One of the best ways a person can show appreciation for a gift he has been given is to give it in turn to others. At Magdalen College, giving and receiving come full circle through the Summer Youth Program.
Each year, the Summer Youth Program draws nearly a hundred young people between the ages of fifteen and eighteen. They attend daily Mass, classes in philosophy, catechesis, and liturgical music and participate in drama and sports activities. The young students live in the college residences and experience first-hand the responsibilities of a common life. Several day trips take them into the White Mountains for hiking, to the Atlantic Ocean for swimming and to Boston to see the historical sights of the city.
The Summer Youth Program provides an excellent opportunity for young high school students to meet and grow in friendship, not only with each other, but also with the Magdalen College students who serve as counselors. In the counselors, the Summer Youth Program participants find role models and guides for living a faithful Catholic life in a challenging modern world.
Each year, at least eight Magdalen College students serve as Summer Youth Program counselors. They take on positions of authority and responsibility while receiving training and guidance from college faculty and staff. As the guardians of as many as thirty-five high school students per session, counselors learn to exercise selflessness and perseverance. They grow in friendship with the Summer Youth Program participants and with one another. Their hearts and minds are expanded to welcome young people from a variety of backgrounds and family situations.
Through daily conversations and activities they have an opportunity to reflect on their own experiences as former Summer Youth Program participants and as college students. They come to realize their own strengths and weaknesses as they meet the daily challenges of “counselor.” Even when their own efforts might fail, they see that the Program as a whole never fails to succeed.
St. Francis wrote that “it is in giving that we receive” and for the young person who has gone from Summer Youth Program participant to college student to Summer Youth Program counselor at Magdalen College, truer words were never spoken. The young student-turned-counselor experiences joys and sufferings, rewards and realizations, and amid them all, catches a beautiful glimpse of the Way, the Truth, and the Life at work.
For more information on the Summer Youth Program, please call Nyssa Garcia, Summer Youth Program Coordinator at 1-877-498-1723 (toll-free) or email [email protected].
