Travel Recap

All Campus Retreat

March 2017
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Van, Texas – February 17-19, 2017

Submitted by: Greg Oberg, Campus Minister/Director

Every year since the mid-1970s, the SHSU Methodist Student Center (also known as the Wesley Foundation) has participated in an event known as, “All Campus Retreat,” and combine with other Methodist Student Center crews from all over Texas. This year, we combined forces with 230 other college students at Sky Ranch in Van, TX for the weekend of February 17-19. It was a weekend of workshops, activities, fellowship, small groups and more.

The students took the Gallup Poll Inc.’s, Strengths Finder Assessment Tool to discover their leadership potential, their strengths, and learn more about how they are wired. There were certified coaches leading these workshops on the Saturday morning and evening of All Campus Retreat. There were multiple speakers throughout the weekend that led various talks about discovering gifts, finding the courage to use them, and learning more about team dynamics. Each speaker also led question and answer sessions with the students.

“My students came through the weekend, understanding more of their personality, their passion, their gifts, their abilities. Multiple students had decided to change majors to find one that better fit them, and to enter a field where they would be more compatible. Our students also felt more confident to face their studies and academic work, knowing they would be a pathway to become a productive citizen in the work force. Plus, our students bonded together really well and forged deeper friendships. This is crucial in a time of anti-social behavior among Millennials,” said Greg Oberg.

Although there were no awards given during the retreat, two SHSU students were elected to serve as student representatives on the Board of Campus Ministry of the Texas Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. There are only four slots for students to represent 10 different campus ministries, and to participate in decisions. Decisions include the allocation of a $1.2 million budget among the ten campus ministries. According to Mr. Oberg, the SHSU delegation was not the largest, however, “it was inspiring to see many students from different campus ministries (like Texas A&M, Tyler, and even SFA) vote for our two candidates. We believe this is the first time we have had two SHSU students on the Board of Campus Ministry. This was not a weekend where campus ministries competed against one another in any form. However, our organization did contribute to the event. Our praise team led the music on Saturday morning for the first session of the day.”

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