That’s a good question. This is definitely something that sets us apart from other events in the realm of personal development events. At The Edify Retreat, we aren’t hiring out experts to come and share their wisdom. That’s not to say we won’t do so at future events. With this retreat, however, we believe that we young people have profound wisdom within us to impart to each other. Now is the time to step up and share what you’ve learned along your life’s journey. Now is the time to lead out, not once you’ve made your millions, written your book, accomplished your bucket list, etc. You have infinite, priceless lessons to bring to the table that could change lives right now. We envision a model where attendees of the retreat will take part in the ever-shifting set of presenters at each retreat, if they so desire. Theoretically, if you come to this retreat, you might find yourself giving a workshop at the next.

We love adventure. We love new horizons. We know the power of entering a new space in order to gain fresh insight and inspiration. All of us share a love of nature and wish to continually explore the rich beauty of our country. Most of our participants and leaders are from Arizona, California, Utah, and Colorado, at least for now… So far, we’ve held retreats in southern Utah, northern Arizona, central Colorado, and northern Utah. If you know of another inspiring location, definitely let us know. We would love to go!

If we were, we’d need to charge much more. Just check out our price breakdown above. We want to be fully transparent with you about where your money is going. On another note, comparable personal development events are running hundreds of dollars more than ours, even ranging into the thousands. Project Edify was born of a desire to make life-changing experiences readily available to everyone our age. However, we’ve learned the hard way since our first retreat in 2020 that breaking even each time will drain the life out of this movement. This project, while incredibly important to us, is supplemental to our individual career and educational pursuits. This isn’t our main thing, but we want to be able to serve you high-value experiences through Project Edify well into the future. 

We get that finding the money can be tricky. We know you have housing, food, and gas to pay for, and inflation has not been friendly. We are in the same boat. However, if experiences like this were just free, their sense of value would fizzle out. Growth requires sacrifice. This is a chance to get creative and consider what is worth doing in exchange for a transformational experience. Maybe you’ll take extra shifts at work, sell some things on ebay or etsy, go on a sales blitz, take on a few babysitting jobs, donate plasma, or wash someone’s sports cars. Perhaps you’ll go to someone who is willing to sponsor you in your efforts to grow, like your parents or grandparents for example. Send them the website, tell them what this is about, and express why you think this might help you. Suggestions aside, you are worth investing in. Your future self (to whom $500 is an easily worthwhile expense) will thank you for it.

Literally all of us happen to be single. 

Currently yes. The Edify Retreat is for unmarried adults between the ages of 18 and 30. But we have future projects in the works for other demographics, including married people both old and young, youth under 18, and parents of Edify attendees.

We aim for a number between 25-30 people each time, but our maximum count for a session of The Edify Retreat is 35, including leadership. We’ve found that this group size is prime for both connection and diversity, neither too big nor too small. It also seems to be the biggest possible group size that still encourages full engagement from each person, allows for high-quality group discussions, and fits everyone comfortably in one house.

If you will be traveling to the retreat from out of state, you have a few options to make getting there a bit easier. In the weeks leading up to the retreat, you will be able to coordinate carpooling and road trip groups with other attendees from your area. For those flying in, send us your itineraries as soon as you receive them, and we will schedule group transportation to and from the airport.