Students from senior academies across the union spent the weekend receiving training for roles ranging from Student Association and class leadership to residence halls, communication and campus spiritual life. Worship services, breakout sessions and recreational activities were designed to strengthen practical leadership skills while encouraging students to consider how their influence can shape the culture of their schools.
Leading Through Life’s Challenges
Guest speaker Mark Tamaleaa, a former pastor turned suicide prevention and mental health speaker, addressed students throughout the weekend on trauma, forgiveness, calling, relationships and mental health.
Tamaleaa’s talks centered on helping students face difficult experiences with faith, honesty and practical support.
He began by addressing trauma, forgiveness and reconciliation, drawing from his own relationship with his father. He emphasized that forgiveness does not excuse harmful behavior and can happen even when reconciliation is not possible. Reconciliation, he said, requires participation from both people.
He also spoke about calling and purpose, encouraging students not to become consumed with trying to figure out every detail of their future. “You don’t have to find your calling; your calling will find you,” he told them.
A major theme throughout the weekend was mental health and suicide prevention. Tamaleaa shared openly about his own suicide attempt as a teenager and later about the loss of his son to suicide. He encouraged students to seek help, stay connected to others and recognize that faith and Scripture can support them alongside professional care such as therapy.
He also stressed the importance of healthy relationships and speaking openly about pain, warning against allowing difficult experiences to remain hidden. “Satan grows in the darkness,” he said, urging students to bring struggles into the light rather than face them alone.
Tamaleaa closed by reflecting on service and ministry, explaining that serving God can take many forms. His own move from pastoral ministry into full-time suicide prevention work became an example of how a calling can continue even when it looks different than expected.
Throughout the weekend, Tamaleaa led optional Bible studies each morning, where about 20 students learned practical approaches for spending time with God and developing a regular habit of reading Scripture.
Training for Campus Leadership
Outside the main worship programs, students separated into sectionals related to their responsibilities at their schools.
Student Association leaders exchanged ideas for generating interest in campus events, increasing participation and strengthening school spirit. Led by Steve Baughman, senior manager and Bainum Family Foundation, junior and senior class officers brainstormed event and fundraising ideas while discussing communication, teamwork, organization and adaptability.
Resident assistants, guided by Great Lakes Adventist Academy Assistant Dean Joshua Warren, worked through scenarios they could encounter in dormitory life and discussed how student leaders can help create an environment where residents feel safe, accepted and cared for. The session emphasized that dorm leadership includes building relationships with students who may view the dorm as a home away from difficult circumstances.
Communication students received a two-part training experience. Andrews University Photography Professor David Sherwin led a hands-on photography session in which students practiced using cameras while documenting other activities around camp. Andrews University Social Media Coordinator Geyvison Ludugerio led a session on organizing and designing yearbooks, magazines, programs and pamphlets. Photos taken by students during the weekend were later included in a retreat slideshow.
Students in the Campus Spiritual Life sectional, led by GLAA Bible teacher Jeff Akenberger and Wisconsin Academy Bible teacher Greg Edge, explored how prayer and the Holy Spirit can influence the spiritual atmosphere of a school. During one activity, students mapped their campuses and identified areas where they believed spiritual life could be strengthened. The session also emphasized servant leadership and the influence of students who consistently invest in the spiritual lives of others.
Prayer also surfaced in other parts of the retreat. During a communion service, students and staff participated in foot washing, Communion and an agape feast, with students praying for one another.
Building a New Generation of Prayer Partners
For the first time, the retreat included a Prayer Connectors group, giving student spiritual leaders focused training in prayer. Lake Union President Elden Ramirez met with the students and encouraged them to develop their own prayer lives while becoming people who intentionally pray for others.
The idea grew out of Ramirez’s own experience with prayer partners throughout his life. After losing his father as a child, Ramirez said his great-grandfather began visiting his family, studying the Bible with him and teaching him that he could speak directly to his heavenly Father.
“Don’t change anything other than direct the conversation to your heavenly Father,” Ramirez recalled his great-grandfather telling him. “And I will be praying for you.”
His great-grandfather became the first in a succession of prayer partners in Ramirez’s life. His mother, professors and other mentors later filled that role, praying for him and reminding him that he was not walking alone.
Two longtime prayer partners died this year, including a woman Ramirez described as a spiritual mother. Shortly before her death at age 92, she reminded him that although she would no longer be physically present, other prayer partners could continue where she left off.
Her death prompted Ramirez to think more intentionally about who was praying for students across the Lake Union.
“Who are the prayer partners for our kids in the Lake Union?” he recalled asking.
Ramirez said the question led him to speak with Lake Union Education Director Nicole Mattson about developing prayer partners among students themselves.
“What better way than create young prayer partners that can pick up where the prayer partners that are passing away because they’re old now,” he said. “We have a new generation that’s going to pick that up.”
Ramirez told students that his longtime prayer partners did not become people of prayer overnight. Their relationship with God had developed over years, just as his great-grandfather had planted that seed in him as a child.
He encouraged students not to be intimidated by prayer or believe they needed to reach a certain level of spiritual maturity before approaching God. He told them that the Holy Spirit can teach them how to pray and that Scripture and biblical promises can help shape their prayers for themselves and others.
“The power of God is available to them right here, right now,” Ramirez said. “And all they need to do is develop that relationship with God.”
Time to Connect
Recreation gave students additional opportunities to build relationships throughout the weekend through horseback riding, kayaking, go-karting, basketball, walking and other activities around Camp Au Sable.
Debbie Michel, with additional reporting by Grand Rapids Adventist Academy students Naomi Perez, Aung Myat and Andrews Academy student Imani Parkinson.
More photos are available at: bit.ly/2026AcademyLeadershipCamp
Watch a recap video here: