Roy Joe and Ruth Stuckey founded the Costa Rica Study Tours as a family venture with the support of their son Joe Stuckey, and his wife Jean.  The Stuckey family's involvement with Costa Rica began over 40 years ago, in 1957, when Roy Joe and Ruth first visited Ruth's sister and her husband who were original settlers in Monteverde.  Since that time, they regularly returned.  Joe and Jean settled on a dairy farm in Monteverde in 1980.  In 1984, Roy Joe and Ruth led their first organized Study Tour.  Five years later, at the age of twelve, Joe and Jean's daughter Sarah began to play an active role as an apprentice tour guide.  As a result of these formative experiences, Sarah pursued her interests and earned a college degree in tourism, with honors.  Together with her husband Carlos, Sarah purchased the business, and assumed full leadership of this Stuckey family venture in the March 1999 tour.