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Costa Rica: Tropical Rainforest and Volcano Adventure
Costa Rica has long been recognized for its incredible natural wonders. This Central American country has coasts on both the Caribbean and Pacific which boast of unspoiled white sand beaches. The interior of Costa Rica offers a wonderful contrast with rugged volcanic mountain ranges and lush tropical rain forests. The tropical jungles are home to toucans, scarlet macaws, iguanas, capuchin, squirrel, and howler monkeys, and so much more. Adventure opportunities are boundless! They include: body Surfing and boogie bording at Manuel Antonio, watching fireworks-style explosions of red-hot lava at Volcano Arenal, soaking in Tabacon hot springs, horseback riding to a 50-foot waterfall in La Fortuna and many more. The alumni team creates the group itinerary by choosing activities which appeal to them. The hard part is deciding which adventure to exclude!
Quick Facts:
Dates:
6/22/09 - 7/2/09
Students: 10
Days: 11
Tuition:$3,300*
Ages:14 - 18
*cost includes airfare from Atlanta
Gear Guide
Gear List
Itinerary
Philosophy: SOAR believes all individuals identified with learning disabilities (LD) and attention deficit disorder (AD/HD) possess inherent talents and gifts. These abilities can mean incredible success in adulthood once these students negotiate the challenging obstacles of childhood, adolescence, and a traditional education system, usually unable to respond to individual learning styles.
Therefore, the SOAR model is based on two fundamental principles. First, youth with LD and AD/HD flourish when they are encouraged to focus on their strengths in an experiential setting. The second principle acknowledges that success can be generalized by encouraging our students to develop and utilize strategies, enabling them to compensate for those challenging characteristics of LD and AD/HD. To this end, SOAR staff strive to ensure success for each student across a wide range of experiences. Such success, in turn, builds essential self-esteem and self-confidence.
Based on these two foundations, SOAR participants develop problem solving skills, effective communication strategies, increased self-awareness, and social skills. Program activities include a broad base of wilderness adventure experiences that empower students to make healthy choices, learn more about themselves, overcome challenges, and establish relevance from these experiences to other aspects of their life.
SOAR's Specialty Courses are open to SOAR alumni and students with the maturity and experience level to be successful on the course. Acceptance is conditional on the approval of the course director. Most specialty courses are led by one of SOAR's year-round staff including Jonathan Jones, John Willson and Jon Terry.
SOAR’s programs are designed to allow students the opportunity to increase their independence while away from home. Independence is gained through self-motivation and life skills instruction. With this in mind, we involve our students in many decision making processes, such as setting individual goals, developing group guidelines, as well as trip and meal planning. This also comes into consideration when developing SOAR’s communication policy, detailed in our Parent Handbook.
SOAR is dedicated to serving the needs of individuals with learning disabilities (LD) and attention deficit disorder (AD/HD) and is proud to be the finest: