Presentando a nuestros líderes de las Costa Rica Mountains & Coast y Caribbean Service: Puerto Rico!
Name: Aria Heyneman (she/her) 
2025 Trip: Costa Rica Mountains & Coast
Prior Apogee experience: Alaska Mountains & Coast ‘24
Hometown: Sheridan, Wyoming
School: Wake Forest University, Class of 2025
Certifications: Wilderness First Responder, Wilderness Swim Safety & CPR
Favorite outdoor activities: Backpacking, skiing, hiking, swimming, and biking
Highlights of the past year: Aria enjoyed many memories during her final year at Wake Forest: she led awesome backpacking trips in the fall and spring for their outdoor program, won an Intramural basketball championship, and got second in an Intramural flag football championship!
Where you can find Aria when she’s leading a basketball team to victory: Aria can be found playing soccer, thrifting, reading, or cooking colorful meals.
Further proof that Aria is the coolest: Before Apogee, Aria spent a summer teaching 10-14-year-olds how to rock climb, belay, and repel in her local mountain range. She also worked as an Outdoor Program Coordinator and Camp Counselor. Aria’s family has worked in production agriculture for over 75 years, so their primary mode of spending quality time together is fixing fences and taking care of cows. She also hiked the largest active volcano in Chile while studying abroad! Aria is ecstatic to be back at Apogee for a second year and cannot wait to swim in the ocean, see the cloud forest in Costa Rica, and laugh until her stomach hurts with students, co leaders, and friends!
Name: Ben Curry (he/him) 
2025 Trip: Costa Rica Mountains & Coast
Prior Apogee experience: Northwest Explorer ‘22
Hometown: Las Cruces, New Mexico
School: Colorado College, Class of 2025
Certifications: Wilderness First Aid, Wilderness Swim Safety & CPR
Favorite outdoor activities: Mountain biking, rock climbing, and backpacking
Highlights from the past year: This past year, Ben filmed a documentary in Zimbabwe, visited southern Mexico with friends, and rafted through Canyon Lands National Park!
What Ben loves to do when he is not rafting down a river: He loves filmmaking, photography, throwing pottery on the wheel, and going to the gym!
Other reasons why Ben is the best: Ben spent three weeks camping in Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa. He works as a videographer for the Colorado College Athletics Department and has worked as a photographer for the last seven years. Ben has also spent several years volunteering for a program that promotes exercise, healthy youth development, and a sense of community through walking and biking to school! He recently biked down the highest mountain in Colorado! He is really excited to practice his surfing and Spanish this summer along with meeting all of his amazing students!
Name: Kwynne Blaivas (she/her) 
2025 Trips: Caribbean Service: Puerto Rico
Hometown: New York, New York
School: Colorado College, Class of 2026
Certifications: Wilderness First Aid, Wilderness Swim Safety & CPR
Favorite outdoor activities: Camping, skiing, biking, hiking, and surfing
Highlights from the past year: Kwynne had a year of travel and adventure. She checked off some major life bucket list items traveling to Sydney, Australia, studying abroad in Soria, Spain, and traveling and surfing in both Portugal and Morocco.
Where you can find Kwynne when she’s not exploring a new country: She is likely crocheting, reading, listening to music, or teaching herself to play guitar.
Other reasons Kwynne is the niftiest: She runs a national student philosophy journal that publishes academic essays from students across the country, all focused on making philosophical ideas more accessible and engaging. She also works with her college’s annual outdoor journal, which features stories from Colorado College students and alumni about their experiences in the outdoors. On top of all that, she spent three years coaching soccer for 3-15 year-olds, helping kids fall in love with the sport. Kwynne is also a former Apogee student, cycling from Amsterdam to Venice on our Europe Coast to Coast trip after her senior year of high school. She is beyond excited to be joining the ranks of Apogee leader, getting to know her students and spending lots of time on the beaches of Puerto Rico.
Name: Eli Robison (he/him) 
2025 Trips: Caribbean Service: Puerto Rico
Prior Apogee experience: Vermont to Montreal ‘22 and Cape Cod & the Islands ‘22
Hometown: Westport, Connecticut
School: Emory University, Class of 2025
Certifications: Wilderness First Aid, Lifeguard & CPR
Favorite outdoor activities: Snowboarding, hiking, biking, surfing, and paddle boarding
Highlights from the past year: Eli studied abroad in Portugal, where he ate amazing food and surfed the incredible waves!
Where you can find Eli when he’s surfing: He might be cooking an extravagant meal with friends and family or tossing a frisbee with a friend.
Just a few reasons why we think Eli is amazing: He took a gap year before enrolling at Emory, during which he backpacked 600 miles of the Appalachian Trail, tutored math, and spent time skiing in Utah. Eli has also spent seven years volunteering with an organization that provides inclusive social experiences for kids with disabilities and has worked as a camp counselor, cooking assistant, and a paddle board instructor! Along with this, he also worked on a horse ranch teaching kids with special needs how to ride horses. We also can’t forget to mention that on top of his Apogee leading experience, Eli also attended Apogee’s Pacific Coast biking trip as a student in 2017!