News Post

The sunset over the water. A ropes course full of giggles and laughter. Reminiscing with fellow seniors as you approach graduation. Sharing your personal story in a small group of classmates who then become your best friends. Retreats are part of the fabric of a Visitation education, woven into programming from freshman year to right before you walk through the Green Gate. 

Bloom Where You Are Planted

Freshman Adventure & Retreat Day, Sophomore Retreat & Spectacular, Junior Retreat, and Senior Retreat. This four-year journey, with the optional Kairos retreat through a Salesian lens, invites students to deepen their relationships with one another, our Visitation community and the wider world, and God. 

The Freshman Retreat prays through the Little Virtue of Holy Friendship. Campus Minister Courtney Schmidt reminds students of St. Francis de Sales’ wisdom: “In the world those who aim at a devout life require to be united one with another by a holy friendship, which excites, stimulates, and encourages them in well-doing.” Transitioning into sophomore year brings new questions and challenges at an important moment in a girl’s life. In their retreat, they reflect on the ways that Christ walks with them, and how God is present in their lives.

“One takeaway I had was that to move forward in your faith journey, like the road to Emmaus, doesn’t always mean taking physical steps forward; sometimes it means taking a seat and sitting down,” said Annika L. ‘29. 

By junior year, the timeless October Salesian retreat, stepping fully away from campus and school life, offers an entire class an extended time together. Reflecting on the theme of how the Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth is our foundation, students take time to consider what God has done in her life and salvation history. 

“Junior Retreat reminded me that our foundation is not only built on the traditions and values of Visitation, but also on the community we create with one another,” said London K. ‘27 of last year’s retreat. “Coming together spiritually allowed our grade to grow closer, reflect on our friendships with one another, and strengthen the sense of connection that makes Visitation feel like such a special community.”

As seniors, they consider what they will take with them beyond 35th Street, at a pivotal moment approaching graduation.

We Pray Best Before Beauty

Alumna Olivia Wills Kane ‘85 (currently working with Visitation Salesian Network) called her own junior retreat one of her “top ten” moments in life. “I think every Visitation girl has that iconic photo. The one with the sunset, on the dock. That was the moment that bonded our class,” she said. “We were one. All the barriers broke down. There was more we had in common than we had differences. I was in love with Visitation, and in love with my class. I felt so good about myself and my religion.”

St. Francis de Sales wrote, “We pray best before beauty.” Kane said of her junior retreat - “It was the first time I realized the majesty of creation. It was a place to get away from the everyday stuff. The power of nature where you could slip away from distraction. That's where I would find God.”

Today, Kane looks back at her retreat experiences and says that when someone in her class has a need, they show up for one another. “At many points, we were Mary and Elizabeth to each other. Women going in haste to one another, and being of service, and offering themselves as a bearer of Christ,” she said. “Retreats provide a seed that so much later will bear fruit.”

Opting In: the Kairos Impact

While freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior retreats are required for students to attend, Kairos is an optional retreat opportunity for students. Longtime religion teacher and chair of the Religion Department Elizabeth Wittschen said, “Kairos is not mandatory. What a wonderful thing that students have chosen to take a step back from everyday commitments to pray and to step outside their comfort zone to experience something brand-new that they don’t know much about. For students to experience a more reflective and intimate experience. That’s hard to do with full-class retreats. All retreats serve a different purpose and this one is really personal.”

Wittschen worked with now Father, then Brother, Mike Vannicola to bring Kairos to Visitation in the early 2000s. Students had heard about it from brothers and friends at Jesuit institutions and were eager to adapt it to a Salesian model.

“I think they get a better understanding of themselves and their faith and where it fits into their lives. It’s easy - it’s osmosis in Catholic school, and until you dig down, you miss aspects of it. It’s peripheral because you’re in religion class, you’re attending Mass, you see the Sisters,” said Associate Athletic Director Amy Devere, who was part of the initial team of chaperones for Kairos and eventually chaperoned over 30 of the retreats. “[At Kairos] you are forced to think about it - it makes you dig deeper and to be more honest with yourself about these things. It’s a great opportunity to remove yourself from tech and the business of the world and just sort of ‘be’ instead of having to react.”

One important aspect of Kairos is the impact of small groups, which cross friend lines and sometimes grade levels, though Kairos is typically attended by seniors. Because the retreat occurs multiple times a year, students sometimes end up on a different retreat than the one they had hoped to attend. Both push students outside their comfort zone - and that's intentional.

“Kairos is God’s time, and God puts you on this one because you need to hear from it at that point in your life,” said Devere. She encourages the girls to remember that “God works in mysterious ways and puts you on retreats when you get the most out of it.”

Students of all faiths have attended Kairos and found it valuable, Wittschen noted. “It’s really a retreat about relationships - with self, with others, friends, family, and the wider community,” she said. “Who are you called to be? How are you being called to live? If you are being called to be this person, what are your values and how do you live those in the world?”

Wittschen admires students who make the choice to “opt in” for Kairos. “It’s counter-cultural to say we are going to take time away, to sit, to pray, to have a conversation with peers and teachers about meaningful, important things,” she said. “It’s unquantifiable to assess the value of it. It speaks to what we value as a school.”

A version of this article appeared in the Spring 2021 Alumnae Magazine; this excerpt has been updated in 2026.