Schooool's Out for Summer!! Not for SFU...

Post Mark West Pacific BBQ for SFU Students

Did you know that SFU went from being a dream to registering for classes in just two years?  It is indeed a unique campus in a sense of the immediacy of it's birth and also along with it's Tri-mester system.  On average, universities have Fall & Winter/Spring Semesters while offering a few intensive courses over the summer.  However, at SFU, with it's Tri-mester system, along with the Fall & Winter Semesters, there is a full on Summer Term.  The expectations for students is to actually take classes year round.

So as Barron and I have been a part of IVCF's Global & Urban Partnerships (GUPs), we noticed that this is based out of the assumption of Universities not offering to many classes over the summer.  We realized that for SFU students, the risk of them doing a GUP was not just losing the summer and the financial opportunities, it could literally mean that they will be taking an additional year or years to complete their degree.

Knowing this, Barron and I decided to try something different.  Instead of doing a GUP this summer, we decided to do a full on Summer Semester.  It has only been a few weeks into the summer but already, we are seeing the benefits of having a Summer Fellowship.  It's giving Barron and I more opportunities to follow-up with students after students and also creating more options to hang out and build community.

Some of our hopes for this summer is to keep the students connected with the IVCF @ SFU community over the summer to build excitement for the Fall Semester, which in the past has been generally slow to start.  We also hope to build up an executive team and create excitement around small group leadership.

To prepare for all of this, we want to focus our Wednesday Night Discussion Nights on Cultural Awareness which includes:  Ethnicity, Gender, & Sexual Identity.  Hopefully students will start to become aware of their own cultural identity as well as the cultural difference around them.

Please be praying for the SFU community to be culture creators and culture changers in their workplaces and campus.