Sophomore Retreat: Mountaintop prayers

Carroll College sophomores and transfer students traded dorm rooms for mountain views last month, gathering at Legendary Lodge for a weekend retreat centered on faith, friendship, and reflection. 

The retreat, sponsored by Carroll College Campus Ministry, took place in Sept. 18-20, and drew students who had spent their first year together in Guadalupe Hall before scattering into new living situations as sophomores

The Assistant Directors of Campus Ministry, Deidre Casey and Chris Yakawich, and the Director of Campus Ministry, Fr. Tyler Frohlich, designed the weekend as a chance for that class to reconnect before the semester’s pace fully set in, offering a break from campus at a critical point in the academic year. 

Junior peer minister Izaak Ramirez helped lead the weekend. He said the timing matters as much as the setting. 

“Seeing sophomores reconnect after a summer apart is honestly one of my favorite parts of this job,” said Ramirez, a Catholic studies major and a Helena native.

Set on Salmon Lake at Legendary Lodge, the retreat blended outdoor recreation with moments of quiet reflection. Students canoed and swam during the day, gathered for small group discussions in the afternoons. They closed out evenings with a bonfire and a patio dance under the stars. 

Organizers built the schedule to leave room for both structured conversation and unstructured downtime, giving students space to bond in whatever way came naturally. 

A mass celebrated on top of a mountain served as one of the weekend’s central moments, organizers said, drawing students together for a shared experience unlike anything available on campus. 

Students of all faiths were welcome to attend, and many said the open, low-pressure structure of the weekend made it easy to connect with classmates regardless of background. That inclusivity, Fr. Frohlich said, remains a core part of the retreat’s mission each year. 

Upperclassmen played a major role in guiding the experience, supporting sophomores through small groups and informal conversation throughout the weekend. Senior peer minister Sean Monaco said the location itself does a lot of the work. 

“There’s something about getting everyone away from campus and up into the mountains,” said Monaco. “Conversations happen differently out there than they do in a dorm hallway.” Monaco is a philosophy and Catholic studies major from South Carolina.

For sophomore Ethan Geagel, the weekend delivered on its promise of both fun and reflection. Between the canoeing, the small groups and the late-night bonfire, Geagel said the retreat felt like a reset for a class that hadn’t spent much unstructured time together since leaving Guadalupe Hall. 

“Canoeing during the day and then sitting around the bonfire at night…it just felt like our class again,” Geagel, a health science major from Great Falls, said was very enjoyful.

Geagel said the Mass on the mountain stood out as the highlight of the trip, offering a moment of stillness in an otherwise activity-packed weekend. 

“Celebrating Mass with that view puts everything into perspective,” Geagel said.

Monaco said moments like that are exactly what the retreat aims to create, pairing spiritual reflection with the kind of natural beauty students don’t often encounter during a typical week of classes. 

Campus Ministry organizer Yakawich said the retreat’s combination of prayer, recreation and community time reflects the program’s broader goal: giving students space to grow together outside the structure of campus life. 

Ramirez said watching that transformation happen over the course of a single weekend never gets old, even after leading multiple retreats. 

By the time students returned to Carroll, many said the weekend had done exactly what it set out to do: strengthen bonds within the sophomore class heading into the rest of the semester.