IMPACT 360 student Jordan Joseph recently received a Presidential Scholarship from Erskine College, a Christian liberal arts college in Due West, S.C., where she will begin studies in the fall.

Joseph, a native of Forsyth, Ga., is one of two Presidential Scholarship winners and was selected from 28 students who visited the campus in March. The scholarship covers tuition, room and board, and fees and is renewable for four years of study at Erskine.

“Erskine College appealed to me because it is a small Christian college,” Joseph shared. “I love small community and closeness. However, the school is not solely populated by Christians, which makes it a great mission field to apply what I have learned this year. I can get my solid biblical background while interacting with people who don’t believe what I believe.”

As a student at Strong Rock Christian School in Locust Grove, Ga., Joseph was a member of the National Honor Society, Student Leadership Institute, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and Future Business Leaders of America as well as captain of her varsity cheerleading and soccer teams. Her leadership understanding and experience serving locally and abroad on mission trips made her a strong candidate for IMPACT 360, a nine-month gap-year program that teaches high school graduates to know what they believe and why so that they can understand God’s calling and influence their generation for Christ. At IMPACT 360, Joseph was able to deepen her understanding of biblical community and theological topics.

“IMPACT 360 has prepared me for college above and beyond what I expected,” Joseph said. “During my interviews, I was very aware that all of my answers had to do with something I learned during my time at IMPACT 360. This includes things I’ve learned about apologetics, politics, community, God, and myself.”

Joseph looks forward to furthering her education in the areas in which she believes God has gifted her by double majoring in philosophy and theology and minoring in political science. She is proud to be the first IMPACT 360 student to join the Erskine community and to implement the tools of community she’s learned at the program.

“We are very proud of Jordan and this great accomplishment,” said IMPACT 360 Director John Basie, who is an Erskine College alumnus and trustee. “Erskine has gained an exceptional student and leader who will be a voice for truth and service among her college peers.”

Every year at this point in the spring, I make a point of asking our students a series of questions to test what they’ve learned and how they’ve grown.  When I get to the question “So what single thing has changed you the most during your time here?” inevitably the answer is “community.”  While this answer may not be altogether surprising at first blush, what is surprising is how often the students themselves are surprised about this truth.  They come in at the beginning of their first year of college not expecting to find koinonia, and in most cases not even knowing what that is.  And yet, through the course of their time they come to see that everything depends on it–their worldview, their ability to lead well, and the health and success of the families that they will have in the future.  I hope my own kids have the opportunity to experience this kind of depth in their first year of college.

John Basie

Well folks, the semester is winding down. Commissioning is only just around the corner. On one hand the whole campus is building in excitement; on the other, sadness. As our campus is being dismantled we realize that even when we come back to visit, its never going to be the same. Mom and Dad are redoing the room, before we have even leave for school. But we understand. We joined knowing that progress was important. It seems like we would have prepared ourselves for this period of time. But as we start to look at what life might look like post-IMPACT360, the thought comes, we are not the same thirty students that came here on the fourth of september of 2012. Maybe we are more prepared than we are willing to admit. I’d be willing to bet that the excitement of things to come far outweighs the sadness. G. K. Chesterton said that an inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered. So consider this, while these last few weeks will surely not be easy, it is in the difficulty of a task that we can measure its worth.

Ben Dorsey

I am a graduate of Biola University where I studied formally the disciplines of philosophy and theology. I have finished a year of graduate school in the same subjects. Yet none of those classroom experiences compare to the education I went through this week with my Church Elder. Eating lunch with three other church members and one of our elders, we were discussing discipleship and how it fits into the creation mandate. As we approached Saint Paul’s words in Colossians, I began to think about the difference between Christ the Son and God the Father, while still thinking about the trinity. My elder, also named Mark, wanted us to see the Son as being present and active in the Creation story of Genesis. I raised the question, “How can Jesus be thought of as the one who creates, if the Son is a different person from the Father?” For the next few minutes, my elder Mark and I went back and forth, citing Scripture and figuring out theological ideas. “It says in Colossians 1:16, ‘By him all things were made,” said Mark. He wanted to make sure I didn’t deny Christ at the beginning. My struggle was not with the idea that the passage was about Christ, as we both agreed, but about the nature of Jesus’ humanity and divinity. We went back to the age-old discussion that the ancient Church engaged in about 1700 years ago in Constantinople.

