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If your life is like mine was, summer means leaving the support of your ������Ƶ fellowship and church and living in the spiritual desert of your home environment. Without even a strong church tie at home, I spent my first two summers caught in a harmful cycle of sin, guilt, and little spiritual growth.

At the end of every spring semester, college students across the nation gather for weeklong ������Ƶ training conferences called Chapter Focus Weeks.  And this year at my area’s chapter camp, I had the honor of team-teaching the second half of the book of Mark. For thirty hours during the week, thirty-two students and my coleader and I joined Jesus and his disciples in the struggle to understand the nature of discipleship and follow Jesus to his cross.

I’ve enjoyed life in college. A lot. I don’t think I’m alone in that. So when I got to the Blue Ridge Region’s chapter camp recently and entered a track called “Life After College,” I knew God was about to make me pretty uncomfortable.

If you are a student in an ������Ƶ chapter, there’s a very good chance that the transition from freshman to sophomore year will be hard for you.

In one year, I married off seven friends, left the neighborhood I’d inhabited since my first year of college, moved into a new house with two people who were never home, and lost my mentor when his wife took a job 500 miles away.

How do I get a job? That’s what you want to know, right? And not just any job, but a “real” job! (If you’re like me, you never want to work retail another day of your life.)

Assimilation is a powerful force, and hard to resist. I learned this watching Star Trek. Turns out it’s true, even in our culture that professes a love of diversity and individuality.

Increasingly, a bachelor’s degree is only one stage in the college journey, not the final destination. Millions of students will continue their education in graduate school, some seeking a professional degree (e.g., law, education, medicine, business) and others beginning a Ph.D. program.

Becoming a full-time mom after my second child was born was not my best season of life. I missed my work as an ������Ƶ campus staff worker—a job I loved deeply.

Dear friend, As your ������Ƶ staff worker, can I (one last time!) offer you some advice and perspective—a few words of truth that will hopefully help you in the transition you’re about to face?