. Ecotourism is a vital part of the region’s economy, drawing more than 250,000 visitors every year. For the 6,500 permanent residents that call the region home, environmental stewardship and sustainable practices that protect and support ecotourism are paramount.

Program faculty like Kevin Orner, assistant professor in the Wadsworth Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, are long-term partners in the Monteverde reserve. They’ve built deep ties to the community to understand their needs, laying the foundation for future cohorts to continue the project.

“[Community members] have a vested interest in improving wastewater treatment,” Orner explained. “So given that they know us and trust us, the community wants to know what the results will be — not only from an engineering perspective where they can look at environmental or economic impacts, but they're interested in the social impacts of doing surveys and interviews to figure out what people think about these different technologies, because all that's going to come into play for what they decide to do for wastewater treatment in the future.”

The two primary technologies researchers looked at were composting toilets and septic tanks.

The group learned through surveys and interviews that residents’ monthly incomes were between $400 and $600 USD, but the average cost for a composting toilet was $700 USD.

“So if you were asking someone ‘Would you spend over a month of your salary on a toilet?’ They’d probably say no, but we wouldn’t have found that out unless we asked them how much does it cost and what's your monthly salary,” Orner said. “This is all information that wouldn't be collected through just engineering methods, but are really important when you're thinking about what solutions are actually realistic.”

Yingling says another hurdle for composting toilets was public perception — many locals thought they were unsanitary and functioned like a pit latrine. The community is now implementing them in a limited capacity in high tourist areas, working to dispel the stigma and misinformation around composting toilets.

“That was a thing that kept coming up: always focus on the people and how this will benefit them,” she said. “If you want to implement some technology — why are you doing that? You’re doing it for people. Infrastructure is for the benefit of the community, and so you need to make sure the technologies that you’re using are gonna work and work for people and it’s something that they like.”

For Seats, gaining valuable real-world experience in community-driven solutions has shifted the way he’s approaching his dissertation here at home. Seats, who’s researching the impact of agricultural wastewater from poultry farms in the eastern panhandle, says his experience in Costa Rica has helped him ask bigger and better questions.

“Some of the people I'm working with in engineering have started to raise questions and concerns, like how do we make sure the solutions that we’re proposing are gonna be accepted by the community? And now we’re realizing that’s a bad question to ask,” Seats explained. “We should actually be inverting that. We should ask ‘How can what the community members think inform what shape our solution takes?’ It’s a subtle difference but it’s an important one, and that change is something I was able to incorporate into my research as a direct result of the experience in Costa Rica.”

Orner will lead a cohort for the second phase of the project this summer, where students will focus on collecting and analyzing further data to assess the sustainability of constructed wetlands.

“Students appreciate active learning and want to travel, they want to change the world,” Orner said. “It's fulfilling to see a student at the start of the trip and then at the end of the trip and just see the growth they’ve had through that process. I enjoy being able to provide the educational infrastructure for students to have similar formative experiences that I had.”