Retreats are an integral part of the University High School program and provide an important means for students to spend time together as a class, further developing their bonds with one another.

They are designed to provide developmentally appropriate support to individual students in the context of their roles as class members. Retreats play an important role in the social-emotional development of students at U-High and are considered mandatory. That is, we expect each student to participate in these fun class activities that are designed to promote growth and community.

Grade 9

Before school starts the entire ninth grade will go off campus for two days of team-building activities and conversation about what it means to transition to high school and to be a student in the U-High community.

Grade 10

Early in the fall quarter the tenth grade goes off campus for a two-night retreat in order to reflect on what role service can play in their personal lives, perform service together, and learn more about the tenth grade service-learning requirement.

Grade 11

This retreat occurs in the spring over three days and two nights, when eleventh-grade students are beginning to look towards their senior year and what will come thereafter. Working in large and small groups, students examine their strengths and opportunities in an environment that affirms their abilities and their specialness.

Grade 12

It’s the end of January. The weather is cold and twelfth graders are beginning to show signs of “senioritis.” What better way to revive these students than to take them away for a weekend of skiing, skating, sledding, hanging, and playing with their friends! For many, this is the last extended time they will spend with friends they have known their entire life before the school year ends and the class scatters around the nation to their colleges and universities.