I had been to student conferences before, but never one like this. I would be sharing my Christian views with other stu-dents, something that I had never been comfortable with. As I approached the first meeting at Baltimore City College, I was filled with apprehension and uncertainty.

As the first meeting began, however, those feelings disap-peared. Everybody was so friendly and eager to listen and learn; I felt comfortable sharing my opinions and viewpoints. I gained so much knowledge in those four meetings just by listening and sharing.

The four stories we studied took on new, symbolic, ambiguous, and in-depth interpretations. My favorite meeting was our discussion of "The Tower of Babel." I still remember two of the great points made in our group. One was that, although God had scattered the people, He had never separated them from Him. God loved His children and He wanted them to be happy with their identities as His children. The second point was that the temple became an idol to be worshiped by the people. By building it without God's permission, they were essentially taking His place. That comment led us into a great sidetrack about today's technology (cloning, gene harvesting, etc.) and whether that is a form of "playing God," too.

In retrospect, I look back on those four days as a wonderfully unique and enlightening experience. Getting students together to talk about racism or discrimination is one thing, but to have teens come together to discuss religion, the Book of Genesis, and to share their personal views was amazing! I definitely believe that the High School Genesis Project is a worthy and valuable program. It teaches students how to listen, share, think in new ways, analyze, and most importantly respect, appreciate, and maybe even understand others. These valu-able lessons are a positive step in the right direction towards UNITY.

Thank you very much for the great experiences.

Chanel Lattimer is a high school student at MacDonough School.