On October 19, the freshman class participated in the Freshman Day Retreat in person. The retreat took place over three separate sessions where students, organized by their home room teacher, arrived at various times throughout the day. Because of COVID restrictions, the retreat could not take place in the Smith Gym like it typically would but instead on Cronin Field. 

Months of planning were put into making the Freshman Day Retreat. Campus Minister Don Clarke along with the assistance of English teacher Konrad Reinhardt planned, altered, and insured the retreat followed CDC guidelines frequently. 

Retreats at Jesuit are always student led. Those who have experienced the retreat before are too pass their wisdom on to those students who have not. For this retreat, seniors were the student leads. 

“It works better when it is student led,” Mr. Reinhardt said. “Especially a senior to a freshman because you are their finish line. You are what they want to be when they are done with their four years here.”

On the day of the retreat, students arrived one group at a time where they checked in at their specific gate, had their temperature taken, given hand sanitizer, and finally instructed to sit in their assigned area. This was the first time the freshman had been on campus at the same time and, for some, the first time ever seeing their classmates outside of a screen. 

“I knew a couple of people coming into Jesuit but my home room was full of unfamiliar faces,” freshman Avery Fritz said. “It was super cool to be able to actually be able to interact with my classmates even though we could not be super close. It just made me excited for when I will get to go back to school”. 

The retreat held as many of the same activities as possible from the following years, though many were not within the COVID-19 restrictions. Students learned new songs, participated in Bible trivia, listened to choir singing, and of course, participated in the infamous Rock Paper Scissors tournament. 

“I still remember the Rock Paper Scissors tournament from my freshman year,” senior lead KJ Tinsley said. “It was such a fun way to bring us together as a class and I could tell it was doing the same thing with this class, no matter how different it was”.

The final part of the retreat was student talks and interaction. Each small group consisted of two senior leads along with a home room class of freshman. The small group started off with a couple ice breakers such as “what is your favorite comfort food,” following with senior talks. The first talk given surrounded friendships, specifically detailing friendships during quarantine. Students were then given questions of interpretation to discuss with a classmate and eventually share with the group. Freshman got to know new classmates while getting advice from their two senior leads. 

“As much as I loved the Rock Paper Scissors tournament, my favorite part of the retreat was definitely the senior talks,” Fritz said. “It was cool to hear about their lives when they were freshmen, it made high school seem a whole lot less scary”. 

This retreat could not have been done without Mr. Reinhardt and especially Mr. Clarke. Over the last weeks, Mr. Clarke has been fine tuning this retreat so everyone who wanted to participate would be able too. 

“Overall I think the retreat was a success,” Mr. Reinhardt said. “ I texted a couple of the freshman parents just saying ‘how did they come home?’ And they said they came home with smiles on their faces”.