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Our Executive Director, Heather Tracy, EdD and Danny Recio, Ph.D, Program Director of The Bridge Costa Rica, were thrilled to join the latest episode of the Fear | Less podcast with Zack Schafer to discuss how Supportive Immersion sparks youth resilience. Check out the episode now on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.  Tune in to the episode to learn about: 🌴 The origin story and 20-year history of New Summit Academy Costa Rica and The Bridge Costa Rica 🌐 How Supportive Immersion empowers students to develop resilience, purpose, and agency 🌊 The role of Costa Rica’s warm, welcoming culture as a catalyst for transformative growth 💫 And much, much more! From the episode description: "Rather than pushing young people to meet unrealistic expectations of independence, New Summit Academy and The Bridge highlight interdependence, community, and meaningful contribution. This inclusive, values-driven approach encourages learners to step outside their comfort zones, embrace missteps as teachable moments, and ultimately reframe anxiety as a natural part of growth. Whether in the classroom, on an internship, or in daily life, Supportive Immersion showcases how authentic connection, gentle exposure to uncertainty, and steady mentoring fuel both personal and collective well-being."
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 We are excited to announce a significant expansion of The Bridge Costa Rica with the addition of a house for young women (ages 17-23) in the beautiful town of Atenas. Opening in Spring 2025, the new campus for young women will coincide with the twentieth anniversary of New Summit Academy Costa Rica our supportive boarding school and study abroad experience for adolescent males (ages 14-18) from which The Bridge evolved in 2012. Here's a glimpse at what is ahead... Enrolling Young Women in Spring 2025A dynamic team of professional women at The Bridge is excited and awaiting the arrival of our first female students. We are already accepting referrals and responding to inquiries. Our team is thrilled to offer a separate house in our town specifically designed to meet the needs of young women while maintaining the core vision that has made The Bridge such a success.  The Supportive Immersion ApproachWhile young women will have their own house in a different part of town, our core approach - Supportive Immersion - will remain consistent across both campuses. Female students who enroll at The Bridge will be offered the same unique opportunities for cultural immersion and service, skill-building through internships and academic pursuits, and individual and group coaching that has benefited so many young men in our program for more than a decade.  Now Accepting Referrals for 2025If you know a young woman who would benefit from a supportive gap experience at The Bridge in 2025, please get in touch with [email protected].
Graduates of The Bridge leave Costa Rica not only with the impressive RESUME one builds during a supportive gap experience abroad, but with a unique set of skills, cross-cultural competencies, a clearer understanding of their values, increased autonomy and self-governance, leadership experience, the capacity to see things from different viewpoints, flexibility and adaptability, and a renewed drive to pursue their path. We were fortunate to sit down recently with a few of our graduates who shared perspectives on how their experiences at The Bridge continue to shape their lives years after leaving Costa Rica.
The work of New Summit Academy and The Bridge Costa Rica was featured this week in the blog and newsletter of the International Therapist Directory, an online global listing of more than 450 therapists in at least 60 countries providing culturally sensitive treatment and care for internationally mobile families. Check out Five Reasons Why Costa Rica works for TCKs of "The Anxious Generation" Have a look inside the guest blog post:There can be no question that navigating adolescence and young adulthood today is a complex task. The lasting effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, growing rates of anxiety and depression among youth, and the increasing awareness of risks associated with smartphone use creates a challenging social and emotional landscape for “The Anxious Generation.” While children of internationally mobile families and Third Culture Kids possess distinct skills and strengths to aid them in their development – a global perspective, cognitive flexibility, a deeper awareness and appreciation for diversity, and a heightened sense of empathy, to name a few – they are certainly not immune to the complexities faced by this generation. If anything, the well-documented psychosocial and educational challenges TCKs experience – identity conflict, grief and loss, anxiety and depression, feelings of isolation and disconnection – has been exacerbated in recent years. When supportive schooling and counseling options are limited in a TCK’s country of residence, or when children of globally mobile families simply need an opportunity to reset and focus on building skills for mental fitness, two unique options exist in a country long associated with health and wellness: Costa Rica. Read the full article here:
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| Before The Bridge: "I was dealing with a lot of anxiety and depression. I felt like I couldn’t make many friends." Confidence: "I feel more confident in myself in all areas. Confident when talking to people, confident in getting a job again and working." | The Aventuras: "The one that really changed my perspective on things was La Tortuga. We made homes for hatching turtles." Feedback: "At first I was a little mad at feedbacks, now I understand it was to do the things I don’t necessarily want to do in the moment but that will help me in the long run." |
Gratitude
"I want to thank my family for always being there. To the staff, I’ve never not felt welcome since arriving. Thank you to the students, you really helped form the experience here."
