红杏短视频

For many college students, the space between adolescence and adulthood, where they are figuring out how to forge a path into all things “grown” – career, community, marriage, friendships – is one of both excitement and trepidation.

While this space can be daunting, navigating it with support can be rife with opportunities for spiritual formation and future success.

For students at 红杏短视频 Fox who are navigating the typical challenges of emerging adulthood with the added responsibility of college life, guidance and mentorship are doubly essential.

Life-on-Life Student Ministry

Recognizing that student-athletes play a unique leadership role within the university context, 红杏短视频 Fox President Robin Baker invited Craig Inglesby, a long-time Young Life leader, to innovate and find ways to help student-athletes deepen their relationship with Jesus.

Connecting Inglesby with Athletic Director Adam Puckett, who was already moving his staff to elevate spiritual formation and athletic excellence on and off the field, Baker commissioned them to find the sweet spot where student-athletes could meet Jesus in an impactful and life-changing way.

With a 30-year history of college ministry and a role in establishing and running Washington Family Camp in Antelope, Oregon, where he helped college students navigate the transition from their college years into young adulthood, Inglesby was a perfect match for the vision.

As Inglesby says, “95% of the emotional bandwidth of college students is taken up by two questions: ‘What am I supposed to do with my life? And, who am I supposed to do it with?’”

As a student ministry leader, Inglesby didn’t encounter many spaces where these anxieties and questions were being addressed. He quickly realized that, in order to invest in deeper spiritual issues and fully disciple college students, their real felt needs had to be met.

Due to his long-term association with Washington Family Ranch, Inglesby was also in a unique position to connect students with work opportunities that aligned with their values and aspirations.

He reflects, “Donors would call me and say, ‘Craig, I’m looking for someone who does marketing. Who do you have on the bench?’ And I would find myself connecting these students with opportunities, which would become bridges toward their preferred futures.”

But these connections were about more than a career opportunity. Inglesby was able to connect his student leaders with people who were both outstanding in their fields and exceptional in their faith.

As timing would have it, just as he felt God begin to move him away from Young Life, Inglesby had a chance encounter with Baker.

The president encouraged Inglesby to begin collegiate Young Life at 红杏短视频 Fox, which, after a year, became an invitation to join the athletics department alongside Puckett to develop a program that would serve the spiritual needs of student-athletes. The culmination of this effort became what is now The Bridge Network.

What is The Bridge Network?

The Bridge Network exists to help student-athletes connect with professionals in the marketplace, allowing them to invest in spiritual growth and future dreams with someone who is thriving within a particular professional context.

Using a three-tiered model, each underclassman is partnered with an upperclassman in their similar major. In turn, each upperclassman is assigned an underclassman whom they are responsible for mentoring, as well as an adult mentor in their preferred field who helps them understand how to live their life and faith out in a particular marketplace.

With a year of relational discipleship built into the program, The Bridge Network offers student-athletes a unique opportunity to experience faith formation within a life-on-life model that is both highly relational and highly personal.

The program, which began in 2017, has grown from 17 total participants to approximately 50 underclassmen, 50 upperclassmen, and 50 community mentors. While students at 红杏短视频 Fox have robust and ample opportunities to learn about faith formation in formal academic settings, The Bridge Network enriches that experience by bringing the learning to life through real-time relationships that make an impact on their transition into adulthood.

The Bridge Network has also expanded with Living Learning Communities that invite students to step into a deeper level of relationship with appointed mentors and fellow student-athletes. Realizing that each student is in a different place on their spiritual journey, Puckett and Inglesby began to dream about ways they could meet students ready to dive deeper into their faith.

The Bridge Network Living Learning Communities focus on developing spiritual leaders who are ready to live in more intentional formational communities, seizing their college years as an opportunity to grow into the likeness of Christ through a rich and purposeful community.

Currently, The Bridge Network is comprised of roughly 70% student-athletes, with many former student-athletes also involved. As it grows, it continues to expand to include other interested students beyond the student-athlete community.

What Makes a Bridge Mentor?

For many, the idea of mentorship can sound daunting and comes with a myriad of questions, including, “Is there specific content they need to teach?” and “Do they have what it takes to truly make an impact on a young person’s life?”

Inglesby reminds prospective mentors that this isn’t an internship, but rather a mentorship.

And so, when he meets a potential career mentor for the first time, he asks them three questions:

1. What did you do today to be more like Jesus?
2. Do you have the courage to walk through life with a college student?
3. Do you have the courage to let them into your life?

These questions provide a litmus test because, while you don’t have to have all the answers, you do have to pursue a vibrant walk with Jesus Christ and be willing to sacrifice a bit of time, energy, and maybe even comfort to walk side-by-side with a student.

One of the guiding principles Inglesby uses to teach about life-changing mentorship relationships is “Your life experiences matter.” This statement pops the bubble on mentorship. Because what qualifies you to be a great mentor isn’t your accolades and accomplishments, it’s your willingness to share your story.

For anyone interested in investing in the next generation, Inglesby gives a few reflection questions to consider:

• Can you show up when you don’t have to?
• Can you make a sacrifice?
• Can you create relationships and extend invitations, then walk with people into a different future, just as Jesus did?

