Retreat Goals

The main goals of the Retreat are:

1. Integration:

Further the integration of faith and vocation among MBA students as a part of whole-life integration, in part, by providing examples of seasoned leaders walking faithfully, pre-retreat readings, and post-retreat follow-up opportunity.

2. Community and Spiritual Formation:

Foster intimate relationships with fellow believers within and across MBA programs. This cross-pollination serves as a source of encouragement and co-labor for advancing the Gospel on campus and in the workplace as well as preparing for the spiritual challenges of our program.

3. Outreach and Impact:

Equip fellow students to share the love of Christ in the uniquely secular cultures we are entering on campus and in the workplace.

Retreat Reach

Creating a space at the beginning of the school year that lays the foundation for a student’s long-term vocational impact on the world is vital! That is why we host Anchor Retreat for students from around the country before the beginning of the academic year. We want to encourage and equip students to dive deeper into their faith and equip them to share and live out the Gospel in a new, and particularly secular environment and integrate their faith during summer internships and post-graduation work.

The Retreat has been a foundational identity formation moment for the whole MBA experience: starting the year by putting a focus on Jesus combats being driven by the wrong motivations, impostor syndrome, syllabus shock, wearing a mask of competency, and valuing self and others based on performance. Our hope is to see pre-MBA students become student leaders who have vision and motivation. In marketing the Retreat to entering students via our network of current MBA student leaders, we were asked multiple times if current students could attend. Given the demand for this, we have opened up the Retreat for current students to also connect and spur one another on. 

This Retreat creates both cross-pollination across different MBA programs, and peer coaching connections with students on their own campus. Many students go into graduate school unaware of the existing campus Christian community and ministries. Currently, there only exist limited and informal ways for incoming students to get plugged in, for example group texts. This can be discouraging and isolating to students and can cause them to avoid getting involved altogether. This Retreat serves to immediately familiarize students with faith initiatives on campus and creates relationships with current students who are already walking faithfully. Students already committed to their campus fellowships pass down specific resources and advice to the incoming class in an intimate setting. Furthermore, most of the current MBA campus fellowships do not host retreats during the year, so this Retreat provides a unique opportunity for connection and investment that many campus fellowships are not able to offer.