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:

• Safe Cultural Immersion: Exposure to new cultures helps challenge mental “schemas” (the brain’s assumptions) and foster mental flexibility.
  
• Intentional Challenge: Like exercising a muscle, facing manageable challenges helps reduce anxiety over time.
  
• Experiential Learning: Students develop integrative complexity, or the ability to take in multiple perspectives and solve problems efficiently.
  
• Flow Experiences: By finding their “zone,” students gain a clearer sense of purpose and self.

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.

​Coming 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.

Bridge 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.

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.

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...

A 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.

While 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.

​If you know a young woman who would benefit from a supportive gap experience at The Bridge in 2025, please get in touch with admissions@newsummitacademy.com.

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.

​Students and parents often ask what a supportive gap experience like The Bridge “looks like” for college admissions.  The answer is that – if presented correctly – students’ experiences before and during their time in Costa Rica can make applications stand out and show colleges that our students are more college-ready than many students who haven’t had their experiences.

Students at The Bridge who undertake the college application process work with our certified college counselor to complete the “traditional” steps for college applications, including preparing for and taking standardized tests (along with applying for accommodations when eligible), identifying characteristics of colleges and universities and generating apply-to lists, writing and revising essays, and completing and submitting applications before their deadlines.

However, our students’ non-traditional opportunities, those that make them really stand out, are what makes The Bridge a one-of-a-kind, powerful facilitator of experiences that result in applications that are very attractive to the schools our students want to attend.

The University of Miami, Curry College, Santa Clara University, The University of Southern California, Dickinson College, The University of Connecticut, St. Lawrence University, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, The University of Arizona, and Montana State University

Some of the most memorable moments of students’ time at The Bridge tend to come from Aventuras. These week-long trips to rural communities all across Costa Rica highlight everything The Bridge is about: service, community, cultural immersion, exercising positive values and hard work.

Last week, our students visited a secluded indigenous Bribri village in Costa Rica to collaborate with the community on a project at a local school, to share and understand language and culture and to learn and take part in Bribri traditions.

• The Costa Rican CULTURE itself IS THERAPEUTIC. Take the pressure down a notch. Slow down to connect with yourself and those around you. Live in an environment integrated with nature. Prioritize community. Support and be supported. Learn skills that build confidence and competence. Find within you what you have to offer the world around you

 

• The impressive RESUME one builds while studying abroad is unique, enriching and sets apart your job or college applications. Spanish language and cross-cultural communication skills. Service projects. Travel. Clarification of values through cultural immersion. Ability to take perspectives, be flexible and adapt. Internships to learn work ethic. Revitalization of motivation to follow a particular career path. Autonomy and self-governance. The list goes on and on… ​

One of the best ways to grow as a person is to delve into the lifestyle of other people, to put ourselves in others’ shoes. Internships, especially ones that take place outside of your own cultural bubble, allow you to do just that 💫🌐.

Need proof? Take a listen to one recent graduate from The Bridge who completed an internship at the bustling Central Market of Atenas. 

Experiences like the ones the young adults have during their internships at The Bridge create flexibility and adaptability in students, both of which are essential skills to independent living.​