$50,000 Grant Fuels Growth of Gordon College’s Heritage Summer Program  

The Heritage program at Gordon College, directed by Salome Palmer ’21, has received a $50,000 grant from the Forum for Theological Exploration to sustain one of Gordon’s premiere summer programs and to expand its reach, increasing its potential to impact high school students in the local North Shore community and across the country. 

“Directing the Heritage program over the last five years has been one of the most fruitful, life-giving callings I could have imagined,” says Palmer. “Jesus preaches that he came so that we might have life to the full (John 10:10), and this program awakens students to the reality of fullness of life with Christ.”  

The 2023 Heritage cohort explores the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.

A Program of Spiritual Formation 

Palmer created the Heritage Program as a student at Gordon, working as a Presidential Fellow under the former VP of Academic Initiatives. She saw an opportunity for Gordon to expand its reach to high school students over the summer and give them a taste of vibrant Christian community. Drawing on her background in education, the arts and spiritual formation, she crafted a program to help high school students grow in their identity, engage in creativity and live in community.  

“The high school years can be challenging,” reflects Palmer. “It is a time when you begin asking many questions you’ll continue to ask for the rest of your life, such as Who am I? Who is the Lord? What is my purpose? How do I understand my own story?  It is here that Heritage meets high schoolers and equips them with the tools to begin answering these questions.”  

The program welcomed its inaugural cohort four years ago, and every summer since then it has gathered high school students from across the country for a week of intentional learning, reflection, formation and exploration. From daily chapels and devotionals to faculty workshops and excursions to Boston and along the North Shore, students spend a week living set apart from the distractions of technology and the busyness of life and embracing a life of hospitality, curiosity and worship.  

A Grant for Sustainable Ministry 

The 2023 Heritage Cohort accomplishes a team building workshop.

Back in 2023 Palmer inherited $130,000 from a previous grant from the Forum for Theological Exploration to launch the Heritage program. The Forum’s mission is to equip young people with solid theological education. They provide resources and training for existing Christian programs to give young people a powerful experience with God outside of church. As Heritage marked its four-year anniversary, Palmer began exploring how to further its mission.  

In January 2024 she attended a conference hosted by the Forum and was invited to apply for an additional grant to further sustain the Heritage program’s leadership and development. She was awarded the $50,000 grant in early June.  

This grant will be used to provide extra training and resources for faculty and staff who oversee the Heritage program. The grant will also enable Heritage to expand its curricular outreach to students before and after the week of residency. Palmer plans to increase the program’s capacity next summer, giving more students an opportunity to encounter fullness of life with Christ within Christian community. 

Growing Beyond Gordon 

“The Heritage program was a life-changing and beautiful experience for me,” reflects a past participant. “I will never forget and always cherish how Heritage helped me reorient my heart and focus towards the Lord.” The Heritage program has had an enormous influence on the lives of young people, and Palmer is hopeful for the further opportunities this grant will enable.  

“The transformation in students and staff that I've witnessed in the last four years is truly humbling,” Palmer says. “I am so grateful for the amazing people I get to labor alongside in this mission of orienting young people to the Lord. When we behold him we are made more like him. I have seen this embraced so beautifully in the lives touched by Heritage.”