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VIA: FRESHMAN RETREAT HELPS STUDENTS FIND THEIR PLACE AT RJ
This school year, Regis Jesuit re-envisioned its first-year experience for all freshmen. Reintroduced this year as VIA, a Latin word meaning “the way,” the program comprises several events and activities designed to orient, include and welcome all our ninth graders and their families into our RJHS community. Activities began with Compass Day before classes began in August. Then came Magis 26 Day as the students got to know each other better and were welcomed into the student stands with the Freshman Run-In at the first football game. VIA reached a crescendo of faith and fellowship earlier this month with Freshman Retreat.
A staple of the Regis Jesuit pastoral program since 2008, this retreat, introduced the 424 members of the Class of 2026 and their families to our retreat program. Led by juniors and seniors and supported by hundreds of other students, the retreat takes place primarily on campus over two days beginning Thursday evening and ending Saturday morning. Together, throughout the retreat, the students pray, share reflections on their faith in God, and discuss the real meaning of sisterhood/brotherhood through the gift of authentic, loving relationships.
Freshman Retreat is a labor of love months in the making with planning that includes more than three hundred students and one hundred faculty. Senior, junior and sophomore students are integral in the planning, programming and leadership of this critical formational experience for our newest community members.
We were so grateful to be able to present Freshman Retreat in its entirety for the first time since December 2019 prior to the COVID pandemic. Additionally, after many years of holding it in December or January, we moved the retreat up in the school calendar to October to continue the momentum built with Compass and Magis 26 Days in August and September, the hope being that the values of faith, friendship and formation will take deeper root with our freshmen earlier. The last piece of the VIA program will take place at the end of second semester with Cannonball Day, a fun and poignant way for the students to punctuate their first year of high school.
VIA is organized by our Pastoral Ministries Office, with Fr. Eric Ramirez, Pastoral Director, at the helm, leading a faculty team and more than 120 junior and senior student-leaders who mentor and guide their group of ninth graders throughout their first year at RJHS.
We are tremendously grateful to the team of Fr. Ramirez, Amanda Houser ‘17, Sarah Milhollan ‘09, Trevor Jackson, Sophia Wilson, Andrew Connor and Sajit Kabadi who work collaboratively on the planning and programming of all VIA events including Freshman Retreat, as well as to the junior and senior leaders who share their faith and life experiences with our new students to ensure they find their place and home here at Regis Jesuit.
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Regis Jesuit High School admits students of any race, color, national and ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national and ethnic origin in administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship and loan programs, athletic and other school-administered programs.