Past Participant Reflections

I knew that there was something magical about the Byron Fellowship from my very first evening as a mentor five years ago. I drove in from Louisville, and had another commitment that afternoon, so I arrived after dark. The participants were gathered around a picnic table a few hundred feet away from the cabins, introducing one another by the flickering light of a campfire. As I listened around the table, it became obvious that these were some of the most remarkable young people I had encountered in my nearly 30 years of experience as a teacher and mentor…

I was on the cusp of finishing an Associates Degree in Design Technology as a non-traditional student. I was co-parenting my young son with my ex-wife. I was living in a small home that I had built myself of earth, straw bales, and salvaged materials, and I had begun transitioning professions from driving nails to drawing floor plans. I was on the fence about what to do after finishing my Associates Degree. Sometimes, I wanted to continue on in academia, study architecture “for real”, and pursue obtaining my architectural license. Other times, I thought about returning to former employers and work that did not really satisfy me but was safe.

Hopefully Byron would help me find the answer that I so greatly desired….

by Jasmine Hamilton (2014 Byron Fellow)  The culture of Byron, which I experienced as imagination, enthusiasm and openness, encouraged me to freely share some of my aspirations and challenges as a scientist. I remember sharing my struggles with accepting the current...

by David Ward (2014 Byron Fellow) As I stood by the pick-up point at Indianapolis airport, my mind was buzzing with nerves and apprehensions. Questions existed that had no answers; why was I there? what was I about to do? why was I doing it? I wanted answers and...

by Anamaria Aristizabal   What is Byron Fellowship? It is a journey to envision. Collectively, participants and mentors put our minds together to understand the complex systems that need to be shifted. We increase our capacity to see wholes, and have an integral...

Fred Bahnson, Director of the Food, Faith, and Religious Leadership Initiative at Wake Forest University School of Divinity  and author of Soil and Sacrament: A Spiritual Memoir of Food & Faith, participated at the Byron Program in Aschville, this past August...

by Brian McCaster (2014 Byron Fellow) Once upon a time, there was a man with a smile. Every day the man smiled at the world, and every day it smiled back with love and blessings abundant. Until one day, the man's smile left his face and touched his heart. And, then it...

by Imaan Taghavi (2014 Byron Fellow) Going into Byron, I was unclear as to what to expect. Preoccupied with so much else in my life I was having a hard time trying to understand what I had read a past fellow describe as "interconnected flourishing." I did, however,...

by Walter Velazquez (2014 Byron Fellow) One month after those unforgettable days we spent at Turkey Run, where I somehow learned to see the world in a different way, life once again kicked me out of my comfort zone. I traveled to Cuba planning to spend three months...

Recent fellow Louise Gappa blogs on one of Byron's learning journeys in Ashville, NC: conversations with three brewers opened reflections on values, collaboration, benefitting the local community and the tensions inherent in sharing a niche. Read Louise's entry here!