Honor Council and Skip Year: Leadership Development for a New Generation
Our mission to delight and inspire for the glory of God gets put into action in different ways for each age group. No matter if a camper is six years old or sixteen, we want to meet her where she is and be a part of what God is doing in her life. For our oldest campers at Main Camp, this looks like leadership development, and two big ways we do that are through our Honor Council and Skip Year programs. These experiences build on each other and serve as stepping stones to prepare girls for college and their counselor years to follow!
Honor Council:
2024 was the fourth year of our renewed Honor Council Leadership Program, and we think it has only improved each summer! Choosing to be a part of the Honor Council is deciding to commit a significant part of your Senior summer to service and growth as a godly servant leader. By this point in their camp careers, these Seniors feel ready to step up as leaders, give back to Greystone in small ways, and grow in skills that will benefit them in their college years and beyond.
Sandi Taylor has developed and honed the Honor Council curriculum, which serves as the foundation for all other aspects of the program. She explains it best: “The program emphasizes that, while the world teaches that leadership is about us, our gifts, power, and influence, the Bible tells us that leadership is about service – about laying down our lives, power, and privilege for God’s glory, the benefit of our neighbor, and the good of our community. We cover four topics: identity, voice/power, relationships, and impact/influence.
We really try to instill in the girls that being a servant-leader is not about perfection, but direction and a pattern of loving, believing, and living for God’s glory and the good of others, rooted in Jesus’ identity as the true and perfect servant leader. We wanted the Honor Council to be a helpful bridge from camp being “all about the girl” to the girl (a future counselor) learning to be “all about someone else” (her future campers).”
Honor Council campers have the opportunity to serve regularly around camp, and “Girl Helping” in a favorite activity area. The campers serve one day a week, and “Girl Helping” has quickly become a cornerstone of the program (alums, you may remember this fun tradition!). Girl Helpers bring a huge amount of energy to any class they’re in! Counselors love their help, and younger campers get so excited to see their favorite Seniors out and about in camp. It’s a total win-win-win, and it also gives Seniors a chance to get a taste of counselor life. We’re finding that many previous Honor Council girls end up wanting to teach the activity that they Girl-Helped in once they’re applying to be on staff!
The biggest highlight of the Honor Council Program is our alumnae Mentors who come in once a week to speak to the group. We are so grateful for these alums who give up their time to pour into our Seniors! This year, our Honor Council mentors were Elizabeth Madden Pehrson, Katie Nicholson Wynn, Neal Timberlake Hopkins, Kristi James (current camp mom and staffer), and Reid Jones (previous camp minister). We reached out to a few of them to hear more about their Mentor experience and how they spent their time with the group.
Elizabeth loved the opportunity to share things with the girls that she wished she had known at their age. She talked about “the different “games” we play in our relationships (the guessing game, the guilt game, the blame game, and more), and that in each one of those games, someone loses. [She] “encouraged them to drop all the game playing except for one - the honor game. This is the time to be super competitive in trying to win at out-honoring each other. To leverage their position and influence for the benefit of others, not themselves.”
Katie “talked about how important it is to be curious as a leader…curious about yourself and what motivates you…and curious about one another. [She] loved hearing their answers to a fun speed-chatting exercise, and felt like she could have talked with them all afternoon!”
Reid shared with them a resource called “Truth and Lies that Leaders Believe,” pointing to lies like “What I do is more important than who I am,” and “A leader has to be the center of attention.” He then led a discussion on the gospel truths that counteract those lies, like “Who I am in Christ is more important than what I do,” and “Whatever my personality, God can use me to bring some measure of life, healing, and wisdom into another’s story.” Reid was our final Mentor of the summer, and the transparency and eager discussion he saw pointed to the close bonds these girls developed over the course of the session.
We are so grateful for all of our Honor Council Mentors over the last four years! It’s evident that God has used them and their stories and wisdom in these girls’ lives, continuing to build on all the growth from their earlier years at camp.
Skip Year:
The leadership development doesn’t end once these girls graduate from their camper years! We keep in touch with them throughout their Senior year of high school, sending periodic Newsletters and resources to encourage them and remind them of the lessons they learned at camp. The following summer, they have the opportunity to work as counselors at Junior Camp or attend the Skip Year Retreat hike and camp reunion, led by Alumnae Jennifer Pharr Davis and Porter Grant Burgess.
This July retreat plays a huge role in supporting Skip Year girls as they prepare for college and their counselor years. We’ll let Jennifer take it from here to share the heart behind the Retreat and the lessons participants take away from it.
“I was a camper throughout the 90s and when my Skip Year Summer arrived I desperately wanted to plug-into the faith and friendship community that I had developed at Greystone - especially before heading off to college. Fast forward 10 years and I approached the Leadership Team at Greystone to see if we could host the Skip Year group for a few days of hiking each summer. From this, the Skip Year Hiking Retreat and Skip Year Corn Roast reunions were born.
Our hope for the Skip Year Hiking Retreat is that we are filling up each participant with faith and friendship and all the life-giving goodness that will help sustain them as they navigate through their first year of college. The schedule is pretty simple, but spending time in nature helps us to keep the focus on relationships, DMC’s, and embracing the awe of God’s creation.
We offer chill and challenge hikes and allow participants to pick their preference on the trail. Learning that we need both chill and challenge in our lives, appreciating that one is not better than the other, and identifying what we need in the moment are some of the key takeaways from the Skip Year Retreat. The Skip Year Hiking Retreat also helps cement that camp friendships aren’t just for the camp bubble. We encourage our participants to support and celebrate one another and pray for each other - especially as they all head off to new environments.”
We are so grateful for Jennifer and Porter’s love for these Greystone Girls and commitment to serving and equipping them in their faith and friendships. At the tail end of the hike, Skip Year girls have the chance to come back to camp for our Corn Roast celebration and morning classes the following day.
These campers are excited to be back in their summer home for the day but also leave even more ready to transition into their next role as counselors, where they get to be the leaders their counselors always were for them.
