The road as teacher
Research on adolescent development identifies this stage as a critical inflection point — a window when young people are forming the habits, communities, and sense of purpose that will shape their adult lives. Across every demographic, many teens report feeling disconnected from sustained practices of reflection, community, and meaning-making, even as they search for exactly that.
Walking the Way asks whether sustained, embodied experience — walking, sharing daily life, facing physical challenge alongside others — can serve as a formative counter-inflection point during this crucial stage. The answer, we believe, is found on the road: not in a classroom, but in the lived experience of walking a historic path together.
The pilgrimage experience
Two weeks on the Portuguese Route of the Camino de Santiago
Daily structured reflection and journaling
Guided discussion on meaning, resilience, and purpose
Shared communal life marked by simplicity, hospitality, and mutual support
Physical challenge, unfamiliarity, and shared dependence as formative experiences
Pre- and post-program assessment for longitudinal study
A five-year pilot
Walking the Way is a five-year pilot program serving high school students (ages 16–18) — 20 per annual cohort. The program intentionally welcomes students from diverse backgrounds and is structured to be fully accessible regardless of financial means.
Through pre- and post-program surveys, focus groups, and longitudinal follow-up, the project will explore how pilgrimage-based experience influences participants' sense of purpose, resilience, and patterns of ongoing engagement with community over time.
