The Mountains Called to the Class of 2029, and They Answered
On Sunday, August 2nd, the forty-six members of Wyoming Catholic College’s newest freshman class, the Class of 2029, embarked on what we like to describe as “the best Freshman Orientation in the country:” the legendary 21-Day Expedition.
The first few days of Welcome Week were spent moving into their new residences, familiarizing themselves with the College spaces and the town of Lander, attending orientation and Q&A sessions where students and parents alike had the opportunity to talk at length with the College’s administration and current students. But by Wednesday, attention turned entirely to prepping for the 21-Day: three days of Wilderness First Aid training, food packing, pouring over maps in each WCCL’s “war room,” and spending hours getting to know one another and the Wyoming terrain that will be their home for the next three weeks.
“While on the freshman expedition,” as their preparation materials told them, “you will be living in surroundings that provide encounters with the True, the Good, and the Beautiful in what is considered God’s ‘First Book:’ the natural world. This experience will reinvigorate your imagination, and act as a catalyst in opening your mind and heart to the rest of what the College has to offer.”
In the various orientation talks, where the College laid out some of the many reasons the 21-Day Expedition is such an important part of the WCC experience, these young people were reminded that “members of the group need to cohere as a team, to treat one another with consideration and fairness, to handle one another’s failings equitably, and everything else implied by the social virtue of justice.”
“This last point brings out the special role of the wilderness expedition as opposed to just any outdoor activity. …The need to balance individual and common goods, often masked in large cities, emerges clearly; the value of true leadership and of active following, distorted by petty politics, becomes clear; lastly, the supreme importance of human virtue for the good of society stands forth in stark relief.”
On the big day itself, the freshmen grabbed breakfast outside Holy Rosary Catholic Church after 7am Mass, while their instructors and chaplains gathered for a final review and a quick prayer. Then, after the annual group photo, they were off! They boarded five vans and headed for the Rams Horn Trailhead in the Absorkas and the Big Sandy and Sedgwick Meadows Trailheads in the Winds. The next three weeks will be transformative for them, we know; and we would ask that you please keep them and their adventures in your prayers!
