CONWAY — This July pilgrims from around the world will gather in Sydney, Australia, to celebrate World Youth Day. Despite the distance and cost, some Arkansans will be making the journey as well.
College students Kerry Evans, Travis Gunther and Brittany Shachmut, all of Conway, and Lauren Daly of St. Louis plan to attend WYD events, although their travel plans and partners vary. However, their reason for attending is the same — to learn about their faith and grow spiritually.
“This trip will be a unique experience of modern pilgrimage,” Evans said. “It will be interesting to be there with so many other Catholics.”
According to the 2008 World Youth Day Web site, the event was “established by Pope John Paul II in 1986 as an annual event to reach out to the youth of the world.”
For these four students, their trips to WYD will be a way to live their faith and experience Christ with fellow Catholics from across the globe. In addition, three of the students will be gaining college credit for their endeavor.
Evans, Daly and Shachmut all attend Hendrix College in Conway. As part of their requirements for graduation, Hendrix students participate in what Hendrix calls “experiential learning” through the Odyssey program.
Dr. Mark Schantz, Odyssey program director, said students are required to participate in three Odyssey experiences from six categories in order to graduate. He said more and more students are developing projects that take them around the world.
“I think the Odyssey program has opened up the globe to students in a way they didn’t have before,” he said.
In the case of Evans and Daly, the duo will develop a video documentary from their trip.
“We will look at how people from various countries practice their faith and how being a universal Church affects that,” Evans said.
Daly said the idea of turning their trip into an Odyssey project took a while to develop.
“We started out with the idea for making a scrapbook and photo journal, but it slowly evolved into a documentary,” Daly said. “We want to gain insights into other pilgrim’s faiths, practices and traditions. We hope to include the interviews, as well as other footage from the trip into our film.”
Schantz said often students will provide a campus-wide presentation, but it is not always a requirement of their projects.
With round-trip air tickets priced in the thousands of dollars, these students sought funding from the college. Evans and Daly were awarded more than $1,000 in financial support from Hendrix for this project.
Shachmut, who will be a senior this fall and just returned from a five-month study abroad program in Mexico, is also participating in the Odyssey program through her trip to WYD.
Her project includes keeping a journal and log of her trip. Shachmut said her project will focus on the universal aspect of the Church and how many cultures practice one faith.
She said she plans to give a presentation to students in the Catholic Campus Ministry in Conway this fall.
“I hope to reestablish my Catholic faith on this trip,” she said. “I’ve been involved in youth groups, but I hope the enthusiasm from others is something I can bring back home.”
She also received funding from Hendrix to attend WYD.
“If I had not received funding which paid for the majority of the plane ticket,” she said, “I would not be able to attend.”
For Gunther, WYD will be an extension of the discernment process.
Gunther, who just completed his sophomore year as an architecture major at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, will be traveling to Australia with the Salesians.
Gunther said in an e-mail response, “Currently I am discerning with the Benedictines to see if my vocation is with them or the Salesians.”
He said he plans to volunteer with the Salesians this coming school year.
“I will work with the Salesians ministering to the large immigrant population in Port Chester, N.Y., live with the community and meet regularly with a spiritual director,” he said. “My goal is to immerse myself in the day-to-day life of a Salesian, ministering to poor youth, so I will not be in the seminary.”
For Gunther, his trip to WYD is truly a pilgrimage, following the path God has set before him.
“I hope to gain a deeper understanding of the ’universal’ meaning of catholic, a better idea of just how beautiful and challenging it is to be a part of Christ’s body and grow more in love with Christ,” he said. “Without a doubt, Christ will throw a few surprises in along the way.”
All four said they plan to spend some of their trip sightseeing and taking in the Australian culture.
This is the first time WYD has been held in Australia. The actual World Youth Day is July 20, but there is a week-long series of events that culminates with a final Mass celebrated by Pope Benedict XVI. This year’s Mass will be held at Randwick Racecourse and Centennial Park in Sydney.
An event of this size in not held every year, but every few years an international celebration is planned. The United States hosted WYD in Denver, Colo. in 1993. The last WYD celebration was held in Cologne, Germany, in 2005.
The WYD 2008 Web site estimates that 225,000 people will attend the events including 100,000 from Australia.
