Looking back at last week’s annual freshman retreat at the Church of St. Patrick, staff, students, and peer ministers reflect on their overall experiences.
Every year, the ninth grade class sets out on a grade-wide retreat. There they bond, talk, pray, reflect, and play games. Through this retreat, the goal is to connect the freshman class, and prepare them for the rest of their journey here at BSM. Campus minister Nick Brady was mainly organizing this year’s retreat. Brady had high hopes for this retreat. “I was hoping the theme of the character of a Red Knight would play in with the ninth grade class as they’re starting to kind of figure out how they become a member of this community senior high. I was hoping that landed along with the three virtues we focused on which are generosity and prudence and patience,” Brady said.
One key highlight of the freshman retreat was writing a letter to your future self where the students write a letter, seal it in an envelope, and wait to open it senior year. Most students love this concept and really enjoyed the experience. “[writing my letter] made me sit down and think about my life and made me think about what I cherish right now at this point in my life. I think it’s a good addition to the retreat because it’s definitely something to look forward to your senior year,” freshman Daniela Johannson said.
[writing my letter] made me sit down and think about my life and made me think about what I cherish right now at this point in my life. I think it’s a good addition to the retreat because it’s definitely something to look forward to your senior year
— Daniela Johannson
Along with the freshman attentendees, junior and senior peer ministers as well as youth ministers also attended the retreats as small group leaders and speakers. The peer ministers were there to lead the freshman in discussion and make them feel comfortable as they were once freshman here at BSM. Youth ministers also attended and made a great impact on the retreat. “I would say I was really blessed as well to have some youth ministers present. We had an OLG youth minister and the St. Patrick’s youth minister was there as well. I’m really hoping to lean into those connections moving forward to bring in the local experts and youth ministry to help support some of the upcoming retreats,” Brady said.
Although there were positive reviews on the small group discussions that took place, many freshmen came to the consensus that they were wishing to have more free time or the ability to discuss with a larger group of students. “I didn’t get to talk to everybody and I felt pretty limited to only talking to my small group instead of my whole grade, and in the future I would hope there would be more time to move around because we were in the chapel or staying seated for a lot of the retreat,” freshman Brownie Wolf said.
Agreeing with the freshman, Brady enjoyed the retreat and plans on using it as a learning experience for next year. “I think next year I will probably incorporate more movement into the opportunity for students to kind of burn some of their energy and, and maybe some more team building exercises potentially. I do have plans to send out a survey to 9th graders. So I’m hopeful that they will give me some of their impressions,” Brady said.