What helped you find clarity?
I felt directionless. I reflected on my past experiences and talked with mentors and friends. To make more time to network and find a more permanent solution I reduced the number of jobs I was working and dropped from 75 hours a week to 30 or 40.
Then, a wedding. Friends from SpringHill were getting married and tons of SpringHill people were there. I was hearing their stories—it was really healing. It helped me gain perspective and re-focus on SpringHill as an opportunity. The idea kept coming back to me.
I reached out to one of my good friends and co-workers who was still at SpringHill. We started the conversation about what it would look like for me to return. I knew I wanted to work in some area of camp ministry, but I don’t know what next step to take.
My friend introduced a new program—the Emerging Leader Program (ELP)—and encouraged me to pray about it.
I quickly discovered there was a school component. I didn’t think anything about it. I’m not academically focused. I do not excel in academia. Lectures, testing, homework—that’s not for me.
Conservation courses from my undergrad is a lot of hands-on, tactile, outdoor work. If a professor was lecturing it was in the mountains or by a lake. It wasn’t a traditional learning experience.
I got connected with Jon Ackley-Jelinek, the Director of Young Adult Experiences at SpringHill, and honestly, it was the Lord’s timing. I was at a conference with my church and he called me and shared more about the Emerging Leader Program.
There was a lot of information in that phone call but by the end of it, I felt like I had a job. More importantly, a direction. It was evident this program was built for me.
I applied I and interviewed one week before the semester started. Within that week, I decided to move to Grand Rapids.
How did you feel about starting the program so quickly?
I was terrified. I came in a week or two before the semester started. I sped into graduate school as someone who didn’t love the typical school environment.
I came from a S.T.E.M background. We share facts, not feelings. My first class that talked about self-leadership through self-reflection took focus off the heavy academics so that we can first focus on our relationship with God and assess how I lead.
Sure, I’m writing papers, but I am learning so much about myself. The theories I am learning can be immediately applied to my life.
What’s the work experience been like?
I’m fully engulfed in what it takes to run a camp. I’m involved in deeper conversations about what it actually takes to run camp…business, guest services, etc… It’s such a multi-faceted organization.
Right now we’re deep in summer recruiting. The last couple of months we’ve also been hosting winter retreats. Campus visits, connecting with undergraduate students, sharing more about the SpringHill summer experience is the focus.
What’s one interesting or intriguing thing you have learned recently?
There’s lots, I don’t know if I can narrow it. I think it’s interesting how God’s presence can be felt by so many people in so many different ways. It’s been interesting to see how place can impact people.
For example, our Michigan overnight property gets a lot of traffic from people who may never come in the summer and vice versa. People have such strong seasonal connections to camp and the property. It’s been interesting to see how God meets people through it.
With the ELP program and how new it is…there’s so much room for it to grow and be shaped by those who pursue it. While I’m a guinea pig, of sorts, there’s so much room for participants to shape their own experience into what they need from it.
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