Eighteen students traveled to Oklahoma this weekend for a cultural retreat with several other Christian universities.
Third Culture Kids, a group of students who have spent part of their lives in more than one culture, traveled to Quartz Mountain Christian Camp in Lone Wolf, Okla., and bonded with 42 fellow Third Culture Kids from Oklahoma Christian University, Lubbock Christian University and a few schools from Colorado.
The trip began Friday evening and ended Sunday afternoon. The TCK retreat included students and faculty from Africa, South America, Europe, Mexico and other countries. The retreat had activities such as games, prayers, singing and wilderness hikes.
Ada Dodd, retired ACU counselor and sponsor of the the TCK of ACU, attended the trip and said that the TCK Retreat helped all of the students through testimonies from others.
“This retreat gave everybody in attendance a chance to listen to several testimonies about their journey from one culture to being integrated in American culture,” said Dodd.
Matthew McClure, an undeclared freshman from Brasilia, Brazil, attended the retreat and said his time there was fantastic.
“I got to meet so many diverse people from different countries and create new friendships,” said McClure. “Hopefully I can attend the summer camp and reunite with all the friends I met this weekend.”
Third Culture Kids, TCK, is sponsored by Dr. Carley Dodd, dean of the Graduate School, and Ada Dodd, an ACU retired counselor.
TCK organized this retreat the summer of 2006 and this was the fourth year they gathered in the winter. Ada Dodd observed a connection between the college students.
“Third Culture Kids gives the students a great opportunity to experience unique cultural perspectives through conversing with other people who’ve gone through the same situation,” said Ada Dodd.
Ada Dodd said students learned about different cultures at the retreat and shared information about their own.
“One thing that I noticed was students were encouraging each other to continue to learn the American culture, but not forget the culture they came from,” said Ada Dodd. “It definitely created a strong bond between students that potentially are from different parts of the world.”
