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The recent student benefit concert and fundraiser, SummitFest, turned out to be a major success. Students have been volunteering at Caritas – a local soup kitchen that feeds up to 60 people per day. A lack of a freezer and needed supplies make their efforts challenging, and students recognized that need. Funds raised online and at the concert were used to purchase a new refrigerator, a deep freezer, and contribute to the ongoing food needs of the organization. 

The delivery of the new appliances was overseen by our Experiential Education staff, Miguel, who also helped guide the students in organizing the concert. Great work, Miguel and NSA students! 
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Caritas is a charitable organization located in the center of our small town of Atenas. With a shoestring budget, Caritas is somehow able to provide lunch to humble families every day, serving up to 60 plates of food to community members of all ages.

Our students and staff have been privileged to be able to volunteer for Caritas, helping to prepare and serve food and assist in clean up after meals. One of Caritas’ most daunting challenges is to source enough protein to provide balanced meals, as they lack a regular supplier and do not have a freezer to store the food donations received. 

This fact struck our students during their volunteer efforts and they, alongside our staff members Miguel and Peter, decided to make a difference. 

Senior students spent their Friday afternoons organizing and publicizing a fundraising concert – which they dubbed SummitFest – to take place on campus. Miguel led their efforts, starting an online fundraising campaign, and Peter led our students in preparing to perform for the show.
The turnout at the concert was fantastic. Staff brought in home-cooked food to sell, and students volunteered selling tickets, running the concessions, managing donations and jamming on stage for the crowd.

The students’ efforts paid off, raising over $2,000 for Caritas, which will be used to donate a deep freezer filled with food for the organization.

Global Citizenship in action! Great work, NSA students!
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This month, NSA’s newest club – the Birdwatching Club – took it upon themselves to organize a weekend trip into the cloud forests of Costa Rica. 

The trip coincided with the nesting season of one of Central America’s most stunning and most elusive avian species: the Resplendent Quetzal. 


Students and staff departed for the forested mountains on Friday, with the plan to rise early the next morning for the best quetzal spotting opportunity. 

After a sunrise yoga session led by one of our Case Managers, Andrea, the group began scanning the lush foliage for their prize.

​They identified dozens of different species and, in the end, their efforts paid off with a male quetzal displaying its iridescent plumage to the group for over 20 minutes. Nice work, birders! 
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