The senior class of 2021 attended a COVID-19-adapted KAIROS retreat in two sessions that spanned March 1-2, 2021. With the current pandemic, the retreat had to be adapted for safety reasons, leading to a shortened experience for the students. With this, each day was dedicated to different groups, which is vastly different to the normal four-day, three-night event that students have faced in the past. 

Along with the length of the retreat, the location also had to be changed due to social distancing regulations. Rather than Franciscan, which is the retreat center in Independence, MO, where KAIROS is usually held, campus minister Andrea Arredondo explained that they had to switch to Savior Pastoral Center, located in Kansas City, KS, to keep everyone safe.

“We had Kairos tentatively scheduled with [Franciscan] for this year,” Arredondo explained. “And it really wasn’t clear for us that we weren’t going to be able to use them as the retreat center until well into first semester. And so we weren’t able to be as nimble as we would have liked to be able to offer something to [the senior] class.”

However, even with these differences, Arredondo is confident that the senior class still found what they were looking for in the retreat. 

“I told the students yesterday and Monday, you know, this was shorter,” Arredondo said. “This was different. But it still is what it’s all about. And I think they took away the transformational pieces of KAIROS.”