Return to Emory Report home pageDespite reports of growing youth violence and lawlessness, many teens are eager for a face-to-face encounter with religious faith, which shouldn't be surprising, says Don Richter of the theology school. "Young people are tired of being observers; they long to speak and act, not just watch and listen. Teenagers today are ready and willing to help change the world around them."
Richter's observations are a result of directing Emory's Youth Theology Institute (YTI), a four-week summer academy for rising high school seniors from diverse backgrounds, schools and communities across the nation. Funded by a grant from the Lilly Endowment, the program awards students full scholarships to come to Atlanta for a living/learning experience that combines theological reflection, public policy debates, community service and encounters with area professionals. Fifty-nine students from 30 states arrived on campus July 1; they will be staying in Trimble Hall, eating on campus, and meeting in exploratory groups of 12 to discuss topics that range from "Models of God" and "Discerning the Spirits" to "The Ethics of Ambition" and "Science and Religion." They read a variety of texts, take field trips to related exhibits and events, and share questions and insights. One group traveled to the exhibit, "The Sacred Art of Russia," to look at how God is portrayed in art; another trekked to Plains to hear Jimmy Carter teach his Sunday School class.
Each Friday night the entire group gathers for "feast times" such as a Thai dinner followed by a coffee house featuring original poems and music or a meal and Shabbat at The Temple. "Covenant groups," composed of 10 students and a faculty member, meet four times each week and are designed to help students learn to integrate their newly-acquired knowledge into their lives. As part of this experience, they record their thoughts and experiences in a journal patterned after Pascal's "Pensees."
The program is now in its third year and more popular than ever. Richter says that's because YTI and other such residential programs can provide what he calls "sabbaticals" for young people, allowing them to separate themselves from their everyday lives and focus on who they are and what they want to become. In working with young people, says Richter, schools and churches should keep the following guidelines in mind:
* Residential learning environments are a highly effective way to teach youth how to live in community as they share life together.
* Youth camps, conferences and mission trips serve as "rites of passage" for teens, but they need help from attentive adults in integrating these experiences into their everyday lives.
* Youth are eager for vocational guidance that is more than "career counseling." They want to know the meaning and purpose of their lives. They also want to know how they can sustain their religious faith over the long haul, throughout their careers.
* Teens often draw on popular culture to express themselves spiritually, and they may not make the same distinctions between the sacred and the secular that adults make.
* Youth are eager for tangible, face-to-face encounters with the stories and practices of different religious faiths. They are ready and willing to embrace cooperation among many religious faiths.
* Youth can teach adults to take religious faith in unexpected but positive directions. For instance, YTI alumni have formed their own discussion group on the Internet, said Richter, where they share college experiences, plans for the future and how their faith is being challenged.
For YTI alumna Mieke Vandersall, now a sophomore at Wooster College, the institute not only boosted her self-esteem; it changed her outlook on life. "It affirmed me and my belief in questioning, which I've been doing for a long time," she said. "Now I have more questions than I thought I'd ever have in my life, but I'm secure in that and I'm excited to find more questions and more answers."
-- Elaine Justice
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