CCO Campus Ministry

Seminar Overview

Looking Ahead: Preparing for the College Transition

CPYU’s college transition seminars are for college-bound high school students and their parents and will address the transition from high school to college. This multi-media seminar is engaging, interactive, and challenges teenagers and parents to think deeply about four crucial questions to ask before entering college:

Why am I going to college?
Who am I?
What do I believe?
With whom will I surround myself?

Designed to focus on the unique pressures and influences students face in higher education, this seminar, its follow-up plan, and related support materials will help students and parents better understand and prepare to face these pressures and challenges from a distinctively Christian perspective. Hope and encouragement will be offered to participants by challenging and equipping them to respond with solid and practical tools.

Seminar Format
The seminar is composed of five 30-minute (approximately) sections. (This can be adjusted given the venue.) Each section includes video clips and “on the street” interviews with current college students commenting on the college transition and offering advice to incoming students. The theme of “story” runs through the entire presentation, inviting students to consider how their story fits into God’s story.

Section One: Introduction, Expectations and Concerns
This section focuses on student and parent expectations about college, narrowing in on central concerns. What comes to mind when you think about college? What are your biggest fears? What are your hopes and dreams? How will your expectations shape your experience? Section one also introduces and explains the importance of the “four big questions” that will be explored: Why am I going to college? Who am I? What do I believe? With whom will I surround myself? Students are asked to take a pro-active approach and wrestle with these questions before going to college or they run the risk of having them answered by others when they get there.

Section Two: Why am I going to college?
A question that is often overlooked, but is important for students to ask is: why am I going? Are you simply going to college in order to get a degree, to get a “good” job, to make a lot of money? Or are you going to college for biblical reasons, in order to develop wisdom, discover gifts, and discern God’s call on your life?

Section Three: Who am I?
Transitioning from high school to college creates many challenges, but the challenges to identity and self-worth may be the hardest of all. Students are constantly challenged to find their identity in external things rather than in being a child of God. This section explores these challenges and offers insight into how finding your identity in Christ alone makes all the difference in the world as you transition to college.

Discussion & Break

Section Four: What do I believe?
This section focuses on the challenges to the Christian faith and puts forth the understanding of Christian beliefs as a “worldview.” This is not a discussion of apologetics but rather shows students the importance of thinking through what they believe and why before going to college, pointing out ways in which a Christian/Biblical understanding of the world will be challenged in college.

Section Five: With whom will I surround myself?
Christian community is essential to nurturing one’s faith during the college years. This section focuses on three main areas: (1) roommates; (2) Christian community; and (3) the social scene. It provides general principles for getting along with your roommate, helps students make the needed Christian community connections, and paints a realistic picture of college student culture.

Discussion with Q+A

Conclusion

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If you have more questions about a seminar or conference, please email us at seminars {at} cpyu(.)org or call us toll-free at 800-807-CPYU.

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