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Supportive Immersion: The Use of Transformative Cross-Cultural Experiential Learning

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Supportive Immersion: The Use of Transformative Cross-Cultural Experiential Learning

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Experience-Dependent Neuroplasticity: The Key to Resilient Brains with Dr. Danny Recio and Dr. Heather Tracy

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Podcast Episode · The Reframe · May 29 · 54m

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Fear | Less: How Supportive Immersion Sparks Youth Resilience

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Fear | Less: How Supportive Immersion Sparks Youth Resilience

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From Fear to Confidence: How Supportive Immersion Sparks Youth Resilience

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Podcast Episode · Fear Less · 01/08/2025 · 49m

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SENIA Podcast: There Isn’t a Box: Redefining Success Through Supportive Immersion

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SENIA Podcast: There Isn’t a Box: Redefining Success Through Supportive Immersion

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SENIA International - To Live in an Inclusive World

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Show #115 There Isn’t a Box: Redefining Success Through Supportive Immersion - SENIA International

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Show #115 There Isn’t a Box: Redefining Success Through Supportive Immersion Member of the Podcasserole Network Bio Dr. Heather Tracy earned her Master of Education in Human Development and Psychology from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, with a focus on at-risk adolescents. In 2014, she completed her Doctorate in K–12 Leadership, researching how academic

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An overview of Supportive Immersion methodology from our website.

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With the internet and technology now an integrated part of our lives, traditional educational paradigms are no longer sufficient to prepare our highly-connected youth for their futures in the Age…

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Head Inside Mental Health: Experiential Deprivation

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Head Inside Mental Health: Experiential Deprivation

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Supportive Immersion: Healing Through Experience - Head Inside Mental Health

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What happens when young people grow up deprived of essential experiences that previous generations took for granted? Dr. Danny Recio, TedX Pura Vida Speaker, Co-Founder of New Summit Academy, Program Director for The Bridge Young Adult Gap Pr…

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The Gaps in Mental Health that Gap Years Can Fill

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The Gaps in Mental Health that Gap Years Can Fill

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The gaps in mental health gap years can fill - Dr. Danny Recio (GYA Conference 2023)

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Ecosistemas vivos de aprendizaje | Danny Recio | TEDxPuraVidaED

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What is Unique About Supportive Immersion?

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What is Unique About Supportive Immersion?

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What's unique about Supportive Immersion at New Summit Academy & The Bridge - Costa Rica?

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The Gaps in Mental Health that Gap Years Can Fill

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The Gaps in Mental Health that Gap Years Can Fill

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The Gaps in Mental Health that Gap Years Can Fill

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The Gaps in Mental Health that Gap Years Can Fill by Danny Recio, PhD, LPCOne of the issues with many psychological disorder diagnoses is that they can give the impression of a hard division between mental illness and its absence. However, the reality of how people experience mental health issues is

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The Reframe Podcast: The Convenience Trap

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The Reframe Podcast: The Convenience Trap

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The Convenience Trap: How Comfort Undermines Capability with Danny Recio

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Podcast Episode · The Reframe · September 5, 2025 · 28m

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Success is Subjective: Dr. Heather Tracy

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Success is Subjective: Dr. Heather Tracy

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On this week's episode of Success is Subjective, host Joanna Lilley has special guest Dr. Heather Tracy on the show. Dr. Tracy is the co-founder and executive director of Costa Rica's New Summit Academy boarding school, the Bridge young adult program, the Pathfinder Gap program, and the Supportive Immersion Institute. She was a presidential scholar at St. Louis University where she received an honors BA in Psychology and French. She also attended Harvard graduate school and education and completed a Masters in education with a focus on Culture and Human Development specifically focusing on at-risk adolescence. She is passionate about designing effective learning experiences for non-traditional learners. She has also lived in Costa Rica since 2002 and is tri-lingual.

Connect with Heather Tracy

Supportive Immersion Institute

Supportive Immersion Institute on Facebook

New Summit Academy

New Summit Academy on Facebook

New Summit Academy on Instagram

New Summit Academy on LinkedIn

The Bridge Costa Rica

The Bridge Young Adults on Facebook

The Bridge Young Adults on Instagram

Pathfinder Gap Program

Pathfinder on Instagram

Pathfinder on LinkedIn

Connect with Joanna Lilley

Therapeutic Consulting Association

Lilley Consulting Website

Lilley Consulting on Facebook

Sponsored by: No one currently! Let me know if you're interested in sponsoring!

Email joanna@successissubjective.org

#therapeuticconsulting #lilleyconsulting #pathfindercr #newsummitacademycr #youngadults #thebridgeyoungadultscr #supportiveimmersioninstitute #atriskteens #humandevelopment #psychology #podcast #podcastcommunity #thejourney #successissubjective

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Episode 202 - Success: The Journey That Lead To Opportunity with Dr. Heather Tracy

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On this week's episode of Success is Subjective, host Joanna Lilley has special guest Dr. Heather Tracy on the show. Dr. Tracy is the co-founder and executive

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Episode 118 - Making the Most of Your Young Adulthood with a Gap Year —Danny Recio

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Podcast Episode · Success is Subjective: Real People. Raw Stories. Embracing a Non-Linear Life! · February 8, 2022 · 27m

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New Summit Academy Costa Rica: Helping Young Minds Connect Inward and Act Outward - K12 Digest

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When the first group of students arrived at New Summit Academy Costa Rica in 2005, they didn’t just step into a school but literally helped build one. With cabins to paint, desks to assemble, and a student handbook to write, those early students who are now affectionately known as the “golden group” worked side by […]

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School Management Plus: New Summit Academy

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School Management Plus: New Summit Academy

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An unusual therapeutic boarding school in Costa Rica helps male teenagers improve mental fitness and find their purpose

Personal growth on a Costa Rican hilltop

At first glance, New Summit Academy Costa Rica is like any other international boarding school.

