Located in a beautiful mountain town in Costa Rica, The Bridge is a unique blend of a gap program - offering cultural immersion, community service, language, adventure travel, and internship opportunities - and a supportive community - providing group and individual coaching as well as a strong sense of safety, support and guidance toward mastering skills for the adult world.
Since 2012, The Bridge has been helping young adult males (ages 17-23) embark on a journey of self-discovery and prepare themselves for college or work.
The Bridge experience includes 40+ internship options to help students find and exercise their passion and develop a professional path. Students participate in transferrable college courses from local and US universities taught entirely in English, while having access to learning Spanish in the most relaxed and effective ways possible. Bridge students experience a different culture in a supported way to open up their mind, give them the chance to redefine themselves, and give them the adaptability skills required to thrive in 21st society.
At The Bridge, we help students design their own schedule within a set of healthy and balanced lifestyle expectations that prepares them for the adult world. Students take advantage of the opportunity to practice essential life skills in a hands-on way (budgeting, cooking, public transportation, organization, decision making, leadership) with mentors by their side. All kinds of extracurriculars allow students to maintain or find new interests (sports and hobbies like basketball, swimming, surfing, soccer, sewing, music, gardening and art, to name a few). Students at The Bridge are empowered to make program decisions, change guidelines, organize activities, manage budgets and lead community immersion projects throughout Costa Rica.
The result of The Bridge experience includes an impressive resume that leads students to desirable colleges, job offers and amazing scholarships. This resume can include up to 200 (or even more) hours of internship in their potential desired career; more than 150 hours of community service; fluency in Spanish; college credit from studying abroad at a university in Costa Rica; leadership in indigenous and rural community empowerment projects; cross-cultural competencies to become a true global citizen ready for challenging multi-cultural and international classrooms and jobs.
Students gain confidence to take on new challenges, to meet new people, and to confront life’s curve balls with the trust in themselves that you only get by spending time away from their own cultural bubble.
Our students and everyone involved with the program calls our house “Casa Bridge” (Bridge House) or “Casa Piedra” (the stone house). Students live in a spacious house up on the hills five minutes away from our town. It overlooks gorgeous scenery and is surrounded by peaceful mountains and bordered by a protected stream and lots of greenery.
Casa Bridge has:
- Four bedrooms: two rooms for two students and two rooms for three students, each with its own bathroom
- Two beautiful two-person apartments for the final phase of the program
- A kitchen where the students make all their meals on their own or for each other
- A recreation area with a pool table, ping pong table, darts, and TV
- Dining room and meeting area
- Outdoor covered porch with exercise and BBQ areas
- Study area
- Laundry room
- Organic garden and spacious garden area
Unlike a traditional gap semester or gap year program, The Bridge offers the structure and support for young men who want guidance and a community of peers and mentors with whom they can reflect as they travel on their journey. If you're taking a semester or a year to learn more about yourself and the world, why not get the most out of that time and do it alongside experts whose calling is to travel your journey with you - helping you get the most out of your experiences and make sense of how they can prepare you and guide you into your future.
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