Join The Waitlist
8 week immersion
June 20 - August 15 | 2025
costa rica
learn to lead. live to serve
gift academy
the gift
Culture is what people live by, Society is how people live together.
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social architecture
At The Gift Academy, you’ll cultivate the values that shape culture and design systems that foster thriving communities. Together, we awaken new ways of being where personal growth meets collective impact
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foundations
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cultural therapy
A constellation of courageous humans
The meaning of life is to discover your gift.
The work of life is to develop it.
The purpose of life is to give it away.
You will be part of a constellation of change-makers and radical thinkers who are courageous enough to create the more beautiful world their hearts know is possible.
Together with your fellow students and mentors, we form a teaching-learning community where everyday is a new adventure of connection, collaboration and creative inquiry.
Think Peace corps meets jedi training
Addressing global challenges requires a new kind of leadership—one that bridges personal and cultural transformation with systemic change. We see our students as seeds of this new renaissance - living responses to the challenges of our times.
Our program is a garden and our teachers are the gardeners, helping each student discover and develop their sacred role in creating the more beautiful world their hearts know is possible.
Building a Better World Requires Innovative Education
The next 20 years will see major shifts in all earth systems and sectors of society.
We prepare our students for them.
Self-awareness and Inner Development:
Learn to cultivate inner resilience, emotional intelligence, and embodied awareness through mindfulness, conflict transformation, authentic relating, and somatic practices. These tools foster a deeper understanding of self and others, helping participants build the foundation required for navigating personal and interpersonal growth with confidence.
Human Development Studies:
Engage with key frameworks from depth psychology, developmental theory, trauma studies, and attachment models to understand the stages of personal growth and transformation. Students will explore tools for “innerstanding” themselves as part of a greater pattern of soul-centric development and lifelong maturation.
Art and Ritual Fundamentals:
Discover the power of art and ritual as essential mediums for personal expression, cultural storytelling, and community healing. Participants will explore practices that connect creativity with nature and psyche, and how they can create containers that align with life transitions, rites of passage, and the collective needs of their communities.
Ecology and Environmental Design:
Develop a foundational understanding of ecological systems through permaculture principles, sustainable development practices, and regenerative design. This course empowers students to think about how to create environments that are harmonious with nature and sustainable for future generations, emphasizing stewardship of the earth.
Futures Studies, Sense-making and Systems Thinking:
Equip yourself with systems thinking and scenario planning techniques, applying complex problem-solving skills to multi-faceted challenges. Through studies in areas such as sociology, evolutionary biology and emerging technologies, participants will learn to forecast and explore the interconnected dynamics driving both crises and opportunities in the global landscape.
Inner work, Worldview and Team building
Students will develop the capacity to guide transformative experiences using art, ritual, and depth psychology to nurture personal growth and foster meaningful connections that support collective healing and wholeness.
Key Learning Areas:
Art & Ritual Practice: Song, movement, craft, and visual art as tools for personal and group healing.
Depth Psychology and Human Development: Exploring trauma, attachment, and psychological growth through culturally informed practices.
Embodied Wisdom & Somatic Practice: Cultivating body-based awareness and developing practices that align the mind, body, and spirit.
Outcome:
Graduates will be empowered to lead community programs, healing practices, and cultural initiatives rooted in transformative experiences that bring individual and collective well-being.
Cultivating Wholeness through Art, Psychology, and Embodiment Practice
Design and implement social structures, environmental systems, and community frameworks that unlock human potential, foster interconnectedness, and cultivate pro-social behavior toward shared goals.
Key Learning Areas:
Sociology & Evolutionary Biology: Understanding collective behavior, group dynamics, and social evolution.
Permaculture & Regenerative Design: Designing sustainable environments and practices that align with natural systems.
Futures Studies & Systems Thinking: Developing strategic frameworks and tools for scenario planning and systems change.
Outcome:
Graduates will gain the skills to build resilient, inclusive communities, implement regenerative solutions, and engage in social transformation for a thriving future.
Designing systems for a flourishing cuture
Our Educational Philosophy
change the culture, transform the system
Your Path at The Gift Academy: From Foundations to Mastery
The Foundations Program is where every journey begins. After completing the Foundations Program, students are prepared to embark on one of two diploma tracks: Cultural Therapy or Social Architecture.
This 8-week immersive experience introduces key elements from both diploma tracks—Cultural Therapy and Social Architecture. It provides students with the core knowledge and practices they need to cultivate self-awareness, develop critical thinking, and explore their relationship with the world, nature, and community. Through the Foundations program, students experience both personal transformation and practical skill development.
Social Architecture
Cultural Therapy
Foundations Program
Curriculum Modules
Expand yourself at the campus of Awake —a center devoted to embodying the seed of a new earth.
The Power of Awake
Your learning village
Gift Academy's home-base is the Awake Center in Uvita, Costa Rica. Awake is a living laboratory for conscious living, featuring 100’s of local plants, herbs and fruit trees, secluded nature spots for relaxation and study, yoga and meditation halls, cafeteria, private river access and more.
