Retreat Presenters

Andy, Director of Retreat Programs, is a husband, father of three, outdoorsman, actor, comedic improvisor, manager, geocacher, iPhone geek and the last of a dying breed of retreat staff able to inflate balloons with his nose.

Andy started his youth work career at the YMCA as a camp counselor, rock-climbing instructor and high ropes course facilitator. He first encountered YF in 2001 while systematically shoving YF staff off a zip line tower and was impressed by the quality of their screams. Andy joined the YF team the following Fall.

Andy is half robot and has a central processing unit cleverly disguised as an iPhone.

Andy served for several years with a top-secret task force comprised of highly intelligent north woods wildlife that famously cracked the Great Acorn Robbery of 1997. Not bad for a half-robot.

Andy currently spends his free time perfecting a pocket-sized time machine that will transport users back in time 30 seconds to un-say the dumb thing they just said. (Robots aren't always very emotionally intelligent. Andy's also working on an app to fix that.)

Annie Carney, Retreat Coordinator/School Relations Assistant, has always had a passion for inspiring youth. From working for the City of Eden Prairie to her role as a life skills coach with LEAP, a youth empowerment program in Los Angeles, much of Annie's life has been dedicated to helping young people recognize their potential.

After graduating from the College of St. Benedict/St. John’s University in May 2011, Annie worked for Target Corporation as an HR Specialist. In October 2012, she took a leap of faith and resigned from her job in order to truly follow her heart. Youth Frontiers' mission resonated deeply with her beliefs and provided her with an opportunity to continue to fulfill her passion for inspiring young people.

Annie currently resides in Eden Prairie where she was born and raised as an avid football and basketball fan. She moved back to Eden Prairie after graduation so she could be in close proximity to the Vikings headquarters – she's even neighbors with some of the team members. She also has two, handsome younger brothers (both Johnnies!) and the sweetest dog you’ll ever meet!

Annie Carney, Retreat Coordinator/School Relations Assistant, has always had a passion for inspiring youth. From working for the City of Eden Prairie to her role as a life skills coach with LEAP, a youth empowerment program in Los Angeles, much of Annie's life has been dedicated to helping young people recognize their potential.

After graduating from the College of St. Benedict/St. John’s University in May 2011, Annie worked for Target Corporation as an HR Specialist. In October 2012, she took a leap of faith and resigned from her job in order to truly follow her heart. Youth Frontiers' mission resonated deeply with her beliefs and provided her with an opportunity to continue to fulfill her passion for inspiring young people.

Annie currently resides in Eden Prairie where she was born and raised as an avid football and basketball fan. She moved back to Eden Prairie after graduation so she could be in close proximity to the Vikings headquarters – she's even neighbors with some of the team members. She also has two, handsome younger brothers (both Johnnies!) and the sweetest dog you’ll ever meet!

Retreat Director Brian has always loved being with, and performing for, people. In his early years, he sang in his church choir (highlighted by a crowd-pleasing solo entitled “I’m Not Beautiful”) and danced alongside the cheerleaders at high school basketball games. Music and theater have continued to be passions of Brian’s.

His instinctual love of people slowly grew into a specific passion for mentoring, teaching and inspiring students. Six years in full-time youth ministry helped him scratch that itch, and while he found that work fulfilling and challenging in its own right, Brian is excited about working with students in a new context with Youth Frontiers.

Brian is married to his (kind-of) high school sweetheart, Ann. His offspring are two gorgeous daughters, Kennedy and Rowyn, who keep him busy and entertained at all times. He originally hails from Green Bay, Wisc., (home of the Super Bowl Champion Green Bay Packers, of course).

Unlike most human children, Retreat Director Brian was born not from normal biological functions, but rather from the power of five magical rings owned by a small conglomerate of children. The power of these rings, when combined, created a being so spectacular that only red spandex could contain his awesomeness. He spent his early years fighting pollution and those dastardly villains who create it.

