The St. Paul Academy and Summit School ninth grade retreat has been a way for freshman to get to know each other and build friendships during the first days of school. This year, rather than having it at the usual time, the retreat has been moved to Oct.30. Freshman Maya Edstrom thinks the retreat later in the year will be a “good opportunity to have fun with people we already know, and get a stronger relationship with them.”

The school found a new location for the retreat — the Boy Scout Base Camp, at Fort Snelling. At Base Camp, there are lot of activity options such as rock climbing and a ropes course. Freshman Charlie Marrone is looking forward to “being able to have a break from classes and do the rock climbing and stuff.”

Freshman Ethan Meitz has been to Base Camp before, and says “all of the climbing is really fun.”

Upper School science teacher Karissa Baker said, “There will be a lot of leadership and team building activities for the ninth graders to participate in.”

One reason the retreat was moved is during the first few weeks of school, the faculty and students needed to get a feel for the new schedule, and having a retreat would take away from that.

“We wanted to get a few cycles in without missing whole days of school,” Baker said.

Another factor that affected this change is that  the current freshman class is the largest ever to go through SPA, with an enrollment of 112 students. Baker Park Reserve, the location where the retreat has occurred in the past couldn’t host a group of that size.

The retreat will be a follow up to the ninth grade orientation that took place on Aug 26. Freshman Weston Lombard commented that at the summer orientation “he met a lot of new people, and talked to everyone.” He is looking forward to doing the same at the retreat.