Eventually, we both maintained our commitments to the Council of Chalcedon, and found our differences to be semantic. Reflecting upon the process, I must say that I have not had such an experience in any classroom setting in all my time studying theology. The Church cannot assume that academies and colleges will teach theology effectively. Even if they do so, the Church cannot shirk the responsibility of teaching theology. If God’s people want to pass on our understanding of who God is, we have to do within the Church walls first, else we suffer the answer, “nothing,” when confronted with the question of what comes in our mind when we think of God.

This week has been a full one for those of us here at IMPACT360.  We were blessed to have Dr. Basie teaching us Bioethics this week and last night was the start of our last Interview/Preview Day with students from Texas, California and Georgia, as well as other areas.  We mixed it up last night with some Minute-to-Win-It games and a few rounds of “Don’t Forget the Lyrics” to ramp it up.  It was a bittersweet moment for the class of 2013 as we all are realizing that our year is indeed coming to a close.  This is just one more of the many “lasts” we will be encountering in the next few weeks.

Tonight is the kickoff for our Alumni Service weekend.  We have around thirty alumni coming in from all over the United States and from all classes to partner with us to work in the community.  We are completing six service projects in Pine Mountain and Hamilton, GA., ranging from planting a garden at Valley Rescue to cleaning at FDR State Park or hosting a block party for kids in Pine Mountain.  We are all really excited for everything that will be happening this weekend and are looking forward to what is to come as this year draws to a close.

-Hannah Richards

Due to a storm last Thursday night, the ladies were forced to postpone their Girls Night Out…but that certainly did not put a damper on last night’s festivities.

From team cheers to TP wedding dresses to a sandwich making contest to paint wars this night was filled with fulfilling the old Cindy Lauper adage: these girls just wanna have fun! The ladies were divided into teams including the Princess Pink Sleeping Beauties, the Tiffany Blue Cinderellas, and the Lime Green Tinkerbells. These three teams made their own cheers as the first competition, followed by the classic toilet paper wedding dress competition, which was fashionably won by the Sleeping Beauties. In the spirit of Biblical womanhood, the ladies had a sandwich making competition for points awarded for style and timing, clearly applicable in the future. Saving the best for last there was an epic paint war- complete with paint balloons, 10-gallon buckets filled with paint, and water guns filled with hot pink paint! Needless to say it was a messy battle but the souvenir tshirts were well worth it! All in all the ladies last GNO was filled with the basic IMPACT 360 essentials: fellowship, fun, and lots of paint!

Taylor Wells

Class this week was on the morality and attributes of God. It was so interesting! On Thursday in the academy we talked about prayer. One of the questions was what was the point of praying if there is free-will? What’s the point of praying for The Lord to guide you if you are just going to make the decision? Another question that was, why pray if we are predestined? If everything is determined for us, then what is the point of prayer? My conclusion to this question came  when I was talking to a couple of other students after class.  We pray because it’s relational. If you think about it how else do we talk to The Lord? Prayer I think is used to build that relationship with The Lord. God loves it when we pray to Him. He loves it when we come to him and just talk. It’s like going and sitting in your parents lap and just talking to them! It’s so sweet!

Jessica Darby

Last week all the students were off for Spring break. Some people spent the break at home, but the majority of people spent it either in Texas, New York, or Florida. Shortly after arriving in the great state, the Texas group went wake boarding, wake surfing, and tubing on Lake Austin. They also had a couple fun adventures caving in Utopia. Meanwhile in Sarasota, the Florida group was out sailing the ocean where they encountered a few close by dolphins. Over the break they also toured the beautiful city of Sarasota and visited the aquarium. At the same time, the New York group (which I happened to be a part of) had road tripped up to Maryland where we spent a few nights resting. However, we did spend a few days visiting monuments and museums in Washington DC. Finally, after a long drive, a brisk walk, and a bus ride, we had made it to New York City! An IMPACT 360 alumna at Kings College was kind enough to arrange us a place to stay with a few of her friends in their apartments. We spent our time touring the city and visiting an array of coffee shops. Sadly, for all the groups, it was now time to come back to the real world where we couldn’t spend each day relaxing without responsibilities. However, I think I speak for most people when I say that being back with everyone once again is well worth it.

