Jake Unke

He Gets an ‘A’ for Adventure

The second week of school, Jake Unke took his seventh and eighth graders on an adventure. They traveled five hours north from Divine Savior Academy-Sienna Plantation, Texas, to Camp Shiloh for an outdoor retreat (pictured).

Mr. Unke was diving into Adventure Education, a learning model that takes kids out of their comfort zones—and away from their devices—to break down interpersonal barriers and create a cohesive group. Jake explains that by removing the pressures and assumptions of social media, and by putting students together into awkward or difficult situations, they learn to work together, to trust one another, and to have fun. It’s teambuilding for teenagers. “My goal is to have students learn about their classmates on a deeper level,” Jake says, “and to respect one another as individuals who are blessed differently by God’s abundant grace.”

Jake explored Adventure Education during his first master’s program at University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, and it’s become a highlight of his ministry. “I love the outdoors, and I get to take kids camping and on retreats to cabins on a lake. Does it get any better than that?”

The adventures don’t end when the bus leaves Camp Shiloh though. This is middle school, after all. “In grade 7-8, students are on a rollercoaster of emotions and hormones,” he says. “I buckle myself into the same thrill ride every day, to endure all the highs and lows along with them. My role changes by the day: role model, father figure, shoulder to cry on, court jester, dose of reality . . . you name it!”

While he continues in this ministry, Jake is also working on his second master’s degree through the WELS 21^st-Century Principal Cohort. “This is a synod-funded training program,” he explains, “for people who’ve been nominated for their leadership skills. I’ll receive a second master’s degree, an MS-Educational Administration through MLC, and I’ve attended national conferences and built relationships with other aspiring educational leaders within our synod. I was very honored to learn I’d been nominated. This program has truly been a blessing for my ministry!”

Mr. Unke’s advice for you simple: “It doesn’t hurt to give MLC a try. I had no intentions of being a teacher when I enrolled at MLC. I simply wanted to continue competing in sports, and I knew that through MLC these opportunities would be available. By the end of my freshman year, I had such a tight-knit group of friends, there was no way I was leaving.”

Jake also advises you to be ready for anything. The one thing he never expected to do as a teacher is to plunge toilets. “I don’t remember that in the MLC curriculum,” he says. But that’s okay. It’s all part of the adventure.