CFE’s Name Changes to Better Fit Its Purpose

This year, the name of CFE, the annual one week program in March that sends students to local, national and international projects, has been altered from “Cultural Field Experience” to “Core Formation Experiences”.

“It kind of all came from looking at a way that we could make CFE a more holistic part of the school,” said Jessa Anderson, director of Upper School Core Formation Experience. “It could be connected more to the many different things that are happening already, like through academics, through vocation and through faith formation.”

The change in the name is part of the new “Core Formation” initiative that zones in on four values of the school: being distinctively Christian, having exceptional academics, cultivating potential and having a caring community.

“I know it’s a huge part of what we’re doing [now],” she said. “I think it captures all of the things that we’ve always been trying to do, but in a way that just makes sense.”

The name change also reflects the long-term scope of the program.

“I like the word formation because formation sounds like a process to me,” said Anderson. “And it’s not just a one-time experience and that’s exactly CFE. It actually is a process of forming us into becoming people that work towards improving ourselves and work towards improving the world and grow in our relationships with others and with God. So I think that that name suits that.”

CFE exists to take a break from academics to better cultivate a community through things that are experienced together.

“So I think that it’s cool that each one of those aspects can be highlighted in different areas, but they all hold each other together. Which is also a really beautiful picture of community information.”

Anderson has been working with Julie Winn, director of teaching and learning, to give more opportunities for teachers and students like one-week classes to fit into “Core Formation”.