By Rebecca Wilbert
Building an app for future study abroad students. Cooking traditional Costa Rican foods. Improving Spanish-speaking skills. Serving the San Jose community. Slowing down.These were just a few highlights for Samford University students who studied in Costa Rica earlier this year. In addition to Samford University’s Homewood campus, the school has long had the Daniel House in London as the centerpiece of its study abroad programming. But in August 2025, Samford purchased another study-abroad home, this time on 14 acres in Costa Rica’s mountainous countryside. The first students—a cohort of five—spent a semester at Finca de Samford, starting in January.
Now, a year after the purchase of the 10,000-square-foot home and with the start of fall semester, the university looks forward to hosting even more students and offering expanded opportunities. One goal is to do more service, including in the nearby community of Ciudad Colón and in San Jose, which is about 40 minutes away.
Samford leaders who chose to purchase Finca de Samford wanted the additional study abroad experience to be very different from what the university offers in London, according to Jen Lackey, director of Samford Abroad and international travel. The Daniel House is a five-story house in central London, roughly a mile from Kensington Palace. “Everyone felt led to create a property that would be similar to the Daniel House but would have its own emphasis, its own unique purpose,” Cummings says. “This property fulfilled that. It is a unique place. It offers a different pace. It offers a reflective space.”
The first semester was a success, with students ranging from a freshman to a graduating senior, all of whom created close bonds and friendships. The students posted on Instagram, sharing images and videos of visits to local stores and restaurants, a walk along a path on the lush campus, a sunset (admired from a window at Finca de Samford), cooking local food together and even a dance party with Costa Rican music in the house.
Ella Madalinski, a computer science major from Crystal Springs, Illinois, was among the first students to live at Finca de Samford. She says she had wanted to study abroad since she visited Samford as a high school student, and the new program in Costa Rica was particularly appealing because it allowed her to practice her Spanish-speaking skills. “When I toured Samford as a senior in high school, one of the only vivid memories I have of my tour was seeing a study abroad sign standing outside the library,” she says. “It was a really random thing to remember, but I knew that the Lord was calling me to study abroad in some capacity during my time at Samford.”
For Blake Andres, a sports business and Spanish major from Orlando, Florida, the main draw was the idea of spreading Samford’s Christian mission in a new country. Also, he says, “Costa Rica’s many beaches, biodiversity, food and culture promised that we would be able to embark on many once in a lifetime excursions and weekend trips.”
Students took humanities classes, along with independent studies related to their majors. For Andres’ independent study, he built a directory of non-profit and mission organizations, combining his business studies with his passions for service and mission work. For Madalinski’s independent study, she put her computer science skills to work building an app for future Finca de Samford students that included a guide with information about Costa Rica, as well as Andres’ directory.
Participants say they learned how to slow down, as Costa Rica has a different pace of life that helped them appreciate the world around them. Madalinski put it this way, “I’ve known for a while that God calls us to be still, but I never understood why or how before my experience in Costa Rica.”
Finca de Samford has a stone pathway down to a rectangular pool surrounded by lush greenery and nature. Cummings recalls getting the house ready for the inaugural session when she saw a beautiful toucan with a yellow belly and bright colorful beak fly by. While she was calling out to her colleague to come see it, the toucan’s partner came by. Toucans mate for life, which she says, “represented the Finca because it’s a place about being together, about living in community.”
