Each year, McKinney Christian Academy designated a week of school for mission trips. Students have the opportunity to pick what trip they want to go on and this year, juniors had the opportunity to choose to go on college tours that spread across Texas and Oklahoma. On February 28, a group of juniors started their week long journey at Abilene Christian University where they had lunch, and that same day they visited Hardin Simmons University. At Hardin Simmons, students had the opportunity to listen to a panel of professors who gave advice and insight as to what the academic part of college was like at a smaller school. After a long day of touring, students traveled to Waco for dinner and they joined Baylor students at Vertical Worship Night afterwards. 

After a good night’s rest, students visited Baylor University where they toured the school and had the opportunity to visit McLane Stadium. After their time at Baylor, students visited the University of Mary-Hardin Baylor where they toured the campus. Students then made their way to the bus and traveled to Texas A&M at College Station and attended a baseball game. The group then left the baseball game so they could attend “Breakaway,” a worship night at TAMU. The next day they toured TAMU and Southwestern Assemblies of God University. After a full day of touring, students loaded the bus to go home. Students stayed at home Wednesday night before returning Thursday morning to travel to Oklahoma Baptist University. 

At OBU, students were split into groups based on what major they are interested in. After all the groups were done with their tour, they had the opportunity to sit in on a college class to experience what class was like at a smaller school. The students then loaded the bus and headed to the University of Oklahoma. After their tour at OU, the group once again loaded the bus and went to Stillwater, Oklahoma. Once they arrived, the group went to an OSU student favorite restaurant, the Hideaway. The group then split in two, one group attended an orchestra performance that included professors and the others went to BCM, a Christian student organization that was having a lip sync battle night. When the groups met at the hotel, students were thrilled to find out that their chaperones on the tour packed a whole lot of snacks and games for them to play, this gave the students time to bond and have fun after a long day. The last day, the juniors toured one more school, Oklahoma State University, before they head back home.

Junior Meagan Stephenson said, “My favorite part was the lip sync battle at OSU because you really get to experience the type of community OSU has.”

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