Peer Leadership: Growing with Each Other
The Retreat experience is regularly cited by students as one of the highlights of their time at Austin Peace Academy.
A distinguishing program of which we are proud, retreats takes place every year from 6 th -12 th grade. The program is without comparison the best in the area. The foundation comes not only from the heart of the community, but from dedicated students and faculty members that help prepare retreats for our students. All students at Austin Peace Academy School have the opportunity to attend a retreat experience each year. Retreats are designed to meet the developmental and spiritual needs of the students.
Retreats at a Glance
The purpose of a spiritual retreat, as an addition to daily spiritual activities, is to temporarily leave behind the usual distractions we all face for a time long enough to allow relaxation and for an inner change to occur: the ongoing conversion of heart that is critical to deepening faith.
The retreats not only entailed personal witness talks from the teens themselves who were part of the leadership team, but also small group discussions, activities, hiking. When teens can encounter a setting that allows them to feel comfortable, it empowers them to live out their faith more openly outside of the doors of the retreat house thereafter.
Although most teens’ first impression of a retreat could be, “I thought we were going to just sit around and pray all weekend,” (I have heard these words many times), teens are pleasantly surprised to have the experience to meet bond with one another, to grow in their faith, to find a true purpose in this life and to find that they are not alone in their struggles.
