Community. Adventure. Understanding. Such are the things that Summer Seminars expound upon. Coming up on its thirteenth year, Summer Seminars have been a much-loved tradition of Westminster students.

Started by Chris Knerr, Ann Heyse, Warren Smith, and Larry Hughes, upper school teachers, Summer Seminars were designed to model Francis Schaeffer’s L’Abri concept.  French for the word “shelter,” L’Abri  have several centers throughout the world designed for studying.

The goal of Summer Seminars were to focus on a single topic within a small community of people.  The first trip was set in South Dakota, and it focused on analyzing brokenness and how good came from it.

“It has developed into this notion of restoration,” said Knerr.

Because of the positive feedback from the summer seminars, there has been an increase in offered trips. After 2010, more than one summer seminar was offered at a time, so students would not have to be turned away.

Other Summer Seminars will travel to Washington and Oregon to focus on the beauty of nature.  Some retreats have even had leadership as the central focus as the groups travel to historic battle sites.

Originally, the trips were set in the outdoors, requiring students to camp and backpack for the majority of the trip.  However, there have been seminars that have visited New England and soon Chicago for students who do not enjoy roughing it in the great outdoors.

The intention was that there would also be a focus on art.

“Christians have neglected arts so much, we don’t know how to react to them,” said Knerr.

Throughout these trips, it has been noticed that normal student cliques begin to break down within these seminar communities.

“It is cool to see how kids who normally wouldn’t interact with each other become friends,” said Knerr.