Some claim that students have a way of swaying their peers in a way that faculty and staff just can’t.
For almost a decade, the Awakening retreat has been organized by students who say they want to bring the same excitement to newcomers as they felt they received when they first went. This semester, the retreat was held March 25-27.
Jesus Garcia, accounting senior, attended Awakening five years ago for the first time and led the spring 2011 retreat.
“I think it’s important to remember that the point of the Awakening is that it’s run by the community of students for the community of students,” Garcia said.
Kristie Hadley, spring retreat student rector and sociology senior, said the student community embraces new retreaters.
“The community doesn’t end even after the retreat,” Hadley said.
“A lot of student leaders have become my best friends. If faculty was doing it, it wouldn’t have meant as much.”
“You realize that student leaders are not that much different than you,” Garcia said. “Rather than a professor telling you this is how things are, it’s someone you kind of look up to, someone you want to become more like, saying this is my community and part of who I am and I want you to be a part of it,” Garcia said.
New student leaders and staff are picked for each semester’s Awakening, so every retreat is unique, Hadley said.
“It keeps it ever-changing,” Hadley said. “While the structure remains the same, the staff you pick make it their own and they make it unique. You would lose it if it was the same ideas and people running it every time.”
Joe Albin, retreat adviser, said Awakening is a reciprocal retreat.
“I mean, you go once and after that you staff it, and that creates opportunity for leadership roles in a variety of ways. Student leaders are like the Marines: they get there first and leave last.”
Zainab Aziz can be reached at
