New Summit Academy   Costa Rica
  • Home
    • Contact Us
    • Apply
    • Fast Facts
    • Our Students
    • Our Team >
      • Founders & Directors
      • Admissions & Family Services
      • Academics
      • Personal Growth
      • Experiential Education
      • Administration
      • Operations
      • Four-Legged Friends
    • Our Outcomes
    • Our Story
    • Why Costa Rica?
    • Virtual Coaching >
      • Personal & Family Coaching
      • Virtual Academic Tutoring
      • Virtual College Guidance
    • Employment
    • Donate to Our Causes
  • Learn
    • Academic Approach
    • Classes
    • Graduation Requirements
    • Transcript Requests
    • College Guidance
  • Grow
    • The Unique NSA Approach
    • Planning Growth
    • Facilitating Growth
    • Assessing Growth
    • Family Involvement
  • Explore
    • Aventuras >
      • Recreational
      • Integrated
      • International
    • Service Learning
    • Homestay Program
    • Cultural Immersion
  • Live
    • Campus Tour
    • Clubs
    • Activities
    • Student Leadership
  • Create
    • Student Photography
    • Student Art
    • Photo Gallery
  • Blog
    • Staff Blog
    • Student Blog
  • Parents (Members)
    • Program Resources for Current Parents
    • Parent Coaching & Support Groups
    • Follow Up With Alumni
 As Spanish teacher, Vianney wants to share with our young community all her knowledge about Costa Rican customs and traditions so they can experience real cultural immersion while they learn. Her goal is that students enjoy her Spanish class so that their learning comes easy and naturally. ​ Outside of the classroom, Vianney loves to run, ride her bike, hike, and many other outdoor activities. She also loves hanging out with her family and friends, and traveling.

ACADEMIC  TEAM


Picture
Email Martin

​Martin Naffziger, BA English Literature, M.Ed. Global Studies in Education, Graduate Certificate in College Counseling
Director of Learning and ​College Counselor

Martin Naffziger is the Director of Learning at New Summit Academy. After earning a Bachelor of Arts in Literature and Creative Writing from Wittenberg University, he began teaching English as a second language as a means of traveling to and living in places such as Thailand, Nepal, South Korea, Mexico, Ecuador, Indonesia and Costa Rica.

Since joining NSA in 2006, Martin has taught Literature and Composition, Creative Writing,  U.S. and World History, Visual Arts, Global Citizenship, Archeology, and Culinary Arts, as well as designed and continues to coordinate our College Guidance Program.
While with New Summit Academy, Martin has earned his M.Ed. in Global Studies in Education from the University of Illinois, and earned his graduate certificate in college counseling from UCLA. Travel, the outdoors, culture, and education continue to be driving passions in Martin’s life, and he takes great pride in applying these passions to guiding and building an unrivaled Academic program at NSA.

​Peter Gottovi, MA in Education
Humanities Teacher, Music Coordinator, and Academic Advisor

Peter Gottovi earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English Literature at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington. After a taking a break from academia while pursuing a career in music as a drummer/ percussionist recording artist and live performer in New York City, Peter went back to school earning an Honors Master of Arts in Secondary English Education at The City University of New York. During and for a few years after that degree, Peter joined the New York City Teaching Fellows Organization and Americorps program as a teacher teaching English, history, percussion, and music technology at a public school in one of New York City’s most troubled neighborhoods, located in the South Bronx. Peter left that position in 2008, when he relocated to Atenas, Costa Rica and began his work at New Summit Academy.
Picture
Email Pete
During his Masters work in New York, Peter became inspired by such educational theorists as Lev Vygotsky and Howard Gardner. Working in the South Bronx, it became his mission to try to teach in Vygotsky’s “Zone of Proximal Development” through Gardner’s different “Multiple Intelligences”. Early on, it became clear to him that the incredible advances in technology at the time were not being utilized anywhere near to their potential in a vast majority of the classrooms he observed. His principal at the time (now a superintendent for the Department of Education of New York City) asked him to become a lead teacher in technology integration at their school. She gave him the autonomy to write his own curriculum for and integrate his own unique “Literacy through Music and Cultural History” program, which featured a recording studio he built at the school. She wanted him to incorporate his knowledge and skill from his career in music with his English and history curriculum. His students loved the new approach to literacy and history, which allowed them to pen and record their own lyric-centered compositions, in addition to learning much culture and history behind the music they loved. The work inspired his master’s thesis, which was a human study on the impact of technology integration into instruction on his students.
​
Once at New Summit Academy, Peter immediately got to work building a recording studio as well as bringing down and also acquiring various musical instruments in order to provide the equipment for an energetic, if unorthodox technology-centered music program. But his integration of technology into instruction did not stop there. As the history teacher, Peter has worked tirelessly in order to collect and integrate a large assortment of rich, multi-media content and technology-based, multiple intelligence-delivered products and project/ problem-based research into the standards-based curriculum he developed. It is not unusual that you can hear a group of students “rocking out” in the rancho or in a recording session in the studio while creating new music. It is also not atypical to see a group of students engaged in the creation of a film, a podcast, a song, or the design of a website about an historical event, based on a research assignment. Now, with the integration of iPad technology, Peter is exploring new music apps, such as Real Book for iPad in order to take full advantage of the technology in order to add jazz and blues improvisation to the NSA music program. In addition to his teaching and music collaboration, Peter brings his 35 years of surfing and ocean swimming experience in order to help facilitate surfing instruction, lifeguarding, and trip planning and logistics for NSA’s student-led Surf Club.
Picture
Email JD

