Each year, a group of TCU students head to Palm City Beach, Florida to spend their summer diving into a new job and community as part of the Kaleo summer project.
The group is connected through TCU’s Student Mobilization (STUMO) Late Night. Maragauz Brink, a junior childhood education major and participant in the Kaleo summer said that the nine-week program, “equips and trains college students with how to grow stronger in their walk with God.”
Brink has gone to Palm City Beach for two summers now and said it’s life changing.
“Having the nine weeks was so important because it created habits, it wasn’t just a month of summer camp where you were on a “spiritual high” then come back and were the same,” Brink said.
Over 200 college students from schools such as UT Austin, Texas A&M, SMU, Texas Tech and UT are a part of Kaleo as well. Each student works a different type of job including “Waffle House, lifeguarding, Walmart” or even “internships or [shadowing] in hospitals” said Christa Remchuk, senior nursing major. Remchuk spent her summer working as a hostess at a beach side seafood restaurant with four other TCU students.
When students aren’t working, Kaleo facilitates training and learning time during the week including bible studies, book studies, church, late night worship and world prayer Emily Sutton, Junior ROTC nursing major, said.
Sutton added, “there is also free time during the week to explore the area, paly on the beach and relax.”
Sutton said 53 TCU students attended Kaleo this past summer, almost doubling the number of students who went the year before.
“You don’t have to be at any level of spiritual maturity, you don’t even have to know exactly what you believe,” senior entrepreneurial management major Eva Amble said. “All you have to do is be willing to take steps to grow and be open to learning new things.”
Amble, like Brink, has gone for several summers now (three and counting) and believes “it is hands down the best thing that [she has] done in college.”
Applications are now open for students interested in applying for next summer. In the meantime, students can join STUMO Late Night at 9:30 p.m. on Mondays at the University Baptist Church.