First-Year Adventure: A Formative Beginning for Incoming Students
Reported by Audrey Grice
Illustrated by Mia Baukol
A new opportunity has arisen in the fall of 2025 for incoming students looking to explore faith, formation, and community at a deeper level during their time at George Fox University (GFU).
Starting this coming school year, 150 incoming students will participate in the pilot of a first-year adventure experience designed to connect them with a community of peers, upperclassmen, and faculty mentors that will have a lasting impact on their time at GFU.
“A big part of it is developing an immersive and formative first-year experience for incoming students,” said Travis Pickell, an assistant professor of theology and ethics and the director of the Cornerstone Core and Character Virtue Initiative.
The program will consist of a day retreat over Labor Day weekend, seven weekly dinners as a group, and small groups led by a faculty mentor and two undergraduate mentors. Sessions will focus on questions of identity and purpose, inviting students to think deeply about personal formation.
While first-year experiences are common among universities, Pickell says this program is unique in its goals.
“What’s different about what we’re doing is we’ve really wanted to focus on community, connection, and belonging, [and] also a general introduction to what we are about at Fox and the big picture of your college years,” Pickell said.
Although the program only occurs during the first seven weeks of the semester, students will be encouraged to continue the relationships and conversations started in the weekly meetings throughout the rest of the semester and beyond. A key component of the program is the involvement of student mentors committed to engaging with incoming students relationally.
“Across the board with students we’ve talked to, students are deeply impacted by relationships with their peers,” Pickell said.
“The success of this program lives or dies with the people who get involved on a sort of leadership level, and there are opportunities both on the faculty and staff side, but also on the student side, to step up to the plate and make this thing awesome,” Pickell said. “We are looking for people who want to make a difference at George Fox and do so in a way that is highly relational and directed at the incoming students.”
Pickell is excited about what the success of this program might mean for the university as a whole and the potential for growth in the future. If the first-year adventure receives general student enthusiasm and produces positive outcomes, it will likely become a permanent experience for all incoming students. A central aspect of the program is its commitment to GFU’s Be Known promise.
“[The program] is deeply connected with faith and learning, but also how that connects with community and formation and other parts of the university. None of this happens unless people understand that they are cared for and that they belong here, so community and connection are at the heart of how we’re doing it,” Pickell said. “We want students to understand how it all fits together and then to embrace the journey, the practices, and hopefully develop as a person into the image of Christ.”
Interested students can sign up to be a student guide for the 2025 First-Year Adventure here.