The Brave Plunge retreat, an optional retreat for sophomores, immerses students into life as a homeless person. 

 This retreat takes place overnight in various locations in the Seattle area. The participants on the retreat do service and take place in activities that reflect struggles experienced by homeless people everyday. 

 “Through challenges, frustrations, and the discomfort I felt on this retreat, I grew a deeper compassion for the daily struggles of someone experiencing homelessness,” said Emme Leonard. 

The four leaders for the retreat attended the retreat as sophomores Peter Kearney, Frances Kent, Emme Leonard, Eliza Wells. Sacrificed their late starts and free time to put forth the best possible retreat experience for the sophomores. They took over the brunt of planning the retreat with some oversight from Ms. Manon Cypher who is the Campus Ministry Service Director.

“I think the really unique thing about this retreat is that instead of adults doing most of the planning and leading, the student leaders were really allowed a lot of freedom in what we did on the retreat which made it a really special experience,”said Wells.

The actual activities that occur on the retreat are kept secret to make sure the retreat always has the ability to fully draw people into the experience. However, the leaders were in consensus of opinion that the retreat had a deeply profound impact on them, and opened their eyes as sophomores and again as juniors. 

“Hearing the stories of the people at Mary’s Place is something that I will definitely carry with me for a long time,” said Kearney.  

All the leaders said the hardest part of the planning process was scheduling a good time to meet, with fall sports practice, part-time jobs, zero periods, and other leadership planning meetings it was extremely difficult. So why did they take time out of their already busy lives to lead this retreat? 

“I had such a good experience on Brave Plunge as a Sophomore I wanted to be able to share that same experience with another class of people and ensure it is as impactful for them as it was for me,” said Kent.