Brian’s diverse passions include America, watching Tae-Bo tapes, eating ice-cream without any utensils and not making a mess, driving his incredibly manly teal 1992 Geo Prism, Turkish-style mud wrestling, slam poetry and consistently being more breathtaking than Chuck Norris. Brian never signs autographs. In closing, you’re welcome.

Dan is a singer/songwriter from Detroit who moved to Minneapolis when he was 18 to pursue a career in music. Seven years later, he has released three albums and has traveled all over the United States playing different venues and festivals.

In 2009, Dan came acwross a volunteer position at Youth Frontiers, and since then has come on board as a Retreat Staff Musician. He shares his music on retreat, and considers it a blessing to be able to work with an organization that allows him to pursue his passion and make a difference at the same time.

What most people don't know about Dan is that he was part of the first-ever Jamaican Bobsled team to compete in the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Alberta. In the finals, their bobsled was on track for setting a record-breaking time when it crashed, sending the team hurling through the air. Everybody was OK, but Dan hit his head on the track. He later discovered that the part of his brain that was affected by this trauma was the musical part of the brain. He suddenly had the knowledge of how to play guitar.

When he moved back to the States, Dan had a hard time finding work. He was playing his guitar one day on a street corner when Youth Frontiers Founder & CEO Joe Cavanaugh walked by and heard him. Joe stopped and said, "Have you ever sat on your classmates?" They have been best friends ever since.

Eric, Retreat Staff Musician, grew up in a very musical home. Guitars, banjos, pianos and accordions were early influences on his musical taste. It wasn't until he saw Bon Jovi in concert at eight years old that Eric decided "rocking" was for him. Eric started writing songs in elementary school, and formed his first band in junior high. After many years and many bands (some good, some downright terrible) he landed in the Minneapolis rock band Attention. They have released three albums, toured the United States multiple times and even made a trip across the pond to tour the United Kingdom in 2008. In addition to Attention, Eric can be heard as a weekend DJ on Minneapolis radio station KQRS, where he has worked since 1998. In the summers, Eric works as a camp counselor at Decision Hills Camp in Spicer, Minn.

Eric was a participant on a Respect Retreat when he was a ninth grader at South View Middle School in Edina, Minn. The experience stuck with him, and he was thrilled when given the opportunity to work for Youth Frontiers many years later. Eric especially likes being able to share his music with students, and seeing the connection it can make, not to mention laughing, playing and hanging out with his awesome coworkers.

Eric lives in Minneapolis. He loves the Minnesota Twins, and hates tomatoes.

Eric's first passion is swimming. For many years, Eric dreamed of becoming an Olympic swimmer, but his dream was cut short when he was drafted into the military to fight the “Great Space War” of 1997. His athletic ability and extreme intelligence allowed him to rise through the ranks quickly. Before long, Eric was directing his very own division of the Space Army.

After commanding the fleet that defeated the intergalactic axis in the Nebula Sector 4.R36, Eric retired with the intention to take it easy and live out the rest of his days in peace on the planet Earth. This was unfortunately short-lived because soon after settling into his quaint south Minneapolis home, he was recruited by the Canadian government to choreograph a space-themed synchronized swimming routine for the 2008 Olympic games in Beijing.

Eric was elated by the thought of bringing both of his passions together, swimming and space. After months of work, Coach Eric brought the Canadian team to the Olympic games, ready to take home the gold. However, everything changed when, during the routine, the synchronized swimming team got a synchronized leg cramp, and were disqualified from competition.

Erin Walsh, Mind Retreat Director, is a proud new member of Youth Frontiers. While she worked hard during adolescence to resist her professional destiny, she finally joined her parents at the National Institute on Media and the Family in her early 20s. After a decade of work on the media’s impact on children’s health and development, Erin and her dad, Dr. Dave Walsh, launched Mind Positive Parenting™ in 2010. Through this humble new shop, they translate brain science into information and practical strategies to help young people thrive.