Caleb Releford

Well, it’s very quiet around campus this week. Spring Break is definitely here (along with enough pollen to blanket the state of Rhode Island).  Recently, I moved into the special projects coordinator role here at IMPACT 360. It is amazing to be working with such great and talented people, and to hang out with some awesome students and call it work. Just the other day, I learned about one of our alumni working in California. I was so impressed with the work that he is a part of.  He is making a difference, changing culture, and serving people across the world.  I think about people like Louie Giglio, David Platt, missionaries, and others and feel such a strong sense of admiration. They really seem to be changing the world.

I do love working for IMPACT 360. When I graduated college, I knew I wanted to do something that would make a difference in the world. I wanted to do something I could be proud of, work I could brag about. For the longest while, I did feel that. More recently, though, I’ve started to wonder about the value of my work. HEAR ME OUT! I think this happens to everyone: Does what I do really matter? I thought about my daily job. As a special projects coordinator, the staff likes to joke that anything can be a special project… and “anything” can include a LOT of things: mail runs, emails, printing off packets, writing tweets and Facebook posts, buying wiper blades for 15-passenger vans, and the list could go on.  I don’t always see how some of these things really make a difference. Let it be known that just “being in ministry” doesn’t automatically mean that you will be fulfilled in all of your work.

I was not a student at IMPACT, but some of what they talk about does seem to rub off on me, especially in the areas of vocation and calling. I know that every calling is from God. Our students read God at Work by Gene Edward Veith. In it Veith says, “’The priesthood of all believers’ did not make everyone into church workers; rather, it turned every kind of work into a sacred calling. “  This helps of course, but it’s still hard to see wiper blades as a sacred calling.  Something (thankfully) occurred to me though. I was comparing my life to others’ lives (a bad practice from the start), but I wasn’t even comparing apples to apples.

I was comparing someone else’s compelling mission and vision to my own routine daily activities. I was saying, “Wow, that guy is changing the world” and, “I don’t understand why I have to coordinate these campus tours.” They’re not the same thing at all.  I had to realize that a vision for the future always sounds better than the steps to get there.  “Fighting the AIDS epidemic” always sounds more exciting than “stuff these envelopes.” I realized that those guys have to do the mundane and routine things, same as me, but they do have a great vision. Sitting in my car on the ride home from work, I had to paint the vision for myself. I came up with this:

I am part of a movement that is turning back the tide of “isms” in our culture: post-modernism, nihilism, and naturalism. It is a movement helping train the next generation of leaders to make this world a better place, where people fight for those in need and where the marketplace, courtroom, classroom, and home are strongholds for Biblical ideas and practices.

I’m no Bill Shakespeare, but that still sounds much better than buying wiper blades.  That compelling vision is so important. I’ve heard that it is a part of leadership’s job to cast that vision, but now I see why. With a strong sense of vision, I feel value and significance in my work.

Caleb Hand

After going through all the modules, experiences, and classes we have experienced together at IMPACT, it feels weird for this year to be coming to an end soon. I have seen in myself an exponential amount of growth after the Brazil trip, and I have seen a great change in the depth of our community. It’s easy to just get swept up in the flow of this time of year though. It seems like it is easier to get distracted by college choices, summer jobs, or just thinking about summer. It truly has been a whirlwind of a semester since returning from Brazil and we’re constantly doing something. It’s easy for us to just focus on what is coming up in the future, or a project coming up, that often I find myself not taking time out of my day to truly focus on God. This is why I’m excited for spring break. I get to spend this time with family and friends, and even get to be home on Easter. For others though, they will be scattering out all over from IMPACT, some going to Texas, some going to New York City, and some just going to relax at home. It is highly important for us though to stay focused on what we have been doing this year and to stay open for continued growth over spring break. We need to rest after what we have just been through; I want this to be reflection time for us. We need to just take this time to relax and focus on God and let him show us the paths to take moment by moment instead of just rushing in head first on our own. I grow anxious thinking about after spring break, because we won’t have much longer together after the break. How do we spend those last few weeks? How do we plan for after IMPACT? The truth is, God will show us the path to take, and we need to use this break to focus on God and listen to him, instead of focusing on our busy inconsistent lives. Let’s use this time to trust in the only thing in our lives that is consistent, God.

Adam Story