Impact’s Impact
Kelsey Watson
With meetings, games and a lot of travel, gap year programs offer students immersive opportunities. When you add God into the mix, students will be equipped to make an impact in the world.
John and Trudy Cathy White had worked in international missions for 20 years and saw a growing need to equip young adults in godly leadership. By equipping young adults to become Christ-centered servant leaders, Impact 360 Institute was born of the vision of Lifeshape, Inc.
The Whites searched for ways to combat the critical shift in ideas and lifestyle occurring among college-aged students, realizing that many people abandon their faith when they are unable to defend or explain it against advocates of secular humanism and other worldviews.
Impact 360 Gap Year was founded in September of 2006 and takes place in Pine Mountain, Georgia. Impact 360 is where young adults live together in fellowship to pursue the Lord and gain a deeper understanding of Him.
According to impact360institute.org, the Impact 360 community believes in all truth is God’s truth and rejects the idea that reality is to be carved up into the artificial categories of sacred and secular. As Christ-followers we are called to live every aspect of our lives under God’s authority and for God’s glory.
The Impact Institution offers many different opportunities for all needs “We believe in raising a generation of leaders who know Jesus deeply, choose to be transformed in their character and live with Spirit-empowered influence,” said Jawan McGinnis, Impact 360 front desk specialist.
Fellows, the Impact 360 gap year nine-month program has classroom discussion, leadership curriculum, international/domestic travel and more. “We have gotten to experience God in a capacity a lot of people have not gotten to. The program is not magic, by any means, but when you create space for God to work in your life He does. I feel like a new person on the other side of Impact,” said KJ Nelson, 2023 Impact 360 graduate.
While traveling and mission trips are a big part of this institution, the in-class work can be just as impactful. “We read books throughout the weeks on campus and the authors of the books would come in and talk to us,” says Ellie Hall, Impact 360 2023 graduate. She said the book that impacted her the most was a book by Christopher Yuan about homosexuality as a Christian. Yuan talks about sex, sexuality and relationships being shaped by God’s glory.
According to impact360institute.org, the Impact team is looking for students who are in an actively growing relationship with Jesus, have leadership experience and are teachable. You must be a high school graduate, have a 22 ACT, 1100 SAT minimum score or 72 CLT minimum score with at least a 3.0 GPA to apply for the program.
The application process for the Fellows program begins online. The student application goes live each summer for next Fall’s enrollment and they are interviewing students for the 2024-25 academic year. There will only be 100 seats offered, 66 of which have already been filled. There is an online form with questions that starts off the interview process. Once that is completed, the next step is a phone interview where they ask personal questions. If they like what they hear, the next step is attending a final interview in person at the Impact 360 campus, dressed in business casual.
The Fellows are students at Union University out of Jackson, TN, while the Residents on the Impact 360 campus are at North Greenville University. While in each program, students are usually in the classroom until lunchtime. After lunch, they usually have free time to work on studies, have fun, participate in intramurals or hang out with friends. When the Fellows complete their program in May, they will have received 18 college credit hours from Union University, which are easily transferable. “We have a lot of partner schools that are familiar with our program and like it when our students apply to attend their institution upon commissioning from Impact 360,” says McGinnis.
According to usnews.com, The Gap Year Association says that there is an average of 40,000 to 60,000 students who take a gap year each academic year. Many students decide to take gap years for several reasons. “I didn’t necessarily know where I wanted to go to college or what I wanted to study so I wanted to take a gap year so I could wait longer to decide where I wanted to go and what I wanted to do,” said Hall. She said because she heard about Impact through her dad and his job, she learned about how awesome it was, the traveling and about how much you grow really appealed to her. “I wanted to grow my relationship with the Lord before I had to go into the world by myself.”
This institution has an impact on the students that attend it. Students can participate and see things that they would never get the opportunity to do otherwise. “Go to South Africa. I loved it there,” said Nelson. Hall said she grew a relationship with the Lord that was only hers. She chose to get up and read her Bible and to attend church, not because her parents wanted her to, but because she loved it.
Students commission from Impact 360 gain deep friendships, deeper knowledge of Scripture, identity in Christ, organizational management, service leadership, academic rigor and interpersonal skills.
Sources:
I had a face-to-face interview with Ellie Hall and KJ Nelson; both 2023 Impact 360 graduates. I conducted an email interview with Jawan McGinnis (front desk operations) because she is at work in Georgia so I could not get face-to-face. Impact360institute.com is the institution’s official website where I gathered information. Usnews.com is another online website I received some statistics from.
Impact 360 institute. Impact 360 Institute. (2023, July 24). https://www.impact360institute.org/
What a gap year is and how it prepares students for college – U.S. news … (n.d.-b). https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/what-a-gap-year-is-and-how-it-prepares-students-for-college
