Katrina Axtell, a freshman biology health professions major at Northwestern College from Hovland, recently participated in a program called Portage.
The Portage experience focused on experiential learning in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) in northern Minnesota. Student participants canoed and camped in the BWCAW Aug. 9-18. The group also spent a day at the Grand Portage Ojibwe Indian Reservation on Lake Superior participating in service work through a local church.
Portage was led by Kevin Sutton and Matt Gray, Northwestern alumni who are on staff of the Coldwater Foundation for Leadership and Community Development, and three upperclassmen students.
The program was created to serve as a resource for incoming students to navigate the transition to college life. Topics discussed by the students ranged from the challenges of leaving home to creating a vision for their college education. Participants also experienced a day of fasting and solitude.
Northwestern College is a Christian college of more than 1,200 students in Orange City, Iowa.
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