“Freedom and Brotherhood, Service and Friendship, Dear Mother, help us to cherish your dream. Teach us to seek truth and form us into your sons. Jesuit, implant in us all God’s love.”
We sing the words of our Alma Mater after every Friday morning prayer service, its opening phrase creating a concrete reminder that reinforces who we are as a Jesuit community: a Brotherhood. In order to maintain this ideal, Jesuit holds regularly scheduled retreats throughout each year. Although some retreats center largely around spiritual development, others like the Senior Community Days focus more on the bonding of friendships and the creation of an even larger network of relationships in the Jesuit community.
For three days, the senior class takes a trip to an undisclosed location where they experience a social revitalization. On
Tuesday, September 16, 2014, the class of 2015 loaded onto the charter buses idling outside the front of the school and headed out on their first and last Community Days. According to Mr. Mark Knize, Assistant Principal of Student Affairs, “The goal of Community Days is in the title. It is three days dedicated towards community building, providing a chance for the class of 2015 to take ownership of where they are in their individual lives and collectively build the community from that on a common ground.” During the Community Days experience, “everyone has a place at the table.”
This year’s Community Days retreat was a unique experience, filled with activities that focused on bolstering the bond between members of the senior class, centering around their “spontaneity.” Senior Michael Lanham said, “Going into Community Days, I didn’t really know what to expect. I wasn’t sure if it was going to be like retreats we had done in the past. I was pleasantly surprised, and it was a great time.”
One of the more differentiating factors that separates this retreat from others is the amount of free time given to the seniors, enabling them to socialize and communicate with each other without the distraction of faculty or the feeling of being pressured by guiding questions. Senior Enrique Berrios shared how “we had a lot more free time, and the exercises didn’t hold our hands as much.”
Another part of Community Days’ success relies on its ability to change each year, morphing into new themes and new activities that specifically address that year’s senior class. Each class obtains a different attitude and a different spirit, yet each year the goal of Community Days never changes. Highlighting the event, Mr. Knize described his favorite part of the retreat: “Seeing guys interact with classmates that they really did not know that well before they got out there. It is really the unknown factor that is the nicest thing. To have an opportunity to engage with others that you normally don’t get to on a school routine, that’s my favorite part.” The whole point of Community Days is to bring together the Jesuit seniors, creating a united force preparing them for the future of college and the rest of their lives. This retreat enforces ownership and community among members of the class. As Mr. Knize said, “the retreat brings out the best of the class.”
Emphasizing the success of the retreat, senior Patrick Joseph felt that the retreat “was extremely unique in that we weren’t focusing entirely on God, nor were we focusing on Jesuit as the entire school. We were focused on our own class, and so it felt a lot more personal because of the emotional investment each person had to put in to be honest with one another and share very private problems together.”
Senior Alexander Erturkuner described how he was excited to be a part of the Jesuit tradition, saying, “I had heard a lot of
great things about Community Days, but I was ready to experience it myself.” Erturkuner echoed his fellow classmates in that he believed the retreat “strengthened and further cemented my commitment and belief in the relationship and brotherhood that I have built in my time at Jesuit…I found this retreat special because it was solely committed to building relationships and furthering bonds within the class; I will never forget my Senior Community Days.”
Successfully “cherishing Mother Mary’s dream” in Jesuit’s Alma Mater, the Senior Community Days served as another key milestone for the Class of 2015, continuing the seniors’ formation at Jesuit and preparing them for life thereafter. Joseph reflects on what he can take from the retreat and carry with him the rest of his life, saying, “I will take with me the idea that I should try to have intentional, meaningful conversations with people I know or even people I meet for the first time because everyone deserves to have someone listen to them…we are human and naturally need other people in order to live life.”
