Our 10th Annual Retreat!
Over the last 10 years, our Student Advisory Council has grown from 8 to 17 students, and has taken on ever-greater leadership roles and responsibilities at CultureWorks. Collectively, SAC helped us navigate difficult decisions as we moved out of our original space in 2017 and pursued several years of mobile programming; they helped us pivot and prioritize during the pandemic, they helped us physically move our assets and equipment 5 times, and helped us establish our current studio space in the heart of downtown Holland 5 years ago. Each year, I tell them at our fall leadership retreat that CultureWorks simply would not exist today, if it weren’t for SAC.
We’re so proud of this group of creative leaders, and overjoyed at the possibilities of the year ahead. Our fall leadership retreat is a time of reflection and dreaming, team building and strategizing. Students interview and introduce one another, we break bread together, we play, we laugh (and cry), stay up too late talking, and we lean into our calling to carry CultureWorks forward another year. This year’s cookie bake off was absolutely phenomenal. Teams came up with inventive additions and flavorful twists to basic cookie recipes, adding hand-crafted toffee chips, zested lemon, hand whipped ice-cream, and berry compote. The results were heavenly, and make us think we should open a bakery.
We’re so grateful to Lauren Plockmeyer for leading us in a series of improv games on Saturday night. Lauren intentionally connected the lessons of improv with lessons for life, and both students and staff really enjoyed thinking about how we could take skills like “yes, and…” and apply them to our daily lives. Students rose to every challenge and engaged fully in the moment at hand – practicing teamwork & creative problem solving through storytelling and gesture. It was a joyful delight.
Student quotes:
” My favorite activity was improv. It was bringing me out of my comfort zone in a way I’ve never experienced. I got to laugh with my friends/new SAC members and practice thinking on the spot.”
“I think the SAC retreat really helps us to come together without the stress of intense sports, plays, work, & school. We get to continue bonding over creativity and our future goals.”
“It’s an amazing way for the new and old SAC members to connect and meet. It helps spark and create a safe space to share…and gives kids independence from home for a weekend!”
“The SAC retreat helps to create a strong sense of community between members and establishes SAC as a safe space where ideas can be shared and everyone feels free to be their truest self.”
“Everyone sharing how SAC helped them reconnect or get out of a really hard time in their lives gave me a lot of hope and happiness.”
“[I loved] kayaking! It was so cool and I felt so close to nature! Yay! I saw like 100 turtles!”
“I liked the cookie bake off because it’s nice to get to know everyone better and get introduced to how they work and think.”
“I loved improv! I’m really proud of myself for going all out and being really silly (which is something I’ve been working on with acting.”
“[I loved] the activity where we went outside for collages. I liked the group I was in and going out to see nature was awesome!”
“My favorite activity was the campfire discussion. Everyone got to be very sentimental and I loved that.”
We’re so grateful for community-wide support for our fall leadership retreat, and for funding from Fellowship Reformed Church, which supports our Student Advisory Council!