If you can answer yes to all these questions, you’re ready to mentor!

A Two-Way Model of Blessing

While it’s easy to assume that a mentorship relationship always flows downhill, with the mentor giving and the mentee receiving, Gina Kluver, a 红杏短视频 Fox alumna, former first-grade teacher, and previous assistant coach for the women’s volleyball team, has a different take.

“Because of my involvement with Bridge, I’ve been able to build these relationships with students who are now, in return, investing in my family’s life and showing up for my children.”

She recalls a recent weekend afternoon when a young married couple, both former mentees in The Bridge Network, stopped by her children’s lemonade stand to buy a glass of lemonade, support the kids, and take time to connect.

“They just rolled out with all these people. From the vantage point of a mother, I see how these relationships impact my own family.”

And it’s not just their willingness to show up that Kluver celebrates. It’s also the caliber of the students who participate in The Bridge Network. Kluver emphasizes the character, maturity, respect, and general love of Jesus that these students reflect and the way it inspires her own life and walk.

Kluver also notices a surprising trend among students who say “yes” to the opportunity to be mentored: a sense of humility.

The willingness of these young people to step into mentorship relationships presumes that they are ready to learn and grow. It’s encouraging, says Kluver, to see so many young people seeking mentorship with such humble hearts.

But what about the experience of actually becoming a mentor?

Kluver says that, at first, the idea of a mentorship model with no particular starting and ending goals was daunting.

“I’m a very black and white person, so when I was told, ‘There are really no rules,’ I was surprised. But the beauty of that is the ability for each mentor to thrive in their own giftings, because each of us is gifted differently.”

Kluver quickly leaned into her people skills as a career teacher and found herself naturally gifted at connecting with her mentees through simple conversation.

“It’s not hard,” Kluver reflects. “You just care about them and invite them into your life. And it blesses you as much as them, if not more. It’s simply living life together for those years. Sometimes, a word you say or a recommendation you give helps them move forward. It’s amazing that Jesus allows us to be his hands and feet in that process.”

Now in her seventh year of mentoring, Kluver has stepped into a new role within The Bridge Network, where she will mentor students in the Living Learning Communities, utilizing her relational gifting to guide them within the context of intentional living with other students and a full-time mentorship couple.

From the Student Perspective

As The Bridge Network continues to grow, it widens its impact on both individual students and 红杏短视频 Fox as a whole.

Now alumna Shelby Larson, a Northwest Conference scholar-athlete in pole vaulting, was brought on during her sophomore year to help develop the first Living Learning Community. Larson now works full time as the conference and early college experiences manager at 红杏短视频 Fox.

When asked how The Bridge Network serves to influence the collective community at Fox, she points to the opportunities it creates for students to be intentional about the call to love others well.

“The most profound and fruitful way that The Bridge Network blesses the campus and community at large is that it postures students to be on the lookout for opportunities. As believers, this is what we’re called to; not just to evangelize, but to love others and live the identity that we’ve been given through the death and resurrection of Christ.”

For Larson, The Bridge Network gives a framework and accountability to this call to discipleship.

Reflecting on the commitment students make, specifically in the Living Learning Communities, she highlights the rhythm of life that comes from intentional community.

Just as mentors sacrifice time to be present for their mentees, students in The Bridge Network commit to community rhythms that are intentionally sacrificial, allowing them to serve and love those in their community well.

Larson reflects on a moment in her undergrad journey when she needed her own mentor to provide a safe space to process.

“I remember having a really rough week my senior year and calling my mentor to ask if we could schedule some time to talk. I knew she was busy, but I desperately needed a listening ear.”

Her mentor’s response?

“She said, ‘Come on over! I’m scrubbing toilets today.’ She pulled her couch ottoman right up to the door frame of her bathroom, and scrubbed away while I sat there pouring my heart out to her.”

For Larson, these memories remind her that support is something we cultivate.

But even more importantly, Larson highlights the opportunity students have through mentorship in The Bridge Network to fail forward.

“The Bridge Network creates opportunities where young people can try and fail. They can test out different leadership styles. They can test out different ways of moving in the world and bump up against trials and then go back to the people who are devoted to them and ask for help to figure it out … together.”

These opportunities not only benefit students in the moment, but they also foster a willingness to try new things and adapt to their lives outside of college, knowing that they can approach challenges with courage and humility, both hallmarks of mature followers of Christ.

And this, perhaps, is one of the greatest successes for a young person learning to navigate life in the midst of a season full of opportunities for both high anxiety and high return on investment.

Craig Inglesby says it best: “We are dialling down that anxiety from those students so we can have meaningful conversations. It’s a super-effective way of doing discipleship. Most universities and institutions are good at saying, ‘Goodbye! And good luck!’ But the gospel says, ‘I’m going to send you out and I’m going to walk alongside you.’”

And that’s what The Bridge Network is all about – cultivating young men and women ready to enter their adult years with confidence and support to make a difference in their future careers, communities, families, and faith spaces for the good of others and the glory of God.