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Our latest interview in the Life After The Bridge series is with James, a 2012 graduate of The Bridge currently pursuing a Doctorate in Psychology from George Fox University. "The Bridge is really where I had the seed planted that I could be happy in life. I was really happy living in Costa Rica, and really happy living at The Bridge."Tune in to hear James' reflections on his supportive gap experience more than a decade after leaving Costa Rica, including:
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While the goal of developments in technology is to make life easier for us, people’s self-confidence and personal development require a degree of challenge to improve. If my goal is to get to a town 20 miles away, cars lower the challenge considerably in comparison to walking. If I want to clean my clothes, using a washer and dryer lowers the challenge in comparison to having to go down to the river to wash them by hand. As the curve of technological development grows incredibly steeper, there is a risk that those who have access to it the most will lack enough challenge to develop their skills to deal with technology-unmediated life, the real world as we say. When convenience gets in the way of healthThere are other correlates of health that follow a similar fate. For example, modern life is much more sedentary, once again to those with most access to technologies. This is good because it protects the body from the heavy and risky load of manual labor, but if sedentary people don’t intentionally exercise, their physical health can massively deteriorate. Likewise, modern life provides more calories to feed people’s bodies than ever before. For millions of people, this overabundance of calories leads to illness, to the point that nowadays there are more countries where more people die of overnutrition related issues, than malnutrition issues. The opposite was the case for the vast majority of human history. Both in the case of exercise and nutrition, intentionally designed challenge is necessary for adequate health. Getting off the couch to exercise and restricting ultra-processed foods through a good diet are well known practices for people to be healthy. Mental health needs challenge tooHowever, we do not seem to have dawned on the fact that getting off the couch and going to experience real-world unpredictable, unknown and potentially somewhat risky and uncomfortable situations are necessary for proper health, especially mental health. Additionally, restricting ultra(technology)-processed experiences, such as the kinds that screens and apps provide, is likely essential as well. Humans are an incredibly innovative species, but it's only until very recently in our evolution that we have radically maximized our capacity to create technology that solves all kinds of problems for us. The following chart makes it visually evident how for thousands of years we progressed gradually but very little, but from the industrial revolution onwards, the change is dramatic:  Here’s an interesting fact shared by the most recent Mental State of the World Report (2025): “What is clear is that the greater wealth and economic prosperity of a country does not equate to greater Mind Health and Wellbeing of its population. Most significantly, young adults fare substantially better in less developed regions.”Is it possible that this statistic is a good reason to think that when there is greater wealth there is more access to technology, and with it less access to challenge, and therefore less wellbeing? If so, then it's possible those of us who have plenty of access to all kinds of technology and are not suffering significantly for other reasons should be seeking a healthy dose of challenge. A byproduct of dealing with an adequate amount of challenge is resilience. Also, when people expose themselves to manageable uncertain situations regularly, their problem-solving abilities improve, their self-confidence increases, and their anxiety lowers. Why? The same reason your muscles get stronger when you put them to work. When we are continually practicing how to problem-solve and getting information from our environment on what works and what doesn’t, we become better at predicting what strategies to use, and this helps us become more adaptable. What Comes After Play?In his book, The Anxious Generation, Jonathan Haidt calls for a play-based childhood to help reduce the epidemic of mental health in young people, where children can play without the supervision of adults, where there is risk and the need for problem-solving. This concept of a play-based childhood matches well to the analogy of the gym of life. But, if children need a play-based childhood, what do young adults need to protect against anxiety as well as develop their self-confidence and resilience? A few words come to mind, like an autonomous-based young adulthood, a contributing young-adulthood, an exploratory young-adulthood. If you’ve read this far down in the blog, maybe you'll share with me what kind of young adulthood we should be encouraging. ##
Dr. Danny Recio, PhD, is Director of The Bridge Costa Rica, Pathfinder Costa Rica, and a co-founder of New Summit Academy Costa Rica. Learn more about Danny here. The Bridge Costa Rica is a unique blend of a gap program – offering cultural immersion, community service, language, adventure travel, and internship opportunities – and a supportive community – providing group and individual coaching as well as a strong sense of safety, support, and guidance toward mastering skills for the adult world. With a campus for young men and a new campus for young women in the town of Atenas, Costa Rica, The Bridge serves young adults ages 17-23.  The Director of The Bridge Costa Rica, Dr. Danny Recio, recently returned from the Small Boarding Schools Association annual conference at Woodside Priory School in Portola Valley, California. Joining an expert panel moderated by Jenney Wilder of allkindsoftherapy.com, Danny offered research-supported insight on the reasons why small boarding schools are uniquely positioned to offer alternatives to traditional college options - such as Supportive Gap Year experiences like The Bridge - because of the strong, trusting relationships these schools have with students and their families. Supportive Gap Year experiences, Danny shared, can help students be better positioned to not only avoid mental illness in the future, but also flourish on their way to adulthood. "In a time where mental health issues are on the rise and guided opportunities to build mental fitness are scarce, gap years emerge as the rites of passage for our time, to go from languishing to flourishing, from mental suffering to mental fitness, and to prepare for the challenges that adulthood inherently brings."Danny was joined on the panel by Matt Woodhall, head of The Woodhall School, and Jake Weld, Chief Strategy Officer for Mansfield Hall.
Learn more about Danny's research and writing on Supportive Gap Year experiences here. When people imagine gap year programs, they often picture carefree adventures like backpacking across Europe, surfing in Bali, or volunteering abroad. While these traditional programs can be life-changing, they often lack the structure and guidance that many young adults need - especially those navigating anxiety, burnout, or mental health setbacks. That’s where supportive gap year programs like The Bridge Costa Rica come in. Unlike traditional gap programs that focus solely on travel or adventure, supportive programs combine experiential learning with therapeutic guidance. At The Bridge, students receive 24/7 support, life coaching, intentional skill-building, and the chance to reflect on their experiences in real time - not years later. Here’s a quick breakdown:
Supportive gap programs are ideal for young adults who may feel stuck, overwhelmed, or unsure of their next steps. They offer the freedom of a gap year with the safety of a supportive community. The takeaway? You don’t have to choose between adventure and emotional safety. With The Bridge Costa Rica, you get both.  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.  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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