​Juan Diego Rodriguez, BS in Biology Education
Science Teacher and Academic Advisor

Before teaching at NSA, JD worked as a volunteer for a number of non-profit institutions, doing recreational activities with teenagers and children while studying Microbiology at the University of Costa Rica. Juan Diego is a scientist at heart who loves genetics and cellular biology studies. However, JD’s passion for working with teenagers led him to pursue a degree in education. JD is particularly excited about the Biotechnology course he developed at NSA.

NSA students respect and admire JD for his open and easygoing personality which makes him easy to approach. JD also has many interests to find in common with NSA 
students, including Rock Band, magic, graphic novels, sports, and video games. During football season, JD runs a fantasy football league (go Green Bay!). JD also helps the Experiential Education department with physical education classes, which gives him a nice and unique opportunity to interact with his students outside the classroom. He loves to go to the gym, play flag football, and especially play basketball with the students. Sports have always been a big part of JD’s life as he also played first division volleyball in Costa Rica and has celebrated a few championships.
​
JD is one of the staff who is native to the Atenas area. He loves being close to home and has a large family in the area, many of whom have opened their homes as homestay families to our students. JD enjoys spending time at home, talking to his family and sharing histories with them. He also loves to dance Salsa and other Latin rhythms although he claims he is not especially good at it.

Vianney Medina, BA, Teaching Spanish as a Second Language, BA English as a Second Language, and Lic Administration 
Spanish Teacher and Academic Advisor

​Vianney is the Integrated Spanish Teacher at New Summit Academy. She earned her degree in Administration with an emphasis in Human Resources and also earned a technical degree in “Teaching of Spanish as a Second Language” through the Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica as well as a Bachelor's degree in English as a Second Language at "Universidad Técnica Nacional de Costa Rica (UTN).

​​Vianney loves learning about other cultures, but she is also very passionate about her own, which is why she decided to become a Spanish professor.

​Before joining our Academic team, Vianney worked in our Administration department for years, and has important knowledge about New Summit Academy’s internal functioning and its student community, which will be valuable as a teacher.
​
Picture
Email Vianney
Picture
Email Tonny

Tonny Garita, MA in Educational Administration, &
​Licensed in Mathematics Teaching

Tonny Garita always had an affinity for mathematics. The admiration towards a teacher he had when he was a little kid was key for the love for teaching and mathematics he has today. Tonny began his professional journey when he was still a college student, taking charge of courses for high school and college teens.

Once he was done with his degree in Mathematics Teaching at Universidad de Costa Rica, he started building a long career in different places throughout the country. He also has a master degree in Educational Administration. One of Tonny's hobbies is technology. He is currently studying Systems Engineering. He likes to use many technological resources in his classes to make them more dynamic and attractive.
Thanks to his academic formation and his experience in diverse areas and multicultural environments, Tonny certainly knows the importance of teaching mathematics, not only as an exact science, but also as a way to deal with students and daily life experiences. This certainly allows him to understand the applicability of different topics and approaches to achieve meaningful learning.

