Special Emphasis: Adulting

Special Emphasis: Adulting

Alumnus Kaleb Wyse presenting keynote session “Adulting in the Digital Age”

Special Emphasis is an alternative learning format where our students explore something that isn’t typically covered in our curriculum. Special emphasis is usually held in the opposite year of our more extensive SALT (service and learning term) which is about a week long and can often involve travel. Our special emphasis, on the other hand, is a shorter time (a couple days) and is usually more of a local opportunity. This year we had two days where we actually went into the community to do a variety of service activities, from yard work, to preparing meals, to helping at a second hand store, to visiting with people from other cultures in our community. We then had two days of sessions where we brought in people from the community who could teach about a specific aspect of adult life. We typically have a keynote speaker and then break into smaller workshops. This year we had alumnus Kaleb Wyse speak to us about his perspectives on creating and sharing his passions through Wyse Guide, his successful website and social media channels. Students then had the opportunity to choose between 6 different sessions that ran for 1 hour and 15 minutes throughout the rest of the day. These ranged from cooking, to how to buy a house or car, how to fix things, and life-hacks.

We are so grateful to all our presenters, and especially our guest presenters, who helped make Special Emphasis days so beneficial for our students. Presenters and “Adulting” sessions on Day 1 included “Fixing things 1” with Wendy Paiva; “Renting an Apartment or Buying a House” with Rebecca Beachy Miller and Wendell Miller; “Getting Ready for College” with Angela Lamb and Matt Rhodes; “Making Friends as an Adult & Conflict Management” with Lon Marshall; “Growing and Developing My Faith” with Paul Donaldson; “Cultural Sensitivity” with Meg Wagner; and “Dating, Relationships, and Marriage” with Leanne Bender. Sessions and presenters that were new for Day 2 included the Keynote Adulting in the Digital Age with Kaleb Wyse; “Fixing thing 2” with Zach Weiss; “Basics of Cooking” inside with Melissa Fleming and outside with Mark Miller; “Finances: Budgeting, Banking, and Taxes” with Kent Blossom and Jon Beachy; and “Buying a Car” with Gary Bontrager. You can check out some pictures from Days 1 & 2 of Special Emphasis below.