"This journey has helped me in a lot of aspects of my life and I’m excited to get back home to get a job and go to school."
"I want to thank my family for always being there. To the staff, I’ve never not felt welcome since arriving. Thank you to the students, you really helped form the experience here."
"This journey has helped me in a lot of aspects of my life and I’m excited to get back home to get a job and go to school."
Turning the Worldview Upside Down!
| Have you noticed how going away to a new place and meeting new people always teaches you something about yourself and where you come from? It’s hard to see ourselves and our immediate environment with clarity because we are too close to it; in fact, we are inside it. - Taking distance from your environment can be a huge gift to your awareness, discernment, and adaptability. - It gives us the chance to perceive in refreshing ways. |  |
Time and time again our graduates have highlighted two crucial ways in which coming from abroad to Costa Rica helped their personal growth:
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Check out where our quotes come from! Bridge Impact
What is The Bridge’s methodology to improve students’ skills and their ability to respond?
The Bridge gives special attention to divergent learning, without fully disregarding convergent learning. Divergent learning seeks multiple solutions to a problem, whereas in convergent learning there is only one path to one answer to a problem.
Divergent learning is suitable for our students because:
| Today’s world is globalized and rapidly changing. The right answer today might not be the right answer tomorrow, and the right answer in one context might not be the same in a different one. | Life is unpredictable. If response-ability is the goal, then relying on one or a small number of responses is risky. Learning how to generate multiple alternatives is much more adaptive. |
Generally speaking, our students have experienced frustration when trying to solve problems like “everybody else solves them”. They are bright and full of potential, but the conventional formula has not worked for them. Learning their own unique formula for problem-solving requires an environment that exposes them to different perspectives and solutions, so they can find their way to their own unique formula.
Guided Exploration of Experience Design:
The brain learns through experience and practice. The more our senses and bodies are engaged in the experience, the more likely we are to learn. This means that while talking or watching videos can be a good way to learn, there is no better way than by taking action.
With the backdrop of an accepting culture and a highly enriching environment, our students are guided through a process we call Supportive Immersion.
With the backdrop of an accepting culture and a highly enriching environment, our students are guided through a process we call Supportive Immersion.
Supportive Immersion: Internships Social integration, College Classes, Community Living, Independent Living skills, Aventuras, Relationships, and more...
So which skills are needed to be able to respond?
Our ability to respond depends a lot on learning a good repertoire of skills. We actually ultimately respond to any kind of situation with an action that requires a skill. Based on DeYoung’s study of human behavior, skills can be perceived as evolutionary adaptations. This means that over long periods of time, our ancestors have developed certain behavioral tendencies that work better than others, and the most efficient ones have been passed down through genes and culture.
Following this understanding and the classification of these broad and encompassing categories of skills, The Bridge supports students to develop 5 Core Skills (the PROPS) that serve as the foundation of their ability to respond to all life situations and goals:
Our ability to respond depends a lot on learning a good repertoire of skills. We actually ultimately respond to any kind of situation with an action that requires a skill. Based on DeYoung’s study of human behavior, skills can be perceived as evolutionary adaptations. This means that over long periods of time, our ancestors have developed certain behavioral tendencies that work better than others, and the most efficient ones have been passed down through genes and culture.
Following this understanding and the classification of these broad and encompassing categories of skills, The Bridge supports students to develop 5 Core Skills (the PROPS) that serve as the foundation of their ability to respond to all life situations and goals:
| PROACTIVITY Proactivity is about directing one’s energy toward a goal. When we are proactive, we have a clear purpose (big or small) and are willing to drive our actions toward it, even if it’s outside of our comfort zone.
| RESILIENCE This skill helps us modulate fear. How do I respond to this situation? Do I confront it? Do I retreat? Resilience is not just about persevering when we are challenged, but also about maintaining emotional balance.
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| OPENNESS We are not isolated beings; we depend on other people and our environment for our wellbeing. It is essential to be in an open and reciprocal relationship with our surroundings. This means that we are able to contribute to the wellbeing of others and our surroundings as well as stay open to the feedback we get from them.
| PROBLEM-SOLVING Problem-solving relies heavily on other skills like curiosity and creativity. Problem-solving requires an attentive and open mind to possibilities, connections between parts, and finding a match between external and internal resources. How do I get from point A to point B? How do we strengthen our team? How do I get over my anxiety? Those are questions that problem-solving helps with.
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SELF-GOVERNANCE
This skill helps us prioritize what’s important. Whenever we want to accomplish a goal, it is crucial that we organize our mind, our space, and our tasks. We need to stay focused and stay aware of our current actions and their future consequences.
