LDI students have begun the spring trimester through immersion into community.  Combining social and academic endeavors has encouraged and strengthened the interpersonal relationships within LDI and enables a fresh optimistic launch toward success.

To begin, students visited Colossal Cave Mountain Park in Vail, Arizona this past weekend.  During their tour, they traveled down and up about six and a half stories.  This adventure offered them the opportunity to enjoy beautiful cave formations like stalactites, stalagmites, flowstone, boxwork, and helictites.  The journey was filled with awe-struck moments that words could not explain.  Seeing the beauty of Arizona in nature brought encouragement to the truth that beauty can be created within each life.  These moments can be seen through the included pictures.

Additionally, students worked together through their Business Organization class to create operational procedures for the trimester.  Students have embraced their motto: “Life isn’t about finding yourself, it’s about creating yourself.”  This motto echoes the observations made during their tour of Colossal Cave Mountain Park.  Nature has created a beauty in itself that we can all observe.  If this is true, then how much more so can a life of wonder be created for each of us?

Furthering their discussion on operational procedures, students identified acceptable classroom behaviors, expectations, and consequences.  Regarding behaviors, the focus was upon respect and participation.  As a community, students realize that we must be involved together in a way that is meaningful and courteous toward each other.  From here, the expectations for respect were furthered in acknowledgement that this means we should all respect each other’s time, opinions, and involvement together for a common purpose.  As such, the consequences developed from a sense of bringing harmony back to the community.  This includes restoration to the environment along with rewards for team success.

As a whole, LDI emerges in 2016 with inspiration and realization that “Life isn’t about finding yourself, it’s about creating yourself.”