USF graduate is missing in Costa Rica

A recent University of South Florida graduate in Costa Rica for a school trip has been missing since Saturday after he was apparently caught in a riptide while swimming in the Pacific Ocean, university officials say.

The Costa Rican Coast Guard continued to search Sunday for Aly Zain Lakdawala, 21, USF spokesman Michael Hoad said.

Police, lifeguards and a Red Cross chapter are assisting in the search.

Three others who were swimming with Lakdawala Saturday afternoon managed to break free from the riptide and make it back to shore, Hoad said.

Lakdawala of Coral Springs and 13 other students have been participating in a two-week alternative summer break program in Costa Rica, Hoad said. Lakdawala has a dual major in international studies and philosophy.

A dean flew from Tampa to Costa Rica to join a USF Leadership and Civic Engagement director and the other students, Hoad said. The students have been in Costa Rica since May 8.

"The sad part is they were there to do good stuff, and it's a real tragedy this happened," Hoad said.

The students paid $1,200 for the trip and taught English in the village of Samara on the southwest coast. Students also worked on a sea turtle nesting project and volunteered at an orphanage in the capital, San Jose. The trip's itinerary included visits to the active Arenal volcano and the rainforest, according to the university's Web site.

Lakdawala had taken part in similar university-sponsored mission trips in the past, Hoad said.

"He was a very involved student."

Lakdawala was a member of service fraternity Alpha Phi Omega and played intramural volleyball and soccer. Friends flooded his Facebook wall with messages Sunday when they heard he had gone missing.

"We are all praying for his safe return," friend Suyivan Villegas said in an e-mail to News Channel 8 and The Tampa Tribune.

He has participated in USF's alternative spring break trips in the past and recently wrote a testimonial about his experiences on the university's Web site.

"I was one of the nine students who made the School House Rocks ASB trip to South Carolina last spring break and spent a week with the boys of Tara Hall," Lakdawala wrote.

The Tara Hall Home for Boys in Georgetown, S.C., helps abandoned and abused children.

"The trip was supposed to be based on Youth and Education but it was so much more," Lakdawla wrote. "The trip was about friendship, love and being a role model. During that week, we engaged with the boys in every aspect of their life. We were with them everywhere from the classrooms to the playgrounds. The boys of Tara Hall and us the 'College Kids' as they like to call us developed a special bond that still lives through. Tara Hall was amazing and everyone who has been there will tell you the same. I highly recommend this trip It will change your life."