New Year’s Online Teen & Young Adult Retreat (East)
December 30th, 2020 @ 2pm EST – January 1st, 2021 @ 5pm EST
Online via Zoom
Ages 15-32
Do something different
Take part in your life in a new way. Turn the page, try out new things, meet great people, be you and be accepted. Oh, and have some fun! We’ve adapted our signature style to the online environment to bring you a meaningful and transformative retreat experience. This unique retreat weaves iBme’s relational approach with periods of silent guided meditation, yoga, small-group discussion, workshops, and wisdom talks.
Who is this retreat for?
Any teen with an open mind and heart who is willing to try something new and do their best to be themselves and accept everyone else in being themselves. We provide everything you need to make that happen.
You leave the incredible iBme Teen Retreat Experience with mindfulness practices and communication skills that you can practice whenever you want to, to restore inner balance and harmony, create focus and follow-through, or just because it feels good to develop your inner life (you won’t believe how good it feels!).
Retreat Staff
Jessica Morey
Jessica Morey began practicing meditation at age 14 in the Insight Meditation Society teen retreats. She returned every year for 6 years and then participated for 10 years in an IMS young adult mentoring group. Jessica has attended longer (1-3 month) retreats in Asia and the US and is a founding board member and lead teacher for iBme teen retreats. Before joining iBme, Jessica worked in clean energy and climate policy and finance. She holds a BA in Environmental Engineering from Dartmouth and Masters degrees in Sustainable Development and International Affairs. She wrote an article in the February 2014 Mindful Magazine, “Finding My Way,” about her experience learning and benefiting from mindfulness throughout her young adult years. She is an avid yoga practitioner and skier and loves dancing in any form.
Sara Shapouri
Sara Shapouri is an Iranian-American meditation and mindfulness instructor, artist, musician and lawyer. Sara’s experience with sharing mindfulness and meditation include curriculum development and instruction at Awake Youth Project, a program offering meditation and mentoring to teenagers in Brooklyn, and teaching meditation retreats with Inward Bound Mindfulness Education. She has completed teacher training programs with the Interdependence Project in 2016 and with Inward Bound in 2018. She has also trained in conflict mediation with the New York Center for Interpersonal Development, completed the year-long caregiver training program at the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care in 2015, and in 2019 finished the Indigenous Focusing Oriented Therapy in Complex Trauma training. Sara is currently participating in the Community Dharma Leaders Program through Spirit Rock and is also in the Dharmapala Training through Sacred Mountain Sangha. While she is currently retired from the practice of law but remains committed to social justice, particularly issues related to human rights and children’s rights.
Charisse Minerva
Charisse Minerva is a Community Builder, Educator, Contemplative and Performance Artist. She focuses on the three essential tools for this work: Culture, Creativity, and Contemplation. She has worked in corporate offices, counseling agencies, detention centers, with artistic groups, and athletes. She designed and directed a Mindfulness K-12 program for Friends School of VA Beach for 7 years and taught Mindfulness for five years as part of a College Success Skills course at Tidewater Community College. She has been working with iBme for several years as a Retreat teacher, Faculty member of the iBme Teacher Training course, and Board member. Minerva is a social activist. She places much of her focus on bringing Contemplative, Culture, and Creative practices to communities as a tool for healing and development and to reveal how these tools are already present in their lives. “I am a guide revealing to others what they already possess.”
Learn the fundamentals
Meditation
Using a variety of formats and teaching frameworks, we impart lessons in self-awareness, compassion, and offer techniques to increase concentration and focus the mind.
Mindful Movement
Spend time each day with a small group of peers, connecting and deepening authentic relationships with other teens who are experiencing the world in similar and different ways from you.
Inner Stillness
Being on retreat offers a rare opportunity to experience a life without constant distractions. We create a technology-free environment that flows back and forth between silent and social times.
What does the retreat consist of?
During this retreat, we will be fully immersing ourselves in a contemplative space for four nights. We ask that you commit to this as fully as possible, particularly to the small-group discussion periods. This online retreat will include periods of:
- guided mindfulness meditation
- instruction on integrating mindfulness into daily life
- small-group periods for discussion and social connection, and
- workshops on various topics such as mindful eating; restorative yoga; mindful communication; and how to use digital technology wisely (with a focus on the pressures of the current moment).
All participants will receive ongoing, personalized support and practice advice in small groups from highly experienced meditation teachers and mentors, just like we provide on our in-person retreats.
How can I prepare?
We encourage you to create a designated practice space for yourself that will be uninterrupted during your retreat time and have as much silence as possible. You should let your family and friends know that you won’t be available — but this retreat will not require complete isolation such as on a traditional silent retreat. We also encourage you to separate as much as possible from the use of technology (other than for the purposes of the retreat!
We are excited to provide these new offerings at a time when mindfulness practice can be particularly supportive and when many of us can benefit from opportunities to connect deeply with others in a compassionate and authentic space.
This live retreat is scheduled toward those in the EST time zone, yet it is open to participants in all time zones.
Suggested Age
15 to 32 years
Application Deadline
December 29th at 12pm EST
Cost
Sliding scale. Learn More.
Duration
3 days, 2 nights
Get Started
Enter your name and email to get more details & reminders for this retreat, and start the application process when you’re ready.
Tuition & Payment Information
Tuition is .5% of annual family income, up to $495.
| Family Income | Suggested Tuition |
|---|---|
| $10,000 | $50 |
| $40,000 | $200 |
| $100,000+ | $495 |
We offer this sliding scale approach to retreat tuition in order to accommodate a wide range of family incomes. The maximum fee reflects what it actually costs per student to run the retreat.
- iBme retreats feature a low ratio of adult staff per teen, providing high-quality care, expertise, instruction, and mentoring (this is our secret sauce!)
Please note: A nonrefundable application fee of $35 is required and applied toward your tuition.
Tuition & Payment Information
Scholarships are available for this retreat.
Donations: We rely on tuition fees, supplemented by donations, to cover the costs of our retreats and make it possible for all teens who want to to attend. If you can, we invite you to consider making a donation when and if it feels right. Find out about our annual Commit to Sit fundraiser in the spring and end-of-year Mindfulness Challenge: iBme Fundraising page.
Deposit & Balance
A deposit of 30% of your total payment is required to reserve a space on a retreat. The deposit includes your $35 nonrefundable application fee. The balance of the retreat tuition must be paid two weeks before the retreat start date in order to hold your spot on the retreat.
Diversity
iBme welcomes and celebrates human diversity in all forms regardless of race, color, ethnicity, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, ability, personal appearance, or religious/spiritual affiliation.
Accessibility
iBme is committed to accessibility. This retreat welcomes teens from all racial/ethnic groups, sex and gender identities, abilities, and religions. Mindfulness creates a foundation for conversations that support understanding and deepen our connection to one another. We have developed our tuition structure to accommodate a wide range of family income.
What teens are saying
“At this moment I feel I have learned more lessons about myself and others in the past five days than I did in the last year of school.”
Ben, age 17
What parents are saying
“The day after he came home he asked to do yoga with me in our back garden, and we went for a bike ride together…connection I have been yearning for all summer.”
Parent
Get your questions answered