Faculty-Led Programs and
Global Health Rotations for Institutions
Common Ground International builds and runs faculty-led programs and international rotations for universities and health-professions schools in Costa Rica and Ecuador. We are not a general study abroad provider that also handles health programs. Healthcare and global health education is what we do, and we have built the in-country infrastructure to support it.
If your program needs students to practice Spanish with real patients, work alongside local health organizations, and return with something more useful than photographs, that is the program we run.
Who We Work With
Medical, PA & Nursing Schools
Placing students in international electives.
Pharmacy Schools
Placing APPE candidates.
Public Health Programs
Placing practicum students.
Pre-Health & BS-MD Programs
Building early clinical and language exposure.
Spanish & Language Departments
Running Maymester and summer programs with a professional focus.
Study Abroad Offices
Looking for a provider who can carry the health-professions side of their portfolio.
Our current rotations are open to APN, DO, DPT, MD, MPH, PA, PharmD, and RN students. If your discipline is not on that list, ask. The model adapts.
What Makes Us a Specialist Rather Than a Generalist
We built for healthcare first
Our rotations use an interprofessional education model, so students from different health disciplines work together on the same community health projects rather than sitting in parallel silos. That is difficult to arrange and it is the part faculty tell us they cannot replicate elsewhere.
Our programs are CME and CE accredited
That matters for practicing clinicians traveling with your students, and it signals to your curriculum committee that the academic content has been reviewed.
We are established in two countries
Programs run in Santo Domingo de Heredia, Costa Rica, a residential suburb north of San José that is deliberately not a tourist town, and in Cuenca, Ecuador, a colonial city in the southern highlands. Both locations have been operating long enough that the host families, the language schools, the community partners, and the local health organizations are known quantities rather than new relationships.
We work with existing community health projects
Our students support long-term work that local organizations were already doing. They do not parachute into a community, deliver a week of care, and leave. Faculty who have watched short-term medical trips do harm tend to ask about this early, and it is the part of our model we are most willing to be questioned on.
No Spanish minimum
Instruction is set to the student’s actual level, which means a program is not limited to your advanced students.
Someone is with your students every day
Program leaders provide 24/7 leadership, coordination, and support in country, with daily on-site mentorship and supervision.
How a Partnership Works
1. Tell us what you need
The discipline, the number of students, the time of year, the length, and what the program has to accomplish academically.
2. We build a proposal
Structure, academic components, in-country logistics, and cost, mapped to your goals rather than to a template.
3. We handle the ground
Housing, instruction, community placements, local transport, and daily supervision.
4. Your faculty lead
You keep academic ownership and the relationship with your students. We run the operation underneath it.
5. Your students go, and you get a program you can run again
Most partnerships that work once become annual.
What We Offer Institutions
Custom Faculty-Led Programs
A program designed around your course, your faculty member, and your calendar.
Faculty-Led Global Health Rotations
Clinical and community health rotations for health-professions students, built on our existing rotation infrastructure.
Risk Management & Student Safety
How we keep students safe, and the documentation your office needs for its own review.
White-Label Programs
Programs delivered under your institution’s name, using our in-country operation.
Institutions We Work With
We run rotations and classes for the University of Colorado School of Medicine and the University of Colorado School of Pharmacy, rotations for the University of Nevada Reno School of Medicine and Regis University, classes for the University of Central Florida School of Medicine, and a white-label program for the University of North Carolina Wilmington.
We are glad to make introductions to any of them.
Why Institutions Choose Us
4.94 / 5
Our medical Spanish immersion program holds a 4.94 out of 5 rating across 131 participant reviews. Our rotations run on a fixed annual calendar, February and July for medical, nursing, PA, and public health students, and June through August for PharmD APPE candidates, which means your students are joining an established program rather than a pilot.
Our mission is to impact communities through language, and it applies to every traveler regardless of age, gender identity, physical ability, race, religion, sexual orientation, or socioeconomic status.
Frequently Asked Questions
Request a Proposal for Your Program
Tell us the discipline, the approximate group size, and the term you are targeting.
