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Taking a gap year abroad might sound terrifying if you live with anxiety, but the right kind of experience can transform fear into strength. At The Bridge Costa Rica, we understand that anxious young adults don’t need to be “pushed off the cliff” into independence. They need a bridge - a supportive structure that guides them, challenges them safely, and helps them build trust in themselves.  Here’s how we do it:
Many of our students say they’re scared before arriving. But by the end of their program, they’re confident, curious, and capable of handling life’s uncertainties.
If you’re scared to take a leap, don’t worry. We’ll help you build the wings as you fly.
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 A Supportive Gap Experience for Young WomenComing this March, The Bridge Costa Rica will host a cohort of 6 (ideal) or 8 (max) young women in a beautiful, cozy home with a pool and a view at the edge of the vibrant town of Atenas. The intimate house setting is located in an ideal area of town for participants to engage in the life of our dynamic community. The Bridge Participant ProfileBridge women are seeking to grow in confidence, interdependence, and to develop an identity and clarify their own particular way of going about things to best serve their goals and needs. Bridge women are interested in mattering - in finding what's inside them that they can offer the world around them. They want to find purpose and meaning while building more skills to be able to achieve their goals. The Bridge will be an excellent opportunity for young women seeking to come out of their shell and immerse in a warm and welcoming Costa Rican community. Therefore, we seek young women who would benefit from a built-in community to connect, share, be vulnerable and grow with each other. Students may have just finished high school, or may have tried college or the work world but figured out they need a gap experience to motivate, mature, and solidify some autonomy and executive functioning skills. A Cozy Home in a Vibrant Town 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."  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...
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