This skill helps us prioritize what’s important. Whenever we want to accomplish a goal, it is crucial that we organize our mind, our space, and our tasks. We need to stay focused and stay aware of our current actions and their future consequences.
- When we lack self-governance we get distracted, we can be impulsive, and get overwhelmed with tasks that require consistency and long-term planning.
Guided Exploration of Skill Development
Our students are constantly invited to get “in the driver’s seat” of their experience by choosing the kinds of activities as well as the pace and schedule arrangement that best works for them.
They are given lots of opportunities for healthy risk taking, exploration and trial-and-error. However, they are not left to their own devices; we are guiding them by sitting “in the passenger’s seat”. By doing so, we carefully guide students to activate their response-ability in a scaffolded way through every attempt to push slightly past their current ability, recognize the skills implemented, and discover their unique formula to respond to their goals and life’s challenges.
They are given lots of opportunities for healthy risk taking, exploration and trial-and-error. However, they are not left to their own devices; we are guiding them by sitting “in the passenger’s seat”. By doing so, we carefully guide students to activate their response-ability in a scaffolded way through every attempt to push slightly past their current ability, recognize the skills implemented, and discover their unique formula to respond to their goals and life’s challenges.
| Now that you've learned about PROPS skills, could you identify each core skill when you see it in action or hear someone talking? Here's a reflection from one of our graduates on his experience at The Bridge 11 years ago. See if you can identify when he's referring to the different PROPS! | |
Responsibility - it's such a loaded word.
We all want to be responsible, but it can sound like such a drag!
| At the Bridge, we closely examine this nuanced concept and we challenge conventional notions, embracing a perspective where the essence of responsibility transcends mere obligation and duty. Instead, responsibility is akin to stepping onto a path of personal evolution—an adventure brimming with self-discovery and finding what you have to offer to your world. | We urge individuals to cultivate awareness, discernment, and adaptability; these important skills not only assist emerging adults in navigating life's uncertainties but also foster their ability to thrive amidst its challenges and contribute their unique talents to make a difference to themselves and others. |
Join us as we unravel the layers of responsibility,
inviting you to partake in acompelling progression of newfound agency and mattering.
The word responsibility tends to be understood as duty, obligation or even as blame for something. This definition may evoke a sense of mere obedience and not the kind of dynamic growth intended for our students. Instead of that conception of responsibility, at The Bridge, we follow Fritz Perls’s (1971) interpretation, which basically breaks the word into its two root words: “response ability”.
Responsibility (the ability to respond) is The Bridge’s main goal and desired outcome for our students, which entails gaining and using awareness, discernment and adaptability. Before coming to us, our students have not had an adequate ability to respond to life’s challenges. Because of this, their wellbeing has suffered and they have failed to meet their goals, which in turn hurts their confidence.
Responsibility (the ability to respond) is The Bridge’s main goal and desired outcome for our students, which entails gaining and using awareness, discernment and adaptability. Before coming to us, our students have not had an adequate ability to respond to life’s challenges. Because of this, their wellbeing has suffered and they have failed to meet their goals, which in turn hurts their confidence.
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To become responsible means that we implement a repertoire of skills that allow us to respond to many (ideally all) situations that life throws at us or goals that we want to achieve. Since life throws at us all kinds of unpredictable challenges, and goals vary immensely depending on many external and internal factors, possessing different kinds of skills, and recognizing how and when to use them is crucial.
This already tells us that one’s ability to respond (or responsibility) needs:
This already tells us that one’s ability to respond (or responsibility) needs:
- Awareness: to understand the situation or goal at hand,
- Discernment: to choose the skills and response that best fit the situation,
- Adaptability: to modify our behavior or perspective, to learn new responses
On the contrary, when we lack the ability to respond, we may react instead of responding, which means we are not aware, choosing or adapting, but mainly just unconsciously using old responses to new situations. Those work sometimes, but most of the time they don’t.
Don't forget to check out this 1-minute video from one of our alumni students redefining what responsibility means to him after his Bridge experience!
| David graduated from The Bridge in 2016. He then went to Georgia State University and earned a degree in Philosophy and Chinese. Through discipline and sacrifice, he has successfully managed to combine working jobs that provide him stability, as well as give him the chance to sustain and further his creative projects | "The Bridge planted seeds of responsibility; it was an introduction to being an adult." "It took me from where I was to be willing to throw myself into the next problem. That's how you have to approach it, as a one-step-at-a-time type of thing" |
Stay tuned to learn more about which skills are needed to learn to be responsible! 🔎
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