Spring Sullivan Weekend Returns March 27-29 at Lake Junaluska

Last fall, Lake Junaluska did what it always does when students and educators arrive carrying notebooks and questions. It quieted the noise. It slowed the tempo. It made room for honesty. In October, Sullivan Weekend gathered three streams into one current, the Ignite Retreat, the Faculty Forum, and the Fellows Summit, and the result was not a “big event” so much as a practical, human weekend where purpose could take root and start growing legs.

If you were there, you remember the particular sounds of Friday evening: rolling bags, first introductions, a lobby full of nervous excitement and the early relief of finding your people. You remember how quickly the weekend moved from warm welcome to real work, because Sullivan Weekend tends to favor the practical over the performative. It is designed to help students take a good intention and turn it into something you can test in the world: a first prototype, a first conversation, a first next step that seems to never happen with perfect conditions.

This spring, Sullivan Weekend returns March 27 through 29 at the Lake Junaluska Conference and Retreat Center, and we are inviting students, Fellows, and campus partners to come ready for the same kind of honest work. The dates are set, the lake is waiting, and what we expect is simple: a weekend that helps people clarify what they care about, practice leadership as a craft, and leave with a plan that still makes sense on Monday.

A look back at Fall 2025

Fall 2025 had a clear thesis: leadership is not a mood, it is a set of habits you can practice. On the student side, Ignite framed that practice with three deceptively simple questions: What calls to you? Who is already doing good work that you can learn from and join? What is the smallest courageous step you can take this month? Those questions are not meant to produce poetic answers. They are meant to produce movement. Across the weekend, students tested answers in workshops built to help them find language for their values, map allies, interview stakeholders, and build momentum without drama.

Alongside that student work, Fellows treated leadership as a discipline with a framework. The Fellows Summit is structured around the ARC Leadership Model, Agency, Relationships, Contribution, and it asks Fellows to do more than understand the terms. It asks them to apply them. Agency became a matter of intentional choices and a named vision. Relationships became the practice of listening, clarity, cross-cultural competence, and coalition-building. Contribution became ownership of results, creative resourcefulness, and resilience when the work is slow.

Faculty and staff, in turn, gathered not for a distant conference of panels, but for a weekend centered on the craft of teaching. Fall’s Faculty Forum emphasized collegial exchange and practical tools, framed around community, content, and care. In other words, the weekend created a rare alignment: students doing the work of calling and courage, Fellows doing the work of leadership formation, and educators sharpening the tools that help students sustain both.

What to expect March 27 to 29

Spring Sullivan Weekend builds on that same architecture, with the Ignite Retreat at the center of the weekend’s student experience. The Ignite Retreat is designed as a weekend changemaking retreat, a place to discover how to create change in your community and build a life you love. The Spring 2026 retreat runs March 27 to 29 at Lake Junaluska, with a registration deadline of March 1, 2026.

Ignite is built for students who want their lives to mean more than routine. It is also built for students who are tired of being told to “dream big” without being taught how to start small. The weekend is structured around hands-on workshops, working sessions, and coaching that helps you convert concern into action.

On the Ignite Retreat page, the Foundation describes the core experience plainly: in two days, gain clarity, confidence, and community to spark positive change. Over the years, Ignite has served as a signature on-ramp for students across the network, with mentorship from community leaders and practical learning that helps students leave with a clearer sense of their role as service-oriented leaders.

This spring’s Ignite Retreat includes three tracks, each designed to meet students where they are, whether they are still sorting their calling, already working on a specific problem, or actively building a project.

Personal Track
This track is for students who want to uncover their calling, better understand their skills and passions, and build self-confidence. Workshops here focus on helping you translate what you care about into a direction you can articulate, then act on.

Problem Track
This track is for students who have a specific issue they want to work on and want practical tools to find and lead solutions. Creativity, team-building, and the discipline of taking a first step all live here.

Project Track
This track is for students who want to dive deeply into a concrete initiative, project, or venture they are trying to bring to life. You will map priorities, identify next steps, and practice the story you will need to tell to build support.

Across all tracks, Ignite’s best outcome is not a “final answer.” It is momentum. It is leaving Lake Junaluska with a next step that is small enough to do, and meaningful enough to matter.

The people who make it work

Every Sullivan Weekend has content, and every Sullivan Weekend has atmosphere. The atmosphere matters because it is what helps students do the honest work. One reason Ignite has become so formative is that students are not doing it alone. The Foundation highlights 1-on-1 mentorship, hands-on workshops, and the chance to “find your community” among peers and coaches. It is not unusual for students to arrive feeling like their campus concern is a solitary burden and to leave realizing they have a network, and that networks change what is possible.

This spring’s weekend also benefits from a leadership transition that reflects the Foundation’s commitment to keeping programming tuned to real student needs. Josh Nadzam, a Sullivan Medallion recipient, has moved from participant to coach to facilitator, and now serves as the Foundation’s Student Engagement Director, a role central to planning and producing the Ignite retreats. In his interview, Nadzam emphasizes both continuity and attentiveness: he wants to carry forward what has made Ignite “magical and transformative,” while keeping programming specific to what students are looking for and what they need to be successful.

That posture matters. The Sullivan Weekend experience does not rely on hype. It relies on well-designed practice, the kind that helps students and Fellows build competence and confidence at the same time.

The practical details

Here is what you should know as you consider attending this spring:

• Dates: March 27 to 29, 2026
• Location: Lake Junaluska, North Carolina
• Registration deadline: March 1, 2026
• Cost: The Ignite Retreat page lists a cost per student of $575, and notes that students from Sullivan Schools are often eligible for sponsored tickets.

If cost is a concern, do not assume the answer is no. The Foundation explicitly encourages students and campus partners to check on sponsorship options and campus support.

Why Sullivan Weekend still matters

A weekend does not change your life by itself. What it can do, and what Sullivan Weekend repeatedly does, is help you name what you care about, then connect that care to a set of practices. It makes leadership less abstract.

In the fall call for Sullivan Weekend, the Foundation described students arriving with questions and leaving with hopeful plans and answers. That is not marketing language. It is a plain description of what happens when you put students in a setting that values clarity over performance and asks them to take the smallest courageous step, not the grandest gesture.

For current and incoming Fellows, the weekend is a reminder that ARC is not a slogan. Agency is not just confidence. It is the ability to make intentional choices and embrace challenge. Relationships are not just friendliness. They are the skills to listen actively and work across difference. Contribution is not just volunteering. It is co-creating solutions and taking ownership of results. And for faculty and staff, the weekend reinforces that teaching is not simply content delivery. It is formative work that can be strengthened by shared craft and renewed care.

On Sunday, the lake will look the same. The mountains will keep their posture. But the people who attend should leave with something measurable: a plan, a network, and a clearer understanding of what leadership looks like when it is practiced on purpose.

Sullivan Weekend is coming. If you have been waiting for the right time to move from concern to action, this is the weekend designed for exactly that.