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Wilderness Ventures
Offers Service Programs to Teens in Costa
Rica’s Savegre Valley
Wilderness
Ventures Offers Service Programs to Teens in
Costa Rica’s Savegre Valley
Wilderness Ventures, the oldest and most
experienced adventure travel program for
young people, offers domestic and
international programs that teach teens
valuable life lessons like a sense of
environmental responsibility and new
leadership skills.
Their Service Adventure to Costa Rica’s
Savegre Valley gives teenagers an
opportunity to be immersed in the Costa
Rican culture while participating in
humanitarian projects and spending time in
the great outdoors.
This Costa Rican community service
exploration is an exciting combination of
diverse adventure travel and stimulating
cultural immersion in an unspoiled tropical
paradise of pristine beaches, exotic
wildlife, and a rainbow of colorful flowers
and birds. Teens who participate earn 60
hours of community service while building a
rural school in a cloud forest, teaching
local school children English, and restoring
nesting habitat for endangered sea turtles.
Participants experience the beauty of this
peaceful country by sea kayaking a
palm-laden coastline, rafting a jungle
river, and soaring through the forest on a
zip line.
“Parents have let us know exactly how
changed their students are when they arrive
home,” said Gabby Kouchacji, a Service
Program Coordinator with Wilderness
Ventures. “A newfound sense of
responsibility towards the environment
coupled with a drive to help others from a
different background comes from the time we
spend serving the people and ecology of
Costa Rica. Like any Wilderness Ventures
expedition, the teens that participate in
our program develop essential peer
leadership and teamwork skills as a result
of living with new friends for three weeks.”
For the service portions of the trip, teens
stay in a remote village in the Savegre
Valley at a campsite built exclusively for
Wilderness Ventures. Whether they are
playing soccer with young children or
putting a much-needed ceiling on the school
while practicing Spanish, their minds are
challenged as they seek to understand a life
that by American standards is much less
privileged. In addition to interacting with
the local communities, outdoor adventure is
central to this experience. Teens will
experience things like rafting for two days
on the famous Pacuare River, lounging in
natural hot springs, seeing a volcano up
close and personal, and kayaking past flocks
of scarlet macaws and howler monkeys.
“When teenagers engage in volunteer
activities, they feel empowered and are
inspired to change the world around them,”
said Gabby Kouchacji. “For many young
people, the pressures to succeed and be
liked by their peers can often impair their
motivation to grasp a broader view on their
environment. Through cultural experiences
like these, they are taught humility and
compassion for others, and can be
transformed into young adults with a drive
to change the world.”
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