The Great Adventure - The Witmarsum

PIGEON FORGE, TENN. — This year, fall break took on a whole new meaning with the addition of The Great Adventure. All freshman students, mentors, Becoming a Scholar instructors, and some members of the planning committee spent fall break in the Smoky Mountains bonding, creating community, appreciating nature and self-reflecting.

Students had a packed schedule during their three days of adventuring, hiking at Smoky Mountain National Park in Tennessee and North Carolina, ziplining, touring downtown Gatlinburg, participating in recreational activities and having group lessons.

Many students admitted that they weren’t sure what to expect out of The Great Adventure. Freshman middle childhood education major, Breena Plank tried coming into the experience open-minded, while still uncertain of what she was heading into.

Large group of students hiking back from the waterfall. Photo taken by Payton Stephens.

“It was a lot more fun than what I was expecting,” said Plank. “I’m a big people person, so I like that we’re all together and that I can still hang out with my friends while I am doing what I am supposed to be doing.”

While some students like Plank enjoyed the group bonding and community aspect of the trip, students like Dane Chiles, a freshman worship arts major, focused on the nature aspect and time given to self-reflect and recharge.

“I looked forward to just exploring, and really taking time out of my everyday tasks and just enjoy the nature,” said Chiles. “Just take the time to reflect on myself and enjoy the time with the other freshman.”

When students weren’t out exploring Gatlinburg, they were spending time at the Smoky Mountain Resort and Conference Center. At the resort, students had meals in the conference center as well as recreational and late-night activities. A movie was offered in the pool house each night, s’mores by a camp fire, and a variety of games in the conference center.

Monday night, students and mentors were asked to compete in a scavenger hunt scattered around the resort grounds. Students had to take photos and videos of themselves completing specific tasks to earn points. Each Becoming a Scholar class section was put head-to-head with only an hour on the clock, leaving multiple groups worn out from running through the resort’s steep mountain trails. Challenges included creating a group TikTok, playing glow in the dark Tic Tac Toe with Alyssa Eby, shouting the Beaver Call in unison as loud as possible, painting team members’ faces like J. Denny and Jenny Beaver, running the bases at the resort’s baseball field, and taking photos with nocturnal critters and creepy crawlers.

“The energy, and the loudness, it just got really loud, and you could tell students were excited,” said Eby. “You could tell students really got into it and were able to engage with other groups and have those experiences.”

Director of Student Engagement Holly Metzger and senior admission counselor Alyssa Eby, were both involved in the planning of The Great Adventure along with recreational and late-night activities. Both hoped to see students build relationships and give them spaces to create and strengthen bonds they had already made with peers.

Metzger mentioned how for some students this trip was a way to expose them to different environments, some students never having been to Gatlinburg or any similar landscape.

“There’s a lot of students who have never been out of Ohio,” said Metzger. “So, I think that this was really good to allow them to experience something that they maybe otherwise wouldn’t get to.”

On the last day of the retreat, all students, mentors, and faculty joined together to close out the trip. Students were asked to choose a goal created during their recent lessons and write them on a wristband. All 12 class sections linked their bands together to create a circle chain, showing the connection between them all.

The circle chain will be displayed in Marbeck Center as a remembrance of the first Great Adventure retreat with the class of 2025.