Northwest Academy retreats are changing. Students are no longer going to be separated by grade level, with all freshmen, sophomores and juniors staying in one place.
This change has relieved much of the burden of planning retreats from the high school activities team, who are spearheading this new iteration.
“It got to a point where every year, the activities team would be bending backwards, making all these phone calls trying to find all this housing all at the same time,” said Jordan Marzka, the new High School Activities Director. “So there is this question of how do we make it easier, while still keeping it as fun-fulfilling, while being able to give the groups a good retreat.”
Simone Coker-Kamna, the former Activities Director and current Marketing and Communications & Community Engagement Director, started researching other options during the end of last school year and came across B’nai B’rith Camp (BB Camp), a Jewish summer camp situated on a lake just outside Lincoln City. She found that the camp fit all the requirements to host the 2023 high school retreats.
“There is enough space for all three grades to do their own thing without bumping into each other,” said Marzka. “It, in addition, has all the fun camp things, like ropes courses, pools and gaga ball.”
Marzka also believes that the amenities are far nicer than a standard summer camp.
“[BB Camp] definitely benefits from its position directly against a lake, as despite being in a relatively suburban area, it still feels isolated enough to guarantee a margin of privacy,” said Marzka. “The amenities are nice – much nicer than you might expect from a summer camp – and I anticipate students feeling pretty comfortable in their cabins.”
Joanne Kim, Head of High School, echoed the benefit of each grade having their own space while maintaining the ability to keep distance from public campgrounds and neighbors at the beach.
“This move to BB Camp just means that we will get our own space,” said Kim. “When we would be at a campground, there would be just an extra layer of friction that we would have to negotiate those spaces with other people. Last year the ninth graders were in a bunch of different places, because we could not get all the yurts in one place.
NWA students are excited about moving the retreats to BB Camp because of the activities and amenities it provides, including larger cabins, a ropes course and a swimming pool.
“I was kind of disappointed when I heard that all of the retreats would be in the same place, because the other retreat that I went to was so fun,” said Phineas Silverman, a junior. “I thought that going to the same place might degrade the experience, but I have heard that the grade levels are going to be separate so I think it will still be fun. I am excited.”
Many students are enthused by the idea that grades will not be separated at BB Camp. This way, they not only get to bond with students their same age, as in previous retreats, but can interact with their friends in other grades levels as well.
“It is cool that you get to see your friends in other grades,” said William Barr, a junior. “I do think that it will be more of an entire school bonding experience rather than separate grade level experiences.”
Some students do not see much of a difference in how retreats will operate, due to the grades all having their own time to do separate activities and trust building exercises, much like previous retreats.
“I don’t think [retreats] are actually going to be that different,” said Griff Urang, a sophomore. “Since we are not doing activities together, it should not be too different, and will definitely still be fun.”
Others see the trip as an entire school retreat instead of separate grades, and while a grade might not form different coalitions, the experience will not be without its upsides, with students being able to branch out and meet new people in other grades.
“It is less getting to know your grade,” said Skye Groves, a sophomore. “But I think that this is also cool, because you get lots of opportunities to meet new people. It is a chance to make friends with people that you do not have any classes with.”
Coker-Kamna admitted that some aspects of the retreats will change from previous years, and the retreats might lose older traditions, but she sees this as a way to usher in new retreat traditions.
“We will lose some parts of the traditional retreats because of this new format,” said Coker-Kamna. “But I think that change can often be a good thing and a great way to make new traditions.”
Many teachers feel positive about this transition, as they feel that BB camp will bring about the best of both worlds.
“We are still going to have a bunch of times when each grade will be doing an activity together, separate from the other grades,” said Chloe Omelchuck, a high school math teacher who is going to be chaperoning the freshman class. “The cohesion within grade levels is still a primary goal of the retreat, giving the students time to get closer to other students in their grade.”
Nia Johnson, a high school teacher who will be chaperoning during the retreats, thinks this is an opportunity for students to build relationships with teachers outside of the classroom setting.
“We don’t really have a lunch or a recess where it feels like I can really interact with students,” said Johnson. “It will be fun to build some more interpersonal relationships that will be outside of a teacher student role.”
This move to BB camp comes out of necessity, where at previous retreats, it was getting increasingly harder to find housing and fulfilling activities for students to do. The move makes it possible for the high school to continue expanding while still leaving space for all the students to coexist.
“We are trying something new,” said Kim. “We found that as the high school is growing, we need more places for the students to be and to sleep.”
Coker-Kamna found that planning this retreat and securing the property for it required far less tedious planning than in previous years.
“Planning this retreat has been much easier logistically than planning retreats in the past,” said Coker-Kamna. “Having all of us in one location with food taken care of eliminated a lot of the guessing and time suck that went into planning each grade’s individual retreat in the past.”
Kim pointed out that even the smallest issues that came about while planning previous retreats, caused an enormous amount of work to be piled onto the activities team.
“[For example] the yurts can not all be reserved at once, they have to be reserved one at a time,” said Kim. “Simone, who had been doing [most of] that process in previous years, had to reserve the yurts individually, for every single yurt, for all three grades. It is just a lot.”
Previous retreats have been held in a multitude of locations, grades primarily staying in rental houses and yurts in places such as South Beach State Park, Pacific City and Fort Stevens State Park.
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