Before you dive into C.U.B. Week, we’re taking you on a special adventure to bond with your fellow incoming students. One of the wonderful things about Principia is how small it is, and because of our small size we want you to know, 价值, respect—maybe even love—all the members of your incoming class.
Skills for 弥合差距
On this adventure we will walk you and your classmates through a program called “Skills for 弥合差距,” designed by Interfaith America. 弥合差距 envisions a society w在这里, in Interfaith America’s words, “the heroes are bridge builders.” In this program you’ll learn skills for how to engage with others across deep divides so that you can authentically 价值 people who may be very different from you.
第一个, 你会探究其中的原因, based on your spiritual or religious worldview, you might want to build bridges at all (for us at Principia, a Christian Science college, our motives are grounded in Jesus’ story of the Good Samaritan, in which Jesus taught that we must love our neighbor—and our neighbor isn’t necessarily from our neighborhood!). You’ll then learn skills like how to truly listen to others, how to share stories about your 价值s and worldviews, and how to navigate tension constructively and engage in difficult conversations.
You can read more about the 弥合差距 program curriculum 在这里.
All cabins have air conditioning and private bathrooms.
撤退
Your retr吃 begins the day after you arrive on campus in August, and it lasts for four days and three nights. We’re taking you on a trip to the beautiful, 放松, fun and all-inclusive setting of CedarS Camps in Lebanon, 密苏里州, about three and a half hours away from campus. Here you can participate in activities that help you put the 弥合差距 skills into immediate practice with your peers.
When you’re not actively engaged in learning 弥合差距, you’ll be able to choose connection-building experiences based on your comfort, 活动, 兴趣水平. Choice of activities will range from arts and crafts to conversation groups, to indoor or outdoor sports, to pool swimming and lake kayaking, to more challenging experiences such as waterskiing, 射箭, zipline, 或者骑马. We will ask all students to engage in one low ropes 活动 to whatever degree they are able to participate. (You won’t be expected to swim or wear a swimsuit if that is not comfortable for you.)
We want you to have fun and support your classmates through these activities. You’ll have many opportunities to get to know each other deeply, including by staying in (single gender) cabins with members of your house back at Principia. (The cabins are all air conditioned, and each has private bathrooms.) This retr吃 is a special opportunity to live, 吃, and bond with the people you will spend the next four years with at Principia.
CedarS Camps is the perfect location for this retr吃. While CedarS is a Christian Science based organization that provides summer camp experiences for Christian Science youth, you should know that you will be engaged in an interfaith program, in which all students will have the opportunity to share and discuss their individual faith practices and spiritual perspectives. 弥合差距 teaches respect for religious diversity without proselytizing on behalf of any religion. We expect you to be respectful and friendly towards the religious nature of both CedarS and Principia College—and to be respectful and friendly towards the faith backgrounds of all students. With this approach in mind, we hope you will enjoy a transforming and uplifting pre-fall retr吃 that sets you up to succeed in your student journey at Principia College!