"This is your moment!"
2-minute Introduction Video
Give yourself a great boost in life
to discover your dream
and a path to achieve it.
​
Let your mind
come play
about your future.
What’s different about this Retreat is that,
while it guides you to earn a good living,
that is the second step.
The first step activates your imagination
to connect you
with your natural motivation
to discover what you’d love to do in life
to enjoy a fulfilling career.
​
​​
​
We call it a Retreat
because it combines a time of peace and adventure in a way that lets your natural knowing flourish to guide you to what you really want in life.
We invite you on a journey
to explore your passions and
then match one to a fulfilling career.​
​
Once you connect with your passion,
our Socratic method guides you
to match your passion to a career
that is fulfilling and earns a good income.
​
EQ and Career
The Retreat fosters gatherings of emotional intelligence, wisdom ideas, kindness and mutual respect with peers, per our
Community Agreement.
​
United States Surgeon General,
in his "Parting Prescription," urges citizens
to see that the path to well-being and health
is found in relationship, purpose, and service.
​
Your leadership skills increase
as leadership of the group rotates to each
of the six members of your Retreat group
– when the baton is passed to you.
This student
attributes her $220,000 college scholarship to her Passion Spark Retreat experience,
as does her counselor, in a letter, here.
This Eight-Gathering Retreat
is designed for people who really want to be there. We aren’t for everyone, but we may be for you! High school and college students, college alumni, veterans, and those in mid-career who are ready for a purposeful challenge, may apply.
​
During the Retreat Gatherings, you're invited to hit the pause button, have time to reflect about what in life brings you joy, match that passion to a satisfying career, and then start on the path to it.
Benefit from the wisdom of mentors
that has been curated from the greats our world has known. When the baton is passed
to you, it's your turn to lead and describe the next selection of wisdom, which is easily readable in the Retreat script. Learn more.
​
Measured outcomes
are statistically significant, including a 33% increase in “passion for a career,” a 39% increase in “good idea for next steps to take,” and 22% increase in
“a good idea for a college major.”
See 15 retreat experiences here.
Unique to this Retreat
is its non-lecture format. It is based on a guided interactive curriculum among peers who respect each other’s skills to engage thoughtfully, and who support each other on this intriguing adventure toward a personal awakening about what they'd really like to do in life.
​
“When a person owns their passion,
little can stand in the way of their success.”
​
Two 3-hour Retreat Gatherings
occur each Saturday for four weeks, once in the morning and once in the afternoon.
Each Retreat is comprised of six members from your peer group, as described below. Institutional options to spread the eight gatherings over eight weeks, or on days other than Saturday, are available.
​
​
Retreat Date Options are shown here.
​
Retreat Tuition Options are shown here.
​
Our engaging form of Mentorship is here.
​
Quick summary of Retreat experiences is here.
​
The topics of each Retreat gathering are here.
​
To see a page brochure about the Retreat, click here.
An example of how the Retreat flows is shown here.
​
​
Participants of all backgrounds are invited.*
Executive Summaries for each group
See your Peer Group Below
​
-
Those in mid-career who now find a lack of passion in their work and would love to have some. For management options and Corporate Care, click here.
-
College Alumni who have not yet found a career or an internship that they are passionate about.
-
College Students who have not yet found a college major focused on a career they are passionate about.
-
High School Students who would love to connect with a passion that lives within them and match it to a career to gain clarity about their focus in college.
-
Military Veterans seeking guidance to a satisfying and fulfilling civilian career. Click here to view veterans page.
​
-
A "Certificate of Achievement" is awarded after the 8 Gatherings.
This retreat adventure may be the chance of a lifetime that few people will ever experience. It's not a course with a grade, or a supervisor's evaluation to worry about. It’s time just for your own personal self-discovery. It's time you set aside just for you, with caring support, to look inside at these big ideas. When will you ever get to do that again?
Counselor's comment for students :
“The team at Passion Spark have been helping young men and women become exceptional versions of themselves. The workshops and resources they provide to students help my students transform before my eyes. Really, it’s a blessing to observe.”
Marissa Carroll, Director of College Counseling
Villanova Preparatory School [read full letter]
​
Reduce college cost – and your time. When you are more clear on where you are going, it's much easier to choose a college and a major, you can graduate in four years, and not five or six years (53% of American students graduate in five or six years). This saves you up to $85,000 or more for each extra year that is not required.
During Passion Spark Retreats a caring environment is encouraged to emerge among participants which can be almost magical as those attending support each other in the process of discovery.
To view a video of past student Retreat participants, experts in the field, and testimonials, please click here.
The balance between doing what we love and what earns us a living is a lifelong activity. Passion Spark guides its participants to answer it now, and offers a way to do so throughout life. Participants love the unfolding as they see more of themselves.
Continue life’s journey by getting clear on what you really want. After this Retreat, you'll be able to demonstrate in your applications for schools and careers what those judging want most: Applicants who know what they want, now, and are passionate about achieving it. What you take away from this Retreat adventure will support you to stand out competitively in your college and career job applications.
* Passion Spark has long been committed to social justice, and offers a sliding scale for its Retreat tuition. Historically, with Segue Career Mentors, a program with a very similar mission as Passion Spark, Segue served over 50,000 low to very low income students. See more of our history at this link.
Knowing your passion guides you to decide which colleges, which majors, which career jobs, which vocations, and which education paths are best for you. If you want a career that you like so much that, when you are working it’s not “work” at all, then this Retreat is for you. You are invited to live the dream Confucius described 3000 years ago when he said: “Do what you love and never work a day in your life.” Really?
Is this attitude just a romantic fantasy? What is “work?” If you love what you do, is it really “work?”
How the Retreat Flows
The relaxed curriculum is designed to guide your small group to reflect on topics which, taken together, can lead to your clarity about your favorite passion, a career to engage your passion for a fulfilling life, and the detailed steps for how to make your dream career come true.
​
The curriculum includes videos to see, ideas to consider, and good conversations with your group members. These conversations stimulate inner thoughts, creativity, and journal writing. When invited to share thoughts, members chose to read passages from their journals – or simply speak extemporaneously.
The conversation bubbles below are examples of readings directly from the curriculum. In this case, it is to explore one curriculum topic: “What is Passion?”
These conversation
bubbles are examples of readings directly from the curriculum that are used to explore the topic:
“What is Passion?”