Kathryn Sabol, B.A. English Literature, M.Ed. Psychology

In fulfilling her dream to relocate to Costa Rica and join the amazing team at New Summit Academy, Kathryn Sabol will also be returning to her first and most well-loved career, teaching English. Prior to embracing this extraordinary opportunity, she led a population health team in Montana, overseeing prevention activities related to suicide, tobacco, chronic disease, substance abuse, and of course COVID-19.  Kathryn has also served in leadership roles at the college level, ranging from overseeing student retention and advising initiatives to serving as a foundation vice-president. Other eclectic pursuits include serving as program director for one of UCLA’s methamphetamine treatment projects, leading a statewide adoption agency,  implementing a family drug treatment court, serving as head of school for gifted and twice-exceptional students, and providing academic and vocational counseling in a therapeutic program for young adults.  ​
Picture
Email Kathryn
​Another of her favorite roles was serving as the Executive Director of a coed therapeutic boarding school in Western Montana.  Kathryn’s  colorful resume demonstrates a lifelong quest to expand her knowledge across a broad range of human experience and to provide a supportive environment to nurture education, recovery and resiliency for diverse populations, with a particular affinity for sassy teenagers and young adults.
Picture
Email Stephen

​Stephen Kopels
​Documentary Production & Photography Teacher

Steven has been a working filmmaker, television director and educator for the past 45+ years. His career started in 1968 as a combat photographer in Vietnam, Photographing the war for Stars and Stripes, The New York Times, Newsweek, U S Army Digest and other major publications.

​Upon completing his tour of duty, he returned to college and attended Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, California, where he earned a Bachelor’s of Arts Degree with an emphasis in Filmmaking.
For the next 14 years, Kopels worked for PBS as a Senior Producer/Director. During his time with PBS, he created hundreds of documentaries and live television shows that won numerous national and international awards (the New York International Film Festival, the Gabriel Awards, and the San Francisco International Film Festival and two Peabody nominations to name a few) and was also honored as being named American representative at the Rockefeller International Independent Film Symposium in Venice, Italy.

In 1985, he became a partner with Imagemaker Productions in Nashville, Tennessee. Over the next ten years, he created dozens of commercials, music videos, corporate films, and documentaries.  In 1995, Steven moved to San Francisco, where he worked as an independent Producer/Director/Director of Photography for many Fortune 500 Corporations, including Levi Strauss, Oracle, Federal Express, Bank of America, Westinghouse, DuPont, Texas Instruments, and the Smithsonian Institution to name but a few.

In addition, he produced and directed three one-hour segments for a thirteen-part series for PBS titled Religions of the World hosted by Academy Award winner Ben Kingsley. In 2005, with his partner Jeremiah Birnbaum, he opened the San Francisco School of Digital Filmmaking. For the nest ten years he was the President of the school and Director of Education. The school teaches students from around the world the art and craft of filmmaking. With his former partner, he has produced seven feature films for theatrical release with a sister company Fog City Pictures.  In 2011, Steven retired from The San Francisco School of Digital Filmmaking and moved to Atenas, Costa Rica, where he continues to live his passion for filmmaking by teaching part-time at New Summit Academy.
Picture
Email Daisy

Daisy Rojas, Lic. Spanish as a Foreign Language Teacher
Cultural Coordinator and Spanish Immersion Teacher

Before joining NSA in 2006, Daisy graduated from the Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica as a Forest Engineer in 1988. She has worked in various forest programs in Costa Rica, working on monitoring sustainability of forest operations, reforestation, and environmental education. In addition, Daisy completed her license in education while working with a program for teen mothers, helping them complete their education as a teacher of math and sciences. She also completed (with honors) a technical degree in Teaching of Spanish as a Second Language through the Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica. These experiences lead Daisy to begin teaching Spanish and Environmental Sciences at NSA. 
Daisy holds dear her spiritual beliefs, family values, and desire to serve her community. These have guided her work as a person, mother of two, wife, and professional educator. She is a loving person whose joy for life, unlimited hugs, and hope for the future make her a joy to work with and a person to admire.
Picture
This website was made by a collaborative effort between two students (SK and JA) and NSA staff.
​All pictures are real photographs taken from student experiences at NSA. Thank you for taking the time to peruse our site!
© Entire website is copyrighted property of New Summit Academy - Thank you for respecting our intellectual property!
Home
Learn
Grow
Explore
Live
Create
Apply
Copyright © 2005-present by Educacion Nueva Cumbre Internacional SA / dba New Summit Academy