{"id":6767,"date":"2022-03-03T08:00:46","date_gmt":"2022-03-03T14:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/coba\/?p=6767"},"modified":"2022-03-02T12:23:05","modified_gmt":"2022-03-02T18:23:05","slug":"a-slice-of-summit-making-lemonade-out-of-lemons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/coba\/2022\/03\/03\/a-slice-of-summit-making-lemonade-out-of-lemons\/","title":{"rendered":"“A Slice of Summit” – Making Lemonade Out of Lemons"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201c<\/span>Perhaps this was meant to be<\/i><\/strong>.” When thinking about the cancellation of Leadership Summit earlier this year, these are not the words one expects to hear. Yet a pivot from the disappointment of the canceled course to bring the student experience to Abilene has created an opportunity like no other.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Leadership Summit, 2020<\/p><\/div>\n

Leadership Summit is a weeklong mountain-top experience that combines an executive conference-style environment featuring high-profile speakers with a close-knit community. It has been a beloved COBA event for the past two decades. Last year, the virus canceled the event. This year, hoping to resume the tradition, disappointment struck again. The Young Life camp facility where the course was to be held sustained damage from a burst water pipe in the kitchen on the day that students, speakers, faculty and staff arrived. Because there was no water in the camp due to the damage, Leadership Summit had to be canceled, leaving students, speakers, and faculty devastated.<\/p>\n

In the days that followed the cancellation, communication was frequent and plans were made to allow students enrolled in the course the opportunity to complete the credit hours needed for Leadership Summit. Part of the new coursework included watching videos from past Summit speakers and writing reflections on the content.<\/span><\/p>\n

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A Slice of Summit, 2022<\/p><\/div>\n

However, Dr. Dennis Marquardt, Director of the Lytle Center for Faith and Leadership, said it still didn\u2019t feel quite right. \u201cWe had selected speakers specifically for this experience [Summit] – I couldn\u2019t believe we were missing this.” After the cancellation, Dr. Marquardt and his team spent the next two weeks in prayer and listening to student\u2019s stories of how they were impacted by the experience.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

With the rest of the spring semester remaining and the impacts of the recent events felt throughout the college, Dr. Marquardt pondered the potential to make the best of the situation. \u201cGod allowed these speakers to be on the list and students to be in the program. How can we be good stewards of that despite the change?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

As this question lingered, the idea for \u201cA Slice of Summit\u201d began to emerge. If the students couldn’t go to Summit, could Summit be brought to the students? The speaker list for the year had long been set with the content planned out in advance. Perhaps the speakers would be willing to come to Abilene to speak with the students here?<\/span><\/p>\n

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Elise Mitchel speaking at the first “A Slice of Summit” event.<\/p><\/div>\n

And so, the idea became a reality. What began as an ask to one speaker – Elise Mitchell – turned into a series featuring five of the guest speakers with an opportunity for the Summit students to gather, share meals together, and be uplifted by the speakers and mentors pouring into them. Elise Mitchell, Kent Brantley, Mo Isom, and others are joining the students in Abilene over the remainder of the semester to share their Summit message in person. Marquardt shared that the speakers have jumped at the new opportunity to travel to Abilene and share the message they had prepared to share in January.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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A Slice of Summit, 2022<\/p><\/div>\n

While Leadership Summit is a packed week full of content, \u201cA Slice of Summit\u201d is sprinkled throughout the semester. Typically, the longer the semester goes on, the more worn down students become. The hope is that these \u201cslices\u201d will encourage students in the perfect moments; key junctures to uplift and encourage them in the middle of their challenges. Marquardt said, \u201cIt is all falling into place.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

While the last two years of cancellations have been discouraging, Dr. Marquardt said they aren’t giving up and are<\/span>\u00a0already planning for the future. The date for next year\u2019s Leadership Summit is set and preparations are underway to ensure the travel plans work better for students and speakers. In the meantime, the Lytle Center is able to bring a little slice of that Leadership Summit pie to the ACU campus. Students can learn more about guest speakers through the Lytle Center, the COBA Newsletter, or the Compass app. To learn more about Leadership Summit, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cPerhaps this was meant to be.” When thinking about the cancellation of Leadership Summit earlier this year, these are not the words one expects to hear. Yet a pivot from the disappointment of the canceled course to bring the student experience to Abilene has created an opportunity like no other.\u00a0 Leadership Summit is a weeklong […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18798,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[818,2801,2750,1643,6630,154299],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academics","category-coba-events","category-current-students","category-leadership","category-leadership-summit","category-lytle-center"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/coba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/coba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/coba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/coba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18798"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/coba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6767"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/coba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6767\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6784,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/coba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6767\/revisions\/6784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/coba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/coba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/coba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}