Youth Culture Issue 82

Why Jackson College? Why
now?
Bill: Well, until recently, this was
a community college and only
offered a two year degree. It has
just become a four year college
with an enrollment of 10,000.
And I live two miles away from
campus!
tour of campus and said, “Here is
where you want to hold a Bible
study.” He showed me the Dove
Room. It’s named for someone
named Dove, who happened to
be a Christian. It seems like the
right room for a Bible study. He
also recommended a class for me
to take. So, I have enrolled as a
student! It gives me full access to
campus.
And the right to set up a
student group?
Do you have a plan for how to
attract students?
wasn’t hard to get contact
information for them. They have
all heard from me about the Bible
study. So far, three of them have
contacted me and said they want
to join.
Do you have any other plans?
Bill: Just my usual. Walk around,
pray, listen to the Lord, and then
do what he tells me. That’s all I
have really be doing all along. It’s
worked so far...
Bill: I have some connections
already. A few are friends of my
grandchildren whom I evangelized. They are going to help me run
our welcome booth next week.
By chance I found out that 24
graduates of Lumen Christi, a
local high school, would be
attending Jackson College. It
What have you done to get
things going?
Bill: I have lived in Jackson a long
time. I know a lot of people. One
of them happens to be the vicepresident of JC. He gave me a
Issue 82
University Christian Outreach is
engaging a bold plan to expand
this autumn to Jackson College,
in Jackson, Michigan. Bill Navarre,
a member of Morning Star
Community, recently joined UCO
as its oldest staff member. Bill is
in his seventies and is a retired
lawyer with a history of leading
young people to the Lord. The
Kairos Youth Culture Newsletter
interviewed him last week.
Bill: That’s another story. I went
to the head of student affairs to
see what I needed to do to set
one up. It turns out she is a
believer as well and said,
“Awesome, we have needed a
Christian group on campus!” So
she helped me out. Now we have
a student group, a meeting
room, and a booth at the student
fair this week. We are the first
Christian group on campus.
September
Forever Young
2014
Youth Culture
newsletter
Bill Navarre
Incoming Freshmen
Beloit College assembles an
annual “Mindset List”to remind
their faculty to be wary of using
dated references. Incoming
freshmen tend to relate to events
that happened before they were
born as ancient history.
To put this year’s freshmen in
context, they were mostly born
in 1996 – the year Madonna
released Don’t Cry for Me
Off to College
When she was one Princess
Diana and Mother Teresa died on
the same day and Harry Potter
went to Hogwarts.
Youth that age were probably in
bed at the turn of the millennium
– and if not, they probably
wished they were. Y2K was long
gone before they understood
what the acronym meant.
Argentina and gave birth to her
daughter Lourdes Maria Ciccone
Leon. Lola Leon will be attending
the University of Michigan, (her
mother’s Alma Mater) this fall.
For her, “press pound” has only
ever meant “hit hashtag.” Hong
Kong has always been part of
China, and everybody has always
loved Raymond.
They were stamped by watching
the twin towers fall in their first
week of kindergarten and by the
Columbia disaster in elementary
school.
They grew up helping their
parents learn to use Facebook,
Twitter, and Instagram on their
tablets and smart phones.
For most, a smart phone is more
important to them than a tablet
or a computer. Increasingly, it is
the way they shop. (Online
shopping has climbed from the
eighth to the second most
popular way to shop. Discount
department stores remain #1.)
They have grown up in a time of
great moral shift, which they
hardly notice because it is just
the way things are.
More students than ever will
attend college in America this
autumn. Their average costs
are expected to be $21,000.
(The average peaked in 2010 at
$24,000.)
Colleges continue to charge
more but average spending is
down mainly because more
students are enrolling in twoyear public colleges. (Two year
college enrollment is up 4%
from the previous year at 34%.)
The most common financial
surprise to incoming students
is the high cost of textbooks –
$1200 per year. Transportation
(commuting, parking fees and
auto repair) is the next most
common surprise.
Our job is to understand them
and to reach them with the
Gospel.
Comments welcome:
[email protected]