Reflection on First Year's Orientation

Here’s a reflection on the recent Quaker Leadership Scholars pre-term orientation for the incoming first years. One of the co-clerks of the Quaker Leaderhip Scholars Program for this academic year, Sarah Stangl ‘12, eloquently put together her thoughts on the retreat. Her reflections are insightful and informative. This post is a little longer than previous posts, but I assure you it is worth it. It’s a great pleasure to welcome Sarah as our first guest blogger.

QLSP First Year Retreat  August 15-18

I can’t believe that it is already time to usher in the new generation of “Quaker Leadership Scholars” here at Guilford. While it is hard to see the summer end, I think we are all eagerly anticipating a great year in the QLSP. We are all grateful to have started off on the right foot with a tiring but wonderful first year retreat last week. The new first year students arrived on campus, excited but nervous, Monday afternoon. They were greeted by the lovely Deborah Shaw '84, director of the QLSP program, as well as our new star-do-it-all Friends Center intern, Nathan Sebens ‘06, and our three co-clerks, Liz Nicholson ‘12, Sarah Stangl ‘12, and Heather Von Bodungen ‘12. There was also a celebrity sighting of two QLSP second years, Mace Smith ‘14 and Keenan Lorenzato ‘14.

A favorite icebreaker is this game, called Ninja.

      As soon as we had finished our hour or so of meet and greets, name games, sharing of summer experiences and finishing last minute preparations, we all piled into the notorious Guilford vans and headed to High Point Friends Meeting. Emily Albert (second year QLSP) warmly greeted us, gave us a tour of the beautiful meetinghouse and facilities and helped us feel at home. We settled in quickly, reconnecting with our inner-child on the large playground behind the meetinghouse, playing various ice-breaker type games, and eating delicious pizza. After dinner we opened the space for some worshipful sharing and listening, in which the returning QLSP students briefly shared their spiritual backgrounds and talked about what QLSP has meant to them during their time at Guilford. It was great to hear several personal narratives as an introduction to QLSP. We wanted to demonstrate that QLSP is a very diverse group and has very diverse meanings for the members of our community. The evening ended with some down time, in which we all enjoyed some Hide-and-Seek, singing, and late-night snacks.

            We woke up bright and early Tuesday morning and headed to a service opportunity in High Point. We met the first year Bonner Scholars students, accompanied by the Bonner staff and some service site project coordinators. After introductions between the two groups, we spent the morning listening to a panel of local good-samaritans discuss the growing concerns of the hungry, the homeless, and the mentally ill in the Greensboro-High Point area. They shared some very moving personal testimonies about facing and overcoming such difficulties. The panel’s presentation certainly served as a call-to-action and as an introduction to the community’s needs to those of us new to the area and new to the Guilford service experience.  It is so important that we not forget or ignore our call to live with compassion and strive to allow all members of our community to reach their full potential.

Many students slept on the lawn at Tony and Judy's.

            After the presentation ended, we said goodbye to our Bonner friends and headed to Pilot Mountain for a picnic lunch and an afternoon hike. The weather was splendid and the view from the “knob” of the mountain into southern Virginia and northern North Carolina was beautiful. We were spoiled with beautiful views that day because our next stop was Fancy Gap, Virginia, a small Virginian town tucked into the Blue Ridge Mountains. Tony Lowe and Judy Upchurch (parents of QLSP graduate Ruth Lowe ‘10) opened their beautiful home to us for the evening and their hospitality was just as breath-taking as the scenic views from their front porch. A table full of homemade baked goods, along with cozy couches for napping and lots of open space to run free helped us feel right at home. After a delicious pasta dinner and energizing game of Frisbee, we settled into a worshipful gathering to listen to the Quaker witness of our hosts Tony and Judy, as well as Trish Sebens ’72 and Jeff Sebens (parents of our very own intern Nathan Sebens ‘06). They each shared unique and thought provoking messages which all spoke to the importance of embracing diversity and convergence within the varied spectrum of the Religious Society of Friends. The evening winded down with musical sharing and sleeping under the star-lit night sky.

One of our tasks was cleaning and organizing cots.

            Wednesday morning introduced us to the service component of the Quaker Leadership Scholars program. We spent the morning and part of the afternoon at the Red Cross headquarters Galax, VA. With our combined efforts we were able to clean and store the facilities cots, clean out the organization’s car, and clean, sort and re-arrange the organization’s donation shed. During lunch we briefly learned about the Red Cross’s history and role in the community. It was a messy but enjoyable morning and we walked away with some fun knick-knacks as well as a better understanding of the significance of emergency response organizations such as the Red Cross.

            Our last stop of the retreat was Science Hill Friends Meeting in Asheboro, North Carolina. We arrived late Wednesday afternoon and were greeted by Michael Fulp Jr. ‘05, pastor of Science Hill and QLSP graduate, as well as our very own Frank Massey, gifts discernment coordinator for the Friends Center and a QLSP guru. Michael Fulp gave us a tour of the meetinghouse and then the co-clerks spent some time explaining the structure and functioning of QLSP to the first years. Max Carter, campus ministry coordinator and director of the Friends Center, and his wife Jane Carter also joined us for the evening’s activities. After some down time and a delicious dinner, we listened to Michael’s personal testimony as a QLSP alumnae and an individual called to ministry. While his story provoked a lot of laughter, it was also an important insight into the strength and effect of the QLSP community and the wider Quaker community in Michael’s life.

            After Michael’s sharing, the first year group looked inward and began the important work of spiritual sharing on a personal level. The co-clerks and the returning second years, along with the help of Deborah and Frank, led the group in the “Spectrum Activity”, in which we had the opportunity to visually recognize the diversity of spiritual background and beliefs within the group. This activity provoked some deeply centered sharing and served as a good starting point for the important work that the first years will be doing this year as they get to know themselves and each other. We ended the evening with a worshipful sharing of our expectations, both for our selves and for the QLSP community, over the upcoming year. The evening’s sharing demonstrated that the first year experience is bound to be an at-times challenging yet fruitful journey. 

            We arose early Thursday morning for some hearty Quaker oatmeal to help us prepare for our return to campus. After cleaning, packing and giving thanks for a wonderful first retreat, we piled into the vans and headed back to Guilford. We arrived back on campus just in time to throw ourselves into the chaos (and CHAOS) of the arrival of the freshman and the beginning of orientation. While it was slightly overwhelming to jump right into the hustle and bustle of Guilford life, we were grateful to have had a week long opportunity to ground ourselves, seek spiritual center, and begin to make good friends in the Guilford community. We look forward eagerly and anxiously for the growth and challenge that the upcoming year holds in store for us. Thank you to all involved in planning and carrying out the retreat for introducing us to the Guilford QLSP experience.

Sarah Stangl '12, Co-Clerk QLSP