Students stroll across campus from the academic building after class and begin to occupy themselves with boarding life. A spontaneous basketball game takes shape on the outdoor court, a jam session kicks off in the music studio and a student council meets to discuss plans for a surf and scuba weekend. Elsewhere, members of the cooking club head into town to pick up ingredients for the evening snack.

But look a little closer and a different story emerges. Nearly 2.4 million international tourists flock to the small tropical country each year in search of wellness and a bit of adventure. In the same way, New Summit Academy harnesses the therapeutic qualities of Costa Rica to empower students to adopt healthier lifestyles and to stretch their minds through experiences that rekindle motivation in school and in life.

It is not a coincidence that so many healing retreats are located here.

"The Costa Rican culture itself is therapeutic," says Dr Heather Tracy, executive director of New Summit Academy. "It is not a coincidence that so many healing retreats are located here. The relaxed pace of life and welcoming culture allows you to take it down a notch so you can be present, reflective and attuned with yourself and the world around you.

A "plethora of opportunities" in "unparalleled natural biodiversity" make it the ideal place to learn and grow, she adds.

Nestled in the mountain town of Atenas - popularly dubbed el mejor clima del mundo (the best climate in the world) - New Summit Academy's lush, biodiverse, six-acre campus has been helping students do just that for the past 20 years.

An intentionally small (24 students), independent, supportive boarding school, New Summit Academy enrols adolescent males (ages 14-18) who may need a change from their traditional school for an average period of nine months.

While students come from diverse academic and cultural backgrounds - usually in the United States, a few common traits connect the student body.

The students learn better coping skills for their anxiety and a healthier lifestyle to manage their mood.

"Our students are bright, creative and capable and, because we are such a small school, we make an intentional effort to include diversity within our group of students," says Dr Tracy, who co-founded New Summit Academy in January 2005 after completing her graduate degree at Harvard School of Education.

"However, the underlying commonalities in all of our students is some level of anxiety, mood dysregulation, overwhelm [from low confidence or perfectionism] and executive functioning challenges, which typically show up as a slower processing speed or difficulty organising and following through in a timely manner."

New Summit Academy offers a unique blend of engaging university-preparation classes, an innovative programme of national park adventure trips and international culture travel. There is also wellbeing support from an advising team that includes a primary therapist who is on campus in the afternoons and evenings. Through all this, the students learn better coping skills for their anxiety, a healthier lifestyle to manage their mood, and strategies for executive functioning.

Because of its status as an independent, owner-operated school, New Summit Academy has the agility to adapt and innovate its programme to meet the shifting needs and growing demand across the world for youth mental health support. All five co-founders still work full time in the organization and interact daily with students and the school's multicultural faculty as they guide learners on their journeys to higher levels of competence and confidence.

We have the agility to adapt our programme to meet shifting youth mental health support needs

Most recently, to adapt to the growing need for semester-long experiences that build skills and nurture growing maturity, the school has reduced its minimum length of stay to six months in order to accommodate those students on medical leave from their home schools. Others may need to improve executive functioning, develop positive coping skills, and integrate healthy lifestyle routines in order to be successful in more traditional settings.

For these students, New Summit Academy offers an opportunity to reset and focus on building skills for wellbeing while still earning high school credit and, when the circumstances allow for it, transfer back to their referring schools with improved mental fitness.

With an annual calendar that allows for school breaks every two months for trips home and flexible family visits, New Summit Academy students get plenty of real-world practice in testing out some of these new skills in settings outside of their supportive boarding school.

Some students choose to graduate high school from New Summit Academy and, with a USA curriculum accredited by Cognia, often transition to some of the best universities in the United States. In the future, the team at New Summit Academy anticipates more international student enrolments leaving Costa Rica prepared for university life anywhere in the world.

In the future, the team anticipates more international student enrolments.

With direct flights to Costa Rica from London, Madrid, Frankfurt, Munich, Zurich and Paris, the school recently welcomed its first student from beyond North America - his family is based in Spain - to experience the benefits of a supportive boarding school. As it celebrates its twentieth anniversary next year, New Summit Academy is aiming to build mutually-beneficial partnerships with schools in the UK and Europe.

Despite its growth, one thing hasn't changed since New Summit Academy opened its doors in 2005: the belief that supportive cultural immersion has the power to transform lives.

And just as important, the team at New Summit Academy believes that exposure to different ways of being - whether through community service, Spanish language learning, or the school's well-established cultural homestay program - helps students to build healthier relationships with themselves and others. Importantly, it teaches them to see themselves as responsible global citizens with something to contribute.

"There's a lot that can be said about how young people develop their identity," says Dr Danny Recio, a co-founder of New Summit Academy who runs the school's young adult supportive gap year programme, The Bridge Costa Rica.

"But for us one avenue is fundamental: you find something within you - a gift, a talent, a skill - and you figure out a way to have that fulfil a need in the world around you."

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Spotlight on a School: New Summit Academy, Costa Rica | School Management Plus

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An unusual therapeutic boarding school in Costa Rica helps male teenagers improve mental fitness and find their purpose

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International Therapists Directory: Why Costa Rica Works for TCKs

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International Therapists Directory: Why Costa Rica Works for TCKs

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Development in Motion: How Study Away Partnerships Accelerate Growth for Students and Schools - K12 Digest

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Adam Beeson is Strategic Enrollment Director at New Summit Academy Costa Rica, a supportive boarding school and study abroad experience for high school students, and The Bridge Costa Rica, a supportive gap program for young adults. He brings nearly two decades of international school teaching and leadership experience in Europe and the Americas. Adam is […]