La Sierra freshmen IGNITE in Big Bear

“Let’s go, team Jamaica, let’s go. Two more steps,” called out freshman Maya Hanna, trying to encourage another team and their leader after her crew was first to slide across a finish line.

After the race, Hanna and her fellow freshmen gathered around their camp activity leader, Daniel Chapman, and described what elements of the race made the experience difficult, and what they learned about teamwork and leadership. “You have to agree on the goals and how to get there,” commented Hanna. 

Hanna, a volleyball player, pre-nursing major and graduate of Woodcrest Christian High School in Riverside was among 394 La Sierra University freshmen who spent three days in the crisp air of the pine forest mountains above San Bernardino getting to know each other and learning the importance of cooperation, communication, and making wise choices. Ninety-seven student leaders and 19 La Sierra staff members joined the freshmen.

Between Wed., Sept. 24 and Fri., Sept. 25 the fledgling college students followed a busy schedule of activities at the Salvation Army’s 40-acre Pine Summit Christian Camp in Big Bear Lake. Called IGNITE, the orientation program consisted of teambuilding exercises on a ropes course, and traditional games with an interesting twist including earth volleyball with a massive, multi-colored ball, and human foosball where players hold onto ropes stretched across a walled-off rectangle while trying to kick a ball into two end goals. 

In between the games and ropes course exercises, they met for workshops on the realities of college life, and with their family groups consisting of about nine freshmen each led by current university students and Division of Student Life staff.

For the past several years, IGNITE orientation activities have been held at La Sierra’s Riverside campus. However the influx of new students has outgrown campus facilities, said La Sierra’s Vice President of Student Life Yami Bazan, and the program was moved to Pine Summit. “The main idea is to connect them with each other, and with the staff and student leaders,” she said.

Isaac Deese, a Long Beach resident and graduate of Mayfair High School enrolled at La Sierra to play on the Golden Eagles men’s basketball team and to study accounting. He and his group were busy helping each other scale a wooden wall setup among pine trees as part of the ropes course. “Getting up there was the easy part. Getting down was hard,” he said after climbing down a tree to exit a platform at the top of the wall.

The trip to Big Bear was his first outdoor mountain experience. “Just getting acquainted with the freshman class has been a great experience,” Deese said when asked about his favorite IGNITE activity. “I liked it when we were in chapel and we had the family environment thing going.”

Griffen Winget, a biomedical science major and Idaho native, was uncertain what to expect from the small group experience during IGNITE. “But everybody in my family group is super close with me,” he said.

Winget followed the path of several of his own family members when he enrolled at La Sierra. “My aunt used to teach here and I had family go through here. It was highly recommended to me,” he said. Winget plans to become a pediatrician and open his own practice.

Summer Johnson, a senior health promotion and education major and a campus residential assistant, served as Winget’s family group leader. “So far I’m really liking it,” she said on Sept. 24. The group may meet once a month to eat out and do other things during the school year. “It would be really cool to get together outside of IGNITE,” Johnson said.

For a short video interview with four freshmen, and to view hundreds of IGNITE photos, visit our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/LaSierraU.