What Type of Students Are We Developing: The State of Our Seniors

Kara Powell, Ph.D. is the executive director of the Center for Youth and Family Ministry (CYFM) at Fuller Theological Seminary. She is currently heading up CYFM’s College Transition Project which has two goals: (1) to better understand what happens to students when they transition from youth group life into college/young adult life and (2) to identify the components of youth group life that seem to be associated with a healthy, or positive, transition into college.

The research efforts have been very helpful to my work with the College Transition Initiative. Dr. Powell is really working hard to provide youth workers with statistical data that can help to paint a more accurate picture of how well youth groups are preparing teenagers for the rest of their lives.

Recently, Dr. Powell has released some of the findings of CYFM’s research in an article entitled “What Type of Students Are We Developing? The State of Our Seniors.” Dr. Powell explains:

"The board of the National Association of Evangelicals, an umbrella group representing 60 denominations and dozens of ministries, recently passed a resolution deploring “the epidemic of young people leaving the evangelical church.” Given that some denominations estimate that over 50% of their youth group graduates fall away from either their faith or their faith communities upon entering college, we can’t keep patting high school seniors… on the back on graduation Sunday, hand them a gift Bible, and hope for the best. Through the CYFM College Transition Project, we’re hoping to arrive at research-based answers to the tough questions that not only plague seniors after they graduate, but also youth workers concerned about students falling away from the faith."

You can read the entire article here.