To anyone who finds themselves in something unexpectedly better than planned,

My name is Giovanni Lauricella. I graduated from Barry University of Miami, Florida on December 19, 2009 with a bachelor degree in finance. My connection with Costa Rica is something of a long story but my connection with the Eco Preservation Society is short and oh-so sweet.

Throughout college I was an intern at financial establishments, such as Merrill Lynch and U.S. Energy Development Corporation, which led me into a path of a currency trader up until the end of my college career. In my last semester at Barry University I went to Costa Rica with a client that I was trading for in order to see if it might be a place that he would be interested in retiring. He quickly found out that it was not, since he was not prepared to learn Spanish to any degree. It was this trip that I came across a job opportunity here in Costa Rica.

Excitedly waiting for my graduation, I was fortunate enough to come to Costa Rica three times during my last semester. Traveling back and forth from Miami to San Jose I was already making contacts and friends, which seemed like an added bonus to my transition of a new life once I made the finally move. My graduation finally came and I walked across the stage with a smile on my face for two good reasons. The first reason being that I finished college and the second being that during this global recession I had an offer for a financial job in a foreign country, Costa Rica.

December 21, 2009, two days after I graduated I was on my one-way flight to San Jose, Costa Rica. Mentally preparing myself for the first few weeks of my new life, I knew that doing business would not be efficient for reason being that Costa Rica thoroughly enjoys the month of December and the week or so after New Years. As my vacation during the holiday season was enjoyed with friends (and family via internet communication), I came to realize that my job opportunity was taking longer than expected for legal reasons, which can be drawn out for a questionable period of time in Costa Rica.

Anxious to get back to doing work or for that matter anything constructive, I decided to indulge myself into what my friend, Kevin Peterson, was working on in Costa Rica, while I continued waiting. Kevin passionately showed me what the Eco Preservation Society, the non-profit organization that he founded, represented. Then he educated me on how he has promoted the Eco Preservation Society's mission through his extensive social media network. Both the environmental and social media information that I was taught that day changed my mindset permanently.

Kevin mentioned that he wanted to construct a social media internship in order to educate people on the benefits of using and creating an expansive network of people who share similar interests to further the mission of the Eco Preservation Society, which stands on three pillars of conservation, reforestation, and education. Without hesitation, I jumped at the opportunity to be Kevin's first apprentice and intern.

Giving up the world of equities, bonds, currencies, and other financial instruments seemed like an easy decision when compared to getting an education in two of the most trending topics throughout the globe, which are the "Green" movement and social media communications for mass networking. From that day forward I was Kevin's social media intern. Every day of waking up in the gorgeous central valley of Costa Rica followed by a few cups of fresh Costa Rican coffee and a lesson on how to help change the world...it was a dream, and a dream that could not have been imaginable only a short period of time after arriving in Costa Rica.

Sometimes life cannot be planned and it is funny the way it is, but I fell into a very fortunate situation. I am much happier doing the work that I have done with the Eco Preservation Society, and the education that I have learned that I did not know existed beforehand changed me forever. Now, not only a graduate of college but a graduate of the Eco Preservation Society's social media internship, I have fallen even further into a great life opportunity. I am now a part of the Eco Preservation Society's team. A full-time member of utilizing the social media network to help progress a global movement to a tipping-point, of which will eventually and hopefully involve all countries of the world towards directing their attention to the severity of global conservation, is much more gratifying than number crunching and chart analyzing for the next multi-billion corporation.

 SOCIAL MEDIA INTERNSHIP WITH THE ECO PRESERVATION SOCIETY IN COSTA RICA