Located in beautiful Atenas, Costa Rica, New Summit Academy is an independent, year-round, all-boys boarding school for teenagers. NSA offers an excellent environment FOR personal insight-building, engaging college preparatory academics, and adventurous experiential education. Our U.S. academic curriculum blended with unique opportunities for personal growth in Costa Rica's natural laboratory gives NSA students an engaging life experience that helps transition them into independent college life. Milieu therapy with a peer-based philosophy and a cross-cultural learning component provides a unique platform for personal growth and emotional development. The integration of educational and therapeutic services through experiential education in a multicultural environment is an ideal combination for a transitional environment and to develop real success skills, supervised and instructed by trained professionals. Student Profile New Summit Academy Academy enrolls male students between the ages of 15-18 who are in or entering grades 10-12. Students who have already earned their high school diploma may be considered if committed to participating in all aspects of the program. These students may have had difficulty with self-esteem, decision-making, negative peer pressure, anxiety, substance use, learning motivation and engagement, attention difficulties, coping skills, sense of entitlement, or social skills. Students come directly from home, from wilderness programs, or from successful completion of another therapeutic boarding school or program. NSA helps them integrate what they have learned previously into their lives through milieu therapy and personal growth goals, college-prep academics and support, and experiential education activities that not only build confidence, identity, and a sense of cultural awareness, but also give them a "resume" of unique experiences for college applications. Services Overview New Summit Academy is a community where students gain motivation to continue their process of change and to live a healthy lifestyle, embracing new social an learning skills. The therapeutic component of the community is substance-free, cross-cultural, and incorporates a system of psychotherapy and self-help techniques inspired in the Transtheoretical Model of change and Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy (REBT) in a milieu primarily supported our student-empowered and positive peer influenced philosophy. Through our own model of peer-centered Honor Council Meetings, 3 weekly community meetings, team-building recreational activities, and therapeutic Aventuras, students use their individual strengths to support each other and create the kind of home and family in which they grow and mature into healthy young men. Teachers are passionate about Multiple Intelligences education with high college prep standards to help students both engage in learning and achieve academic success for their college careers. Going to school in Costa Rica offers a whole new array of activities and resources that most high school students do not experience. This unique experience is not only beneficial to a student's personal growth, but also to a student's application and readiness for independence in college.