Upper School Class Retreats Focus on "Need, Be, Give"

At the beginning of each school year, the Upper School spends the day together in class retreats to build rapport and unity. The Upper School met first in the Chapel, offering students a chance to begin the day supporting each other spiritually while participating in Eucharist. Each grade level also devoted some portion of their day engaging in a discussion with the focus of “Need, Be, Give.” The intent of the discussion was to encourage each grade level to think about unity in the Upper School by identifying (1) what we need from others in the community, (2) what we want to be in the community on both individual and collective levels, and (3) what we can give to the community. The grade levels held small group discussions in their advisories and then came together as a class to decide what they wanted to report to the rest of the Upper School. Each of the grade levels have been reporting their findings during chapel, with the Freshmen and Sophomores speaking this past week and the Juniors and Seniors speaking this week.

After the “Need, Be, Give” exercises, each grade broke out for different activities:

Freshmen spent their morning engaging in community service at five different sites including Louisiana School for the Visually Impaired, Melrose Elementary, BREC Bluebonnet Swamp, LSU Museum of Art’s Mid-City office, and The Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank.

Sophomores enjoyed laser tag after the morning activities.

The juniors took part in an art  project composed of a tree made of their hand prints and inspirational words supporting the retreat theme of “Need, Be, Give.”  The junior class then gathered together at Cajun Lagoon, enjoying water activities and just hanging out with one another.  Finally, the juniors closed the day coming back together with their fellow classmates in Chapel.

The Class of 2016 went to Camp Istrouma where they worked together to plan the theme for homecoming. Later, they enjoyed various outdoor activities including swimming, basketball, a zipline, and a water slide.

It was a great day for the Upper School.