Westmont杂志 Trailhead Gives High School Students New Ways to Look at Life
Sharon Savely Odegaard 1972年著
每年夏天, the Trailhead program invites high school students to live in the residence halls at Westmont and spend a week exploring God’s call to live a meaningful life. 由盖德文理学院管理, 这个项目鼓励创造力, 好奇心和ag娱乐官网. This spiritual retreat with an academic component cultivates complex discussions. Students spend their days reflecting on their interests, passions, values and strengths.
Kinzie warn - mcgraw ' 24 loved Trailhead so much she attended the program for two summers — those before her sophomore and junior years in high school. The professors care about nurturing students, which impressed and inspired Kinzie. “They see students as whole people who can benefit from spiritual formation, 哪些可以通过各种媒介来实现,她说。. “The faculty encouraged us to use art, nature walks and poetry to connect with God and each other.”
Kinzie found the listening groups, which include three to six students, to be particularly helpful. 一个学生讲故事，其他学生听, focused on the emotions of the storyteller as well as the content. This empathetic listening, with time for quiet and reflection, lies at the core of Trailhead.
A sociology major, she also appreciates the weaving together of faith and justice. Trailhead encourages students to pursue a lifestyle of caring about human flourishing. Kinzie’s group worked with Immigrant Hope, run by a church in downtown Santa Barbara. They provide services recent immigrants need for daily life, 包括从物资到法律援助的一切. “这强大的一天触动了我，”肯齐说. “我们首先从圣经中读到帮助别人的呼吁. Immigrant Hope then showed me the integration of social justice and the gospel in action.
“The experiences at Trailhead proved super helpful in college and for life in general,” says Kinzie. Spring semester she participated in the Westmont in San Francisco program, living in the city and working at the Chinese Medicine Clinic as a clinic assistant. Even away from campus, Kinzie practices what she learned at Trailhead. She enjoys nature walks and continues to paint, creating art. 这些活动帮助她与上帝保持联系.
纳什·加维，25年 也参加了2019年和2020年的两个夏天. “Both were important milestones in my personal and academic development,” he says. “从教授那里学习的经历, engaging with staff from the Gaede Institute and meeting other like-minded students helped shape my perception of Westmont. 这是我选择申请韦斯特蒙特的一个主要因素.”
Trailhead gave 纳什 a new perspective of how community in Christ can function. “这是我一生中为数不多的几次, I was surrounded by peers who had the same desire to serve the Lord, which was a monumental change in my involvement with others in faith.”
纳什 appreciated that professors encouraged input from many different views on sensitive topics, while standing their ground in their convictions of truth and faith. “在一个日益分化的世界里，”他说. “I wanted to be refined by an environment that would respect individual ideas but hold fast to the pursuit of becoming a critical thinker.”
Trailhead delves deeply into life issues but also builds in time for recreation. During 纳什’s 2019 experience, the group spent time hanging out at East Beach. 他们沿着海岸乘船游览到夏默兰, 从水中欣赏圣巴巴拉的美景. At other times, the counselors and students got coffee together downtown.
在Trailhead形成的友谊可以持久. 纳什, 哲学专业, 春天在开罗和韦斯特蒙特一起学习, 他和在Trailhead认识的一个朋友住在一起.
纳什 enjoyed and benefited from Trailhead so much that he encouraged his younger sister to apply. She attended trailhead in 2022 before her junior year of high school. “She and I shared a similar reaction to the program,” he says. 她期待着秋天申请韦斯特蒙特大学.”
克里斯蒂·菲利普斯，23岁 在她高中三年级之前，她就去了Trailhead. She believes in the value of the program and volunteered to serve as a mentor for two summers during her time at Westmont.
The program provides space for reflection and slowing down, which Kristie sees as invaluable. Her group met regularly under the canopy of an old oak tree on campus. 他们在那里做礼拜. They walked the meandering trails, 太, observing and analyzing.
Now, as an English major at Westmont, Kristie continues to value that kind of space. “If I want to have a life with margins, I have to defend it rigorously,她说。. 她确实做到了. Good things come up every week that she could say “yes” to. But she leaves enough room in her life to spend time in God’s presence.
Trailhead exposes students to the difficult parts of the world, explaining how the world is broken and how to look for God in the hard places. Kristie learned about race and justice and about chronic pain, an eye-opening experience for a somewhat naive high schooler. When a person suffering with PTSD came to talk to the students, the group discussed the way Jesus still meets those who suffer chronically, 就像他在世时那样. Trailhead doesn’t shy away from difficulty but encourages faith and reliance on God. Students discover for themselves that they can handle hard realities.
克里斯蒂很欣赏Trailhead轻松的一面, 太, 比如熟悉圣巴巴拉. “我们乘船去看海豚, 我们去打保龄球了, we went to the trampoline park and we watched fireworks on the Fourth of July from the Mission lawn,她说。.
那些参加Trailhead的人学习基本知识, such as resilience and respect and that listening is a form of loving. 教训是深刻的, 事实证明，这种纽带是持久的, and the students leave with 太ls to live a vibrant life in the kingdom of God.
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