Our evolutionary hub has all the facilities that support students at the academy to turn their entire stay into a transformative learning experience.
A haven for personal growth and connection - a conscious community surrounded by the inspiring beauty of Costa Rica's mountains, rivers and ocean.
Music, dance and craft-making help you discover your creativity and develop confidence in your self-expression ability to make things.
You will also learn how to collaborate on creating a transformative learning experience for others!
Your final group project will be to showcase your learnings by creating an event that integrates all you have learned and tests your new skills and knowledge with a real-world application.
Imagine being part of a community where living in harmony—with yourself, the Earth, and others—is not just a goal but a daily practice.
Experience what it means to build meaningful, authentic relationships. Deepen your understanding of human connection and embrace the responsibility we all share in creating a thriving, interconnected community.
Here, you’re not just learning about community—you’re living it, every day.
The village : Harmony with Earth and Each Other
the show:
Celebrating Community and Creativity
Imagine being part of a community where living in harmony—with yourself, the Earth, and others—is not just a goal but a daily practice.
Experience what it means to build meaningful, authentic relationships. Deepen your understanding of human connection and embrace the responsibility we all share in creating a thriving, interconnected community.
Here, you’re not just learning about community—you’re living it, every day.
Music, dance and craft-making help you discover your creativity and develop confidence in your self-expression ability to make things.
You will also learn how to collaborate on creating a transformative learning experience for others!
the academy: Nurturing Potential and Purpose
At The Academy, you’re not just a student; you’re a seeker, an explorer of your own limitless potential.
Introspective journeys, classroom training and collaborative projects create a transformative process that transcends traditional education
Through dialogue, lectures, demonstrations, scenario-based learning, debates and independent study, you'll be inspired to stretch beyond your comfort zone to embrace new perspectives and ways of knowing.
At The Academy, you’re not just a student; you’re a seeker, an explorer of your own limitless potential.
Introspective journeys, classroom training and collaborative projects create a transformative process that transcends traditional education
Through dialogue, lectures, demonstrations, scenario-based learning, debates and independent study, you'll be inspired to stretch beyond your comfort zone to embrace new perspectives and ways of knowing.
Your final group project will be to showcase your learnings by creating an event that integrates all you have learned and tests your new skills and knowledge with a real-world application.
You will have the resources of the campus, support from the teachers and access to community artists to develop a unique experience that emerges from the core themes in the program.
The best Final Project....Ever
Using the power of your imagination, inspiration and teamwork, our campus becomes your canvas to create a transformational event for the community.
• You’re ready to explore your highest potential and use it in service of humanity and the planet.
• You are aware of the growing disconnect between people, nature, and purpose, and you’re seeking ways to bridge that gap.
If you’re asking yourself these questions…
• You seek a transformative learning experience that blends personal growth, collective intelligence, and regenerative action.
• You want to work alongside passionate individuals who are determined to make a real impact on the world.
This program is what you’re looking for if...
• How can I use my gifts to serve the world in a meaningful way?
• What kind of world do we want to build for future generations?
• How can we cultivate a culture of compassion, creativity, and sustainability?
If you’re seeing the world this way…
Who is The Gift Academy For?
Due to the uniqueness of this program, what’s most important is whether you feel called to this experience. The Gift Academy is for those ready to become active agents of change in a world that needs visionaries and creators to shape the future.
Here are some guidelines to help you determine that:
Join the waitlist
'education, health, wealth, and the strength to fight social injustice are the fundamental needs of human life.'
- Amma
What we need now are conscious leaders,
cultural healers, and social architects to transform every facet of our world—from how we live to how we connect, innovate, and thrive together.
Are you ready to ready to be an agent of change in the revolution of culture, consciousness and technology?
• You’re ready to explore your highest potential and use it in service of humanity and the planet.
• You are aware of the growing disconnect between people, nature, and purpose, and you’re seeking ways to bridge that gap.
Shared Glamping
• You seek a transformative learning experience that blends personal growth, collective intelligence, and regenerative action.
• You want to work alongside passionate individuals who are determined to make a real impact on the world.
Private w/ shared bathroom
• How can I use my gifts to serve the world in a meaningful way?
• What kind of world do we want to build for future generations?
• How can we cultivate a culture of compassion, creativity, and sustainability?
Shared Dorm
The Investment
Due to the uniqueness of this program, what’s most important is whether you feel called to this experience. The Gift Academy is for those ready to become active agents of change in a world that needs visionaries and creators to shape the future.
Here are some guidelines to help you determine that:
Join the waitlist
An educational paradigm that embraces Nature and Nurture
Explore the social domains of the human experience through the spirit of the village and the wisdom of nature, engage the intellectual and practical side of life through hands-on learning in the academy, and discover your creative capacities through play, art and celebration
3 Pillars Of Experiential Learning
THe village | the academy | The show