Several Loyola students got a chance to bond over music, food and bonfires at the recently held First-Year Retreat.
The retreat, which was held Sept. 18-20 at the Fountainbleau State Park, gave freshmen students a chance to bond with other freshmen and reflect on the challenges and opportunities of beginning their lives at Loyola.
Laura Alexander, university ministry assistant director, said the retreat was led by mostly sophomores and juniors, with a total of 32 freshmen and 14 upperclassmen in attendance.
The retreat itself was full of activities. Each freshman was put in a small group with two of the retreat leaders. This exercise gave students a chance to know and understand their peers better.
Maddie Wood, psychology freshman, said the best part of the retreat was being in small groups.
“I felt really close with the people I was talking to, and then also just hanging out at the bonfire in the company of everybody else was nice because you got to interact in an environment where you don’t have to be constantly supervised,” Wood said.
At night, students gathered around a bonfire, played music on guitars and sang songs. Staff members played religious music while freshmen got the chance to meditate and throw written notes into the bonfire.
According to Logan Griswold, philosophy senior, he really enjoyed the interaction between the staff members and the retreat attendees.
“What was cool was that the stratification between the staff and the retreaters wasn’t all that intense, so it was easy to integrate, there was almost a peer-to-peer dynamic,” Girswold said.
Over the course of the weekend, the upperclassmen gave pep talks to the freshmen about the struggles they faced in relationships, building their future, moving away from home and the lessons they learned while at Loyola.
Wood said she learned a lot about herself at the retreat.
“Just the impact that I have on others. There was a lot of positivity and some negatives, but it was almost a positive negative, like there were times where you could talk about more heavy things and still end up with a good result,” Woods said.
