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ASSIST News Service (ANS) –
PO Box 609, Lake Forest, CA 92609-0609 USA
Visit our web site at: www.assistnews.net — E-mail: assistnews@aol.com
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
The First 72 Hours on Campus
By Gordon Govier
Special to ASSIST News Service
MADISON WI
(ANS) – Few freshmen arriving on campus for the start of a new academic year realize how important their first 72 hours will be. The outcome oftheir entire collegiate career hangs in the balance. That may sound extreme, but John Decker, an InterVarsity volunteer at SyracuseUniversity, has seen it over and over again.
Everything is different on campus
“The Christian kids are landing in a perfect storm of loneliness,
temptation, and culture shock that tragically pulls the majority of
them away from Christ. If they are connected ahead of time to a campus
ministry and church, most of them succeed and enter a time of
accelerated spiritual growth,” Decker said.
Jeff
Schadt saw the same thing as a staff worker with Campus Crusade for
Christ. To help facilitate the transition from high school to college,
especially for Christian students, he launched the Youth Transition
Network (YTN), which now works with more than 65 partner organizations, including InterVarsity and Campus Crusade.
“Most
incoming freshmen believe that the transition will be easy and they
don’t have to prepare,” Schadt said. “But then they hit campus and are
overwhelmed.”
Resources are available
For the second year in a row, YTN is offering SUCCEED
2010 to give high school juniors and seniors and their parents an
opportunity to attend a live simulcast that covers the social,
spiritual, financial, academic, and time-management issues that
students face. “We’ll address their practical needs as well as their
spiritual needs,” Schadt said.
SUCCEED
2010 will be held Saturday, February 27, 2010, at 50 locations around
the country. More information on this simulcast is available at YTN’s parent and pastor website www.YTN.org.
Those who cannot attend this event can still sign up at the website to
be notified about future similar events, or to get information on a DVD package that will be offered with similar content.
SUCCEED
2010 offers new opportunities for communication. A father who attended
last year’s simulcast wrote: “I could have never had the discussions
with my son apart from the college student videos and speakers opening
him up to the challenges and issues ahead, paving the way for
discussion and giving me access to help my son in transition.”
The
simulcasts are typically hosted in churches. Jeremy Taylor, the high
school director for Black Rock Congregational Church in Fairfield, CT,
saw 10 of his students participate in the simulcast last year. “Most of
them were blown away by the idea that their first 72 hours at college
were the most important in staying strong in their faith,” he reported.
“Talking with the students later, they said that much of
what they learned from the webcast was true about their first days at
college. Many of them were able to find Christian roommates and plug
into campus ministries because of the website. The result, all of the
graduates continued in their faith and connected to ministries.”
YTN has a specific website www.LiveAbove.com
to help incoming students connect with ministries and potential
Christian roommates at their school. Campus ministry staff receive
email notifications from inquiring high school students.
If students want a Christian roommate, both will need to inform their college by around May 1st. YTN
encourages the college ministries to suggest to incoming freshmen that
they add themselves to the Roommates Wanted section of
LiveAbove.com at
the campus they will attend. The number of roommate candidates will
grow as LiveAbove.com becomes a standard part of the youth ministry in
more and more churches.
College can be a Time of Accelerated Faith Growth
John Decker is well aware of the studies reporting that up to
80-percent of Christian high school students leave their Christian
faith in college. He says the outcome can be different for those
students who connect with campus ministries, radically different. It
can be a time of accelerated growth in their faith.
“When
a freshmen is on his/her own for the first time, and in the midst of a
campus community who is serving Christ of their own volition, an
awakening and ownership of the faith happens. The Holy Spirit has more
access to them than ever,” Decker said.
When students are
pre-connected to a campus ministry, it’s easy for them to naturally and
relationally invite non-believers to new student outreach activities
during the first weeks on campus. Decker cited two students who came to
the University of Nebraska from different parts of the country, and
decided to become roommates through www.LiveAbove.com. “They knew ahead
of time which ministry they wanted to connect with. During their first
days on campus they invited four people from their dorm to go with them
to that ministry. Now, all six are walking together with Christ.”
Jeff Schadt uses a football analogy to encourage parents to take advantage of YTN’s resources. He compares the SUCCEED 2010 simulcast and DVD
to the two-minute drill used by football teams at the end of the ball
game. “Don’t fumble the ball in the last few minutes,” he said.
With www.YTN.org and www.LiveAbove.com,
Christian parents have the resources they need to prepare their high
school student for success in college—educationally, spiritually, and
socially. YTN encourages campus ministry
staff and college students to inform their pastors and friends about
these websites so that this year’s wave of high school graduate will
survive and thrive on campus.
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<!–BYLINE:By Gordon Govier
Special to ASSIST News Service–>
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