The Simson Youth Academy (SYA) continues to gather, nurture, and send high school students as young adult disciples of Christ! SYA’s newest cohort of twenty-five youth gathered to live, learn, worship, serve, and reflect together during the June summer residency.
At the Simpson Youth Academy, we believe that young people have power and gifts that are essential for the healing of the world, not just in the distant future but now. Grounded in the Christian tradition and utilizing resources from the United Methodist Church, we are an ecumenical community of youth and adult mentors who explore deep faith-related questions and take action in order to equip youth to live into their callings as agents of peace and justice in the church and world.
Students learned new prayer practices, were trained to plan and lead worship, visited non-profit organizations that are healing the community, and gained skills in reading and interpreting Scripture. This SYA cohort is continuing with monthly gatherings throughout the year. And each youth is being paired with a local adult mentor to plan and implement a project in their own church context to express their faith through serving their communities.
Check out a few quotes from our current student participants below, and please consider supporting these students financially through this
link.
Contact SYA’s director Rev. Eric Rucker –
eric.rucker@simpson.edu – to nominate a student for SYA today!
“I found my worth at SYA. I found a family here.”
“Communion each night during worship was the biggest moment for me at SYA. Before this, I had only taken communion once in my whole life, and now I see it in a way that Jesus truly did invite everyone to the table!”
“At SYA, I found my faith again. I felt like I'd outgrown my church, and I wasn't sure I wanted to be faithful anymore. SYA provided a space for me to explore my faith, and now I feel stronger in my faith than I ever have before.”
“SYA has been AMAZING! I love it so much here. I appreciate how we experience different traditions and listen to people who are often not listened to in the church. I keep saying this, but I really expected this to just be a bunch of judgmental people and was fully expecting to have to hide myself. But I didn't need to do that because of how welcoming this is! I feel like at SYA, I have learned so much about faith and social justice, and I was able to expand my knowledge greatly. Overall I was really impressed with everything that I learned.”
