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Florida SCUBA Certification Course:
Courses begin with SCUBA instruction near Big Pine Key utilizing the spectacular Looe Key Marine Sanctuary. You will be awestruck by the beauty and diversity of the coral reef as you are free to explore its amazing intricacies. You receive personalized instruction culminating in PADI certification and will be closely supervised during the open water dives. Students can earn a variety of SCUBA certifications: Certified SCUBA diver, Open Water Certified diver, and Advanced SCUBA. If you are seeking a specialty SCUBA course you can earn a Naturalist, Fish Identification, Peak Performance Buoyancy, or Boat Diver certification. Participants will also have opportunities for sea kayaking, tubing, snorkeling and a visit to historic Key West during this adventure. You can fish for mahi mahi, tuna, and yellow fin during an offshore fishing trip. This experience opens a whole new world!
Quick Facts:
Dates:
Session I: 7/6/08 -7/15/08
Session II: 8/3/08 - 8/12/08
Students: 10
Days: 10
Tuition:$2,900
Ages:14 - 18
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: