Integrated Aventura Update

New Summit Academy’s students and staff have just returned from an inspiring round of Integrated Aventuras: Community Service in the Osa Peninsula, kayaking the Golfo Dulce, and hiking through Corcovado National Park. Each Aventura – integrated with Experiential Education activities, engaging Academic classes, and Personal Growth work – challenges students to step outside of their comfort zone to develop important life skills while surrounded by the beauty of Costa Rica.
Below are some of the trip highlights.

Community Service Conservation Efforts

• Working side-by-side with Osa Conservation in reforestation, self-sustaining permaculture, and organic farming projects
  
• Collaborating with a local community to build a new sea turtle hatchery
• Patrolling beaches at night to collect turtle eggs for safe hatching
• Building trails for future visitors to make turtle-conservation efforts more possible
• Growing closer as a community of Orientation and newer students, and bringing those new connections back to NSA’s campus

Golfo Dulce Kayak Aventura

• Honing open-water kayak skills to paddle an average of a dozen kilometers per day on the gulf waters flanked by primary rainforest
• Learning about tides, mangrove ecosystems, coral reefs, and watersheds in a spectacular “living classroom”
• Being escorted on our journey by dolphins, sea turtles, schools of fish, and even sighting humpback whales
• Setting and achieving a group goal of not allowing negativity to influence the sense of wonder experienced in such an extraordinary setting

Exploring Corcovado National Park

• Holding classes in the middle of the rainforest which, based on student feedback, was a highlight of the trip
• Spotting a baby white-collared peccary with its mother, dubbed the “cutest thing ever”
• Sighting a massive crocodile feeding at the mouth of the Sirenas