Having long schemed about collaboration, Youth Frontiers invited Erin and her dad to co-create a retreat that explores both the art and (brain) science of connection and achievement. Erin is thrilled to be directing the Mind Retreat. It is her dream that Youth Frontiers might be a home where she can not only bring “brainy information” to teachers but also serenade them with her banjo. (Note: Youth Frontiers leadership has not formally approved aforementioned banjo playing). In addition to her work with Mind Positive Parenting and Youth Frontiers, Erin is on the Search Institute speaking and training team, and teaches at the University of Minnesota and the Higher Education Consortium for Urban Affairs. She lives in south Minneapolis with her partner, son and sled dog.

As a small child, Erin only ate blueberries. She ate blueberries because her dad always claimed that they were “excellent food for your brain!” Every time she ate one, she was convinced that her brain was getting bigger. She was right. The only catch was, her brain wasn’t getting smarter, just bigger. Huge really. And bluer. Realizing that her quick-start-to-brain-fitness diet was backfiring, she immediately switched to strawberries. Though this meant she lost the opportunity for what could have been her “big break” playing Violet Beauregarde in her school’s rendition of the musical “Willy Wonka,” she also happily avoided an unfortunate encounter with the juicing room.

Since switching to strawberries, Erin has tried out for numerous other roles in school and community musicals. Alas, that fame and glory ship has sailed. Instead she contents herself with karaoke and re-runs of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory on cable access.

Jane is a graduate of Notre Dame where she majored in French and American Studies. She then worked for a year with underprivileged youth in Venezuela. The next chapter in her life took her to Minneapolis, Chicago and Los Angeles where she spent 12 years studying and performing comedy. Back in Minnesota, Jane sought out Youth Frontiers where she has now been working for more than a decade as a student retreat director, on the School Relations Team and now as a Retreat Director for YF’s Educator programs. Being on staff at Youth Frontiers has been a great match for Jane whose personal mission statement is "encouraging people through humor and heart."

Jane loves to travel and has lived on three continents including Europe and South America. She speaks Spanish and French pretty darn well. She loves to play piano, salsa dance, watch reruns of “Battlestar Galactica” and eat chocolate mousse.

She is married and lives with her husband and daughter in Minnesota.

Jane is the very famous daughter of Crystal Jade Sterling, the platinum blond upscale fashion model of Zurich. Jane lived in a luxury apartment with her mother and three dogs, "Twinky" a Peekasso (a Pekinese/Lhasa Apso mix); "Zoey" a Blabador (a Bloodhound/Labrador mix) who barked incessantly; and "Georgie" a Moot Point (Malamute/Pointer mix) previously owned by... oh well, it doesn't really matter anyway.

Jane was home schooled for 10 years by Ms. Sterling's personal assistant, Sally Stromberg, who Jane nicknamed "High-Strung Sally."

Jane is very competitive. Throughout her life she has won many awards including the 1984 Saltine Whistle contest, the 1991 Hopalong Derby (along with her best friend, Laura McCoochy) and the 1993 Goofy Ball Toss (like the egg toss, but with a unpredictable Goofy Ball).

Jane was almost married to a man who ran a California Red Super Worm Farm, but dropped him like a hot cake after she got sick of the way he always said goodbye to people – "Hasta La Poo Poo."

Jane worked a few years at the New York Stock Exchange, was a General Brigade Commander in the South Seas and a country song writer who penned the tune "Walk Out Backwards Slowly So I Think You're Walkin' In."

In 1999, A Youth Frontiers recruiter met Jane when she was working at the Pump N' Munch off Lyndale. She seemed to be great with the customers, so they hired her.

After graduating from the University of St. Thomas in 2006 with degrees in Psychology and Family Studies, Jean started working for Youth Frontiers and has since become a Retreat Director.

Using her passion of inspiring people with her smile, she found her “dream job” at YF. She loves to challenge people on retreat to think of the power they have to make a positive difference in someone else’s life, even if it is just with a smile.

When Jean is not on retreat, you can find her spending time with her family, camping in the summer and skating on a frozen pond in the winter.

