The expansion of the retreat program stemmed from the Campus Ministry Office widening its scope in recent years to become further integrated within all aspects of Carmel Catholic. Chief Mission Officer Dr. Kambra French, now in her 25th year, leads a wide-ranging Mission & Ministry team that oversees the holistic spiritual formation of students, faculty, and staff through prayer, liturgy, retreats, and service.
Because the Kairos retreat holds a special place in the hearts of so many students and adults alike, from those who have participated to those who have led them, a discussion naturally arose among the Mission & Ministry team, along with President Brad Bonham, regarding how Carmel Catholic could do more. How could retreat experiences benefit students at all grade levels, building eventually to Kairos?
The evolving answer became a five-year arc of retreats—Eighth Grade Salt and Light, Freshman Belong, Sophomore Believe, Junior Become, and Senior Kairos—that combine spiritual formation, leadership development, and intentional community building.
The focus on offering a significant, quality retreat opportunity across the years reinforced Carmel Catholic’s belief in a retreat and prayer program that is deeply shaped by its Carmelite and BVM heritage and offers something truly distinctive.
Other Catholic schools may host retreats, Dr. French notes, but the level of integration, spiritual depth, and student leadership at Carmel Catholic stands out. “Carmel Catholic has created a completely unique approach to retreats,” she says.
From an 8th grader just beginning to imagine high school, to a senior standing on the cusp of adulthood, Carmel Catholic’s retreat program is designed to help students live in the world as whole, spiritually grounded human beings ever more aware of God’s presence in their lives.
An Eighth Grade Invitation: Salt and Light
The newest piece of the program begins before students officially enroll at Carmel Catholic. The Eighth Grade Retreat grew out of a call from a principal at one of Carmel Catholic’s partner Catholic schools, asking if it might consider reviving the tradition of one—and expanding it.
“Spiritual formation is the priority, but in doing so, our students get to know others from other schools,” Dr. French says. “We believe that will help them feel more confident in choosing Carmel Catholic as a school because they’ll know more than just the handful of people from their own school.”
The Salt and Light retreat, a theme taken from the Gospel of Matthew, brought 236 8th graders to campus this fall from eight schools. Over 100 seniors were trained as small group leaders. Each group was deliberately structured so that no two 8th graders from the same school were together, with two seniors assigned to each group.
The goals were threefold: foster spiritual growth, lower the social anxiety of transitioning to high school, and quietly, but intentionally, support recruitment and admissions. A year ago, one participant—a girl who had planned to attend another school—told her parents after the retreat that she wanted to come to Carmel instead. Months later, Carmel Catholic confirmed that she had indeed enrolled.
“So, although the strategic plan called for a four-year retreat program,” Dr. French notes, “with the addition of the Eighth Grade Retreat, we think of it now as a five-year journey. We’re really setting students up for success when they begin as freshmen.”
Freshman Year: Belong
When many of those 8th graders arrive on campus as freshmen, they enter the first year of the formal four-year structure starting with the Belong retreat.
The freshman retreat is a one-day, on-campus experience that aligns directly with the first step in Carmel Catholic’s spiritual mindset Belong. Believe. Become. If the Eighth Grade Retreat is about first contact, the Belong experience is about rooting students in a new home. It is here that the theme of being cherished members of God’s family under the loving protection of Our Lady of Mount Carmel plays a central focal point.
Freshmen again encounter senior leaders, who receive significant training both in how to share their faith and in practical leadership skills—conflict resolution, drawing quieter peers into conversation, and encouraging open dialogue.
“We rely very heavily on student leaders for most of our retreats, and that’s by design,” Dr. French explains. “It provides leadership training and real responsibility. We’re not just giving them a title; we’re forming them as leaders.”
The retreat day includes a scavenger hunt through campus, full of “Carmel lore” and hidden details: a mouse in a chapel painting, the staff member who graduated from Carmel Catholic the longest time ago, and other small “Easter eggs” that bring the school’s history and culture to life. Through activities, talks, and reflection, the message is simple and direct: you belong here—both to this community and to God, who has created you for a purpose.
Sophomore Year: Believe
Once sophomore year arrives, the tone shifts. The Believe retreat is a two-day, overnight, off-campus experience that invites students to deeper interior work. Based on the writings of Carmelite saint Teresa of Ávila and her classic Interior Castle, the retreat asks sophomores to imagine their souls as a beautiful, many-roomed castle. It is here that sophomores are challenged to explore the "rooms" of their inner life to discover where God dwells within them and learn how to let His light shine freely.
“It’s an exciting challenge for a sophomore,” Dr. French explains, “and we know they can do amazing things. We have kids doing BC Calc and AP Physics. They can handle complex and sophisticated spiritual ideas, too—and they want it.”
With junior and senior leaders guiding them, sophomores reflect not only on the beauty of their souls, but also on the things that cloud that beauty—habits, distractions, and the constant noise of a “screen-based life” that thinkers like social psychologist Jonathan Haidt have warned about.
Even non-religious researchers, Dr. French confirms, are pointing to spirituality, prayer, and interior silence as crucial antidotes to the psychological strain teenagers are facing. Carmel Catholic sees this as a place where it can truly differentiate itself.
“We can cultivate prayer, silence, and spirituality in a way nobody else can,” Dr. French says.
Junior Year: Become
The junior retreat Become is the newest part of the required sequence, launched for the first time in 2025. It draws on the life and writings of St. Titus Brandsma, the Carmelite priest and journalist executed at Dachau during World War II. Carmel Catholic’s chapel is named in his honor, and Dr. French describes his spiritual presence as a quiet, steady force in the life of the school.
Unlike the other retreats, Become is entirely student-led from within each small group. There are no peer leaders assigned; instead, juniors take on specific roles, hold one another accountable, and direct the flow of their own experience.
“The retreat model leverages their developing maturity,” Dr. French reflects. “They liked being asked to direct themselves. There’s personal accountability built into the model.”
The retreat includes a powerful afternoon at nearby Mundelein Seminary and its Chapel of the Immaculate Conception, where students celebrate Mass in a space that often takes their breath away, regardless of background.
The guiding narrative: juniors are becoming the leaders of the school, stepping into the mantle soon to be vacated by the seniors. They are reminded that they can do hard things, because God has created them to do amazing things.
Alongside the retreats, Carmel Catholic’s theology department has been developing a robust journaling initiative—partly in response to post-COVID struggles with writing and self-expression. Journaling now threads through both classroom and retreat experiences, giving students repeated practice in putting their inner lives into words.
Senior Year: Kairos
All of this culminates in Kairos, the signature senior retreat that has been part of Carmel Catholic’s identity for roughly 45 years. For Dr. French, it remains her favorite and a real opportunity for students to step away from the noise and routines of daily life (and technology), discover God in community, and listen for God in silence and in one another. Various aspects of Kairos remain intentionally confidential to this day to help free students to experience the retreat on their own terms.
“I can even see the fruits of the Kairos experience in my own children who are now in young adulthood. They still reference things they learned on Kairos,” she says.
Where Kairos was once a singular, late-stage spiritual shock of grace, it is now the summit of a long, intentional climb. Each earlier retreat quietly points toward the Kairos experience, tilling the soil so that seniors can receive it more deeply.
“Why wait until you’re almost done with Carmel to have this mountaintop experience?” Dr. French asks. “We want to build toward it, so their hearts are really ready.”