Sophomore Retreat: Prodigal Son

The SMCHS Retreat Team is committed to making retreats accessible to all students, regardless of any financial situation. In order to support that vision, we have the following options in place :

1.    Delaying the retreat payment due date to a time in the school year that works better for a family’s budget.

2.    Payment plans that can spread across any time period that works best for a family. You tell us when payments should begin & we will work with the Business Office to set that up in your FACTS account.

3.    A Partial Scholarship that can also be paired with a delayed retreat payment due date or payment plan.

4.    Full Scholarship.

If one of these options would allow your student to attend Sophomore Retreat, please reach out to Chris De Vera at deverac@smhs.org to discuss further.

We are happy to offer refunds up until 3 PM one week prior to the retreat departure date. In order to move forward with a refund, an email from a parent must be sent to Chris De Vera at deverac@smhs.org. We are not able to process refunds requested by Sophomores without a parent email.

Please email Chris De Vera at deverac@smhs.org to inquire about if spots are still available for the Sophomore Retreat you would like to attend. We are only able to take late adds up until 3 PM one week prior to the retreat departure date. If there are spots open & if the request is made within the above time frame, we are happy to accommodate!

If the retreat is full, you will be placed on a waitlist & notified if an opening becomes available.

We only allow Sophomores to attend Sophomore Retreat once as a retreatant. Both Sophomore Retreats are exactly the same, so you would essentially be paying twice to attend something you already experienced. We also want to ensure as many Sophomore as possible are able to make a retreat, so our registration spots are reserved for those that have not yet attended.

With that being said, Sophomores are eligible to apply to lead the Freshman Retreats! If you are interested in helping make underclassmen retreats possible, please apply to be a student leader.

No! Sophomore Retreat is designed in such a way that anyone from any faith background can get something out of the retreat. As a Catholic school committed to our Catholic identity, the retreat does have Catholic components such as Mass, Adoration & Confession. However, those practices are not exclusive for just Catholics to participate in. All SM Sophomores are encouraged & welcome to make a retreat their Sophomore Year!

The hope is that Sophomores are able to attend the retreat in its entirety in order to get the most out of the experience. This should always be what is aimed for by any Sophomore attending the retreat.

However, we are open to accommodating a late arrival or early departure if it is communicated by a parent ahead of time & follows the guidelines listed below :

1.    The student must be dropped off late or picked up early by a parent. Under no circumstance may a student come late or leave early in their own vehicle.

2.    If a student is coming late, the must be at the retreat center no later than 9:00 PM.

3.    If a student is leaving early, they cannot be picked up earlier than 6:30 AM or later than 12:30 PM.

If you have questions about this policy or would like to discuss a specific circumstance, please reach out to Chris De Vera at deverac@smhs.org.

While Mission San Luis Rey Retreat Center can accommodate some dietary restrictions, they are not a fully allergen safe kitchen. 

If you have severe dietary restrictions or allergies, we recommend bring your own food that can be kept in the refrigerator of our main space at the retreat site.

If your student will be bringing their own food, please contact Chris De Vera at deverac@smhs.org to discuss further & make a plan.

Absolutely! Our school does have a medication policy in place that allows students to bring any medication that they may need while on school trips, however it will be held & administered by Chris De Vera. This policy is in place for all Diocesan schools & is meant to ensure that all medication is kept safe & only administered to the student to which it is prescribed.

More detailed information regarding this policy & how we administer medication on retreats, will be discussed at the Sophomore Retreat Parent Info Sessions for each Sophomore retreat. If you have questions about this, please reach out to Chris De Vera at deverac@smhs.org or reach out to our Nurse's Office at deptofnursing@smhs.org.

Each Sophomore who attends Sophomore Retreat is sent a questionnaire that includes a space for them to request who they would like to room with.

These are REQUESTS, meaning it is not a guarantee that they will be roomed with those they list. We of course want those going on Sophomore Retreat to fill comfortable with their roommates, but we also want to refrain from placing students together who have a history of making poor decisions when they are with each other.

For the most part we are able to accommodate the requests we receive, but it is important to remember that a request is not the same thing as a guarantee.

Students find out who they will be rooming with when they arrive at the retreat center.

We do not, under any circumstance, allow retreatants or parents to pick who is in a Sophomore Retreat small group. Each Sophomore Retreat Team spends a great deal of time creating small groups that are intentional & will allow retreatants the opportunity to open up as much as they desire. We take the creation of Sophomore Retreat small groups very seriously & make decisions that are rooted in prayer & what is best for each retreatant.

The only outside information we will accept from retreatants or parents is if certain retreatants should NOT be paired together. If there is a dynamic between two retreatants that you would like to make us aware of, please reach out to Chris De Vera at deverac@smhs.org.

You do not! We take of that part for you by sending a list of all retreatants to our attendance office. The days of the retreat will be marked as “Excused” in Aeries & do not need to be confirmed by a parent.

All SMCHS Retreats are considered Excused Absences. This means that students will not be penalized in any way for stepping away from campus to attend a retreat. Students are given ample time to make up any work or assessments that are missed while on retreat. Our Retreat Team works closely with faculty, coaches & counselors to ensure that students are preparing ahead of time for what they will be missing, & are not completely overwhelmed with makeup work upon their return to campus.

Sophomores are encouraged to look at their class, sport & extracurricular schedules when picking which Sophomore Retreat they would like to attend. For help in discerning which Sophomore Retreat would work best for your schedule, please reach out to Chris De Vera at deverac@smhs.org.

To learn more about our school wide absence & make up work policy that is specific to retreats, please consult the SMCHS Parent Student Handbook.

This may be one of the few times a student hears this, but you are not allowed to work on school work during Sophomore Retreat! Sophomore Retreat is meant to give Sophomores a break from the busyness of their lives. Their only job on Sophomore Retreat is to be present & to focus on growing their relationships with the Lord, each other & themselves. There is a time & place for school work, but it is not on Sophomore Retreat.

Years of Sophomore Retreats, where cell phones were allowed, proved one thing very clearly: Sophomores cannot enter into the Sophomore Retreat experience in a meaningful & complete way, if cell phones are also present. It is impossible to fully “retreat” from the hustle & bustle of campus, if students have a device in their pocket that brings them right back to all of it with the click of a button. 

In order to protect the Sophomore Retreat experience & give retreatants the best chance at being present to all the Lord wants to do for them on this retreat, we do not allow cell phones.

Cell phones are collected as students are exiting the busses at the retreat center. This means that, in the event of an emergency, we are able to give cell phones back because they are up at the retreat site with us. If you have questions about the cell phone policy on Sophomore Retreat, please reach out to Chris De Vera at deverac@smhs.org.