Adjusting to the college life can be challenging and frightening. That’s why Cabrini has offered a program called Caventure. Caventure is a program through campus ministry that takes incoming freshman for an overnight retreat at a ropes course. A ropes course is where you do team-building activities and it shows you how to work as a team and it’s an opportunity to learn different aspects of being part of a team. The members of Caventure met Sunday, Oct.7 in the Wolfington Center.
Caventure started because Fr. Carl Janicki and campus minister Stephanie Salinis had talked about a way to engage students to get involved and a way to build a community for students when they arrive.
“It is a way of allowing incoming students to feel like they belong to the Cabrini community from the start,” Salinis said. This is the first year they are doing it and have currently eight freshman involved with three leaders. Caventure is like having an ongoing support system.
They meet every first Sunday of the month to see how the semester is going and discuss anything about college. They began the night with a prayer and played an activity that was meant to teach the members that different people interpret different things differently. For the hour that the members meet they share laughs, feelings and grow together in their faith.
Freshmen sign up for this program for many different reasons. One of the biggest reasons is feeling comfortable and having that ongoing support throughout the semester.
“The ability to express fears and be able to cry and not feel bad,” Breanna Smith, a freshman biology and second education major, said. This program not only affects the students in it but also has a positive impact on the leaders as well.
The leaders each have their own story of what made them want to get involved with Caventure. Emily Paradise, a sophomore elementary and special education major, shared her reason with wanting to join. When she was a freshman she was involved in a similar retreat to Caventure called S3. On this retreat she had a girl who was a great leader and it inspired her to go interview for Caventure last semester.
Caventure is a great way to get to meet new people and continue building the friendships formed.
“I had a set group of friends before school started,” Smith said.
One of the leaders of the Caventure shared one of the main reasons she enjoys being part of this program.
“I like how they meet once a month to catch up with everyone,” Kaitlyn Ochs, a junior psychology major, said.
