About ISLS
We believe that people like to know who they are dealing with. To this end we would like to introduce ourselves and our company.
ISLS, the Institute for Spanish Language Studies was founded in 1992 by two brothers, Hugh and Dana Garrison. We are in the business of helping clients wade through the hundreds of Spanish language schools in Latin America and Spain to find the one that best fits their needs. We specialize in Costa Rica as this is where we have our own Schools and Programs as well as our Guesthouse and Surf Institute. Over the last 22 years we have helped to teach more than 15,000 students Spanish.
Hugh Garrison and his wife Sonia are located in Tamarindo, Costa Rica and they run our school in that location. Hugh has been living full time in Costa Rica since 1999 and between them they have over 40 years experience teaching Spanish as a second language.
 Dana Garrison along with his wife Marjo are located in Los Angeles, CA. Dana’s responsibilities are for marketing and promoting our schools and services. He is the person you will deal with most when signing up for a program. Marjo works part time while also raising our two daughters Sequoia and Siena. She deals mainly with confirmations and helping students before they depart. Marjo was also a flight attendant for United Airlines. Dana lived full time in Costa Rica from 1995 through 1998. He and Marjo are also the main counselors for our Summer Youth Spanish Camps. Dana is in charge of our teen camps and Marjo runs our Children's Camp.
 Francini Salas is our Guesthouse manager and her husband Carlos Cambronero is our main San Jose Airport (SJO) driver. Francini and Carlos have been with ISLS since 1999. Francini is the person that students will most identify with the Student Guesthouse as that is her main responsibility. Carlos takes care of all of our Airport pick ups and drop offs in San Jose, so he is the first person many students see when visiting Costa Rica. They are both native Ticos, but lived in the US for eight years in the Boston area.
We also have many other people in the US and abroad that are involved in helping ISLS be the most comprehensive Spanish language abroad service anywhere. Each summer we have former students intern with us, giving them the opportunity to live and work in another country.
If you would like to learn more about who we are, how we started and all of our different services please check out the following articles. It is always nice to have a face to go along with that voice on the phone or person on the other end of that e-mail.
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