Each summer about 15,000 young people flood the Brigham Young University campus to spend a week socializing and strengthening testimonies. These youths are attending Especially For Youth, and are part of a much larger group of seminary-age youths who enjoy the program at locations throughout the United States and Canada each year.
EFY will begin registration for Summer 2003 on January 7. The theme this year will be "Look and Live," and will help prepare youths for a year of seminary study in the Old Testament. More information can be found at the EFY Web site at www.byu.edu/efy or by calling Brian Peterson at (801) 378-4902.
EFY held its first session, which consists of classes, forums and social events, more than 26 years ago on the BYU campus as a part of Continuing Education summer camps. It was nearly cancelled due to lack of interest and participation.
It has grown exponentially since then, however, and as part of CES Continuing Education for the last 20 years, participation has grown from about 4,000 to more than 35,000 youths in the summer of 2002. The program is currently in residence at nearly 40 different university campuses with more than 70 sessions around the country.
New in 2003, CES Youth and Family Programs will begin offering the EFY Express program. This is a 3-day, 2-night version of EFY which incorporates all of the elements and materials of the program but at a lower cost ($145), intended to make the program more available to those where location and circumstances may have been prohibitive.
Also, the program cost for EFY has been lowered to $325 for 2003. With these changes, enrollment in EFY is projected to reach nearly 40,000 in the coming summer.
Writer: Craig Kartchner
