From August 10 to 12, National CARP hosted its annual Momentum leadership retreat. Due to COVID-19, Momentum was canceled in 2020 making this the first time CARP student leaders were able to gather in two years. The purpose of this retreat was to connect the local chapters and National CARP to a higher vision for the next school year.
Chapters from New Jersey, Connecticut, Maryland, Indiana, Illinois, Minneapolis, Texas, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Washington, Hawaii, and California gathered for this national summit. In total, 71 people, including participants and staff, attended.
After arrivals (and many happy reunions) on the 9th, the program officially started at 9 am on Tuesday morning with orientation and an ice breaker in teams. The teams consisted of leaders from different chapters around the country, so each leader could connect with and get to know other leaders better. During their first discussion, they asked each other why they do CARP connecting both to their own why and to each other’s.
Following this time to get to know their teams, President of National CARP, Jinil Fleischman, went over the national vision with a speech from the founder, Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon, and a presentation. Jinil also invited representatives from partner organizations, Youth and Students for Peace (YSP) President Miilhan Stephens and Young Christian Leadership Conference (YCLC) Director Joshua Holmes, to share about the opportunities these two organizations can offer CARP.
After lunch, each chapter shared their highlights from the last year of CARP. Most chapters did a lot of activities and even grew their membership despite the pandemic. Four new chapters also introduced themselves and their hopes for the next year.
CARP Las Vegas Director, Makiko Watanabe, led the next session with a presentation on how to grow as leaders. Following her presentation, CARP Bay Area Director, Markus von Euw, and CARP Los Angeles Director, Naoko Hiraki, shared their testimonies about joining CARP in the early days and some of its history and their own personal growth.
Wednesday morning started with CARP LA student leader Kodai Abe teaching the participants the choreography for a new song dedicated to CARP. After the group mastered the chorus, the CARP LA team performed the entire dance.
After breakfast, Naoko Hiraki presented about campus outreach and how to share CARP’s principles effectively. This was followed by a visit from CARP’s sponsoring organization Family Federation of Heavenly USA’s Continental Director Dr. Chung Sik Yong who challenged CARP to expand its leadership three times and establish a chapter in every state by summer of 2022.
During Dr. Yong’s visit, three students also gave their testimonies about their chapters and their own growth.
Following lunch, National CARP staff member and Communications Coordinator Jennifer Pierce shared some of the many resources available to CARP leaders in starting, running, and expanding their chapters on campus.
One of the resources is the CARP Principled Curriculum, from which President Jinil presented Confusion in the American Value System as an example.
The day closed in personal reflections, a bonfire, and sharings on some of the leaders’ determinations for the upcoming school year.
On the final day, students met by chapter and planned specific goals and strategies based on everything they had heard and discussed over the past two days. After sharing some of those goals, Jinil gave final remarks and closed Momentum 2021.
With Momentum’s successful conclusion, CARP USA is ready to take on the 2021-2022 school year. Stay tuned for more from these chapters and leaders!
“Going into this workshop, my intentions were to inherit from other chapters to implement at CARP DMV, to solidify within myself that CARP is what God wants me to do, and to see the value and significance of CARP. During the summer, and sometimes last year, I would have doubts about how impactful CARP is and wondering if this is where God wants me to be. This workshop helped me let go of those doubts that I had and determine to invest more this year.
One thing I appreciated from Momentum was the guidances given by various leaders, particularly the talk from Rev. Miilhan [Stephens] and Dr. Yong. They emphasized the importance of youth impacting the world. Dr. Yong [...] really believes in the power of the youth and the impact that they can make in society. Reflecting on it, it makes sense. Right now the group of people who have a strong spirit and passion are the youth, and CARP’s responsibility is to help channel their spirit and passion.” - Mitsuyoshi Orikasa, CARP DMV
Share your story to jennifer@carplife.org!