Since the day Jean was born, she was thought to be the next Harry Houdini. She, in fact, escaped from her mother’s stomach and really was never “born.” She went on to escape from her crib (which had been flipped upside down in an attempt to create a cage). Little did her parents know, nothing could keep her from following her true dream: being a cloud.

She first tried to suck in enough helium to make her float and when that made her sound like a flattened duck, she started eating a lot of cotton candy, due to its cloud like nature. In order to find all of the cotton candy needed to become a cloud, she began traveling with the Ringling Circus at which point they discovered that they had found the tiniest baby that blew a mixture of cotton candy and helium, much like a dragon blowing fire, but with kinder things. This tiny, red-headed baby that blew cotton candy became the talk of the circus.

Jenn, Retreat Staff Musician, remembers the first songs she learned on each instrument she plays – “Hot Cross Buns” on piano and “Puff the Magic Dragon” on guitar. Jenn began to craft her own tunes at the age of 16, and now shares her music for audiences nationwide.

Jenn has worked for YF, off-and-on, for the last 10 years. She loves going to work at a job where every day is an inspiring adventure that holds the precious opportunity to activate young people to care more for themselves and one another.

Jenn was the first “Jen” to date Brad Pitt. As child actors, they starred together as Ewoks in the original Star Wars films. Jenn recalls that, around the age of eight, she realized, “There's got to be more to life than dressing as a furry creature and speaking gibberish for the entertainment of American filmgoers.”

Jenn left her career as a child actor and used her Ewok earnings to purchase a llama farm in the Appalachian Mountains. Jenn used to lull the restless llamas to sleep, playing her guitar and singing “Ba-ba Black Sheep” which gave the animals complicated identity issues, but launched her career as a singer-songwriter.

After years of courting by Jim, Youth Frontiers finally relented and hired their number-one “groupie” as an Honor Retreat Director.

In his spare time, Jim teaches Economics and Civics at Eagan High School (EHS) where he also is a Link Crew Coordinator and coaches golf. Jim “outkicked the coverage” and married his wife Brenda (a middle school administrator). They are the proud parents of MacKenzie and Reed.

Jim has witnessed what he calls the “magic of Youth Frontiers work” in the hallways and classrooms at EHS for many years and he feels proud and a little bit lucky to now be working alongside such amazing people.

After several failed attempts at becoming a professional bungie jumper, Jim felt that his lack of timing and depth perception would be better suited in a closed environment. Thus he moved his unique talents to the classroom where he has served students for the past two decades. Instead of “jumping,” he juggles the life of a teacher, coach, father, husband and lifetime fan club president (self-appointed) of Youth Frontiers.

Joe, Retreat Manager, loves working and inspiring youth, although the jury is still out on whether or not that's because he is good at it or because his maturity level is that of an elementary school boy.

Joe was a theater major at St. John's University, and combined his passions for performing with his passions for working with youth when he discovered Youth Frontiers. Although Joe still does some acting in the form of commercial work throughout the Twin Cities, after Joe started at Youth Frontiers in 2003, he began considering himself a full-fledged "youth worker" and now can’t think of doing anything else for a full-time job.

Besides working at Youth Frontiers, Joe is a husband, a DJ (school dances!), a one-hand touch football quarterback, an actor and (most importantly) the father of two beautiful-looking and averagely behaved children, Sophia and Finn.

Joe is by trade a professional log roller; however, when in the Minnesota state competition in Keister, Minn., he slipped on a grub worm and (ironically enough) broke his keister. While recovering in the hospital, Joe was visited by a traveling minstrel of clowns from the Atlanta-based non-profit, "Nightmares for Life."

It was at that point Joe knew a career change was in order. Joe re-visited every hospital the clowns had previously terrorized and converted all affected kids back into healthy and active children.

It was through this experience that Joe found that although he was good at log-rolling, he was even better at working with kids. Shortly thereafter, he discovered Youth Frontiers. Besides working at Youth Frontiers Joe has directed several YouTube videos all with the word "double" in their titles including, but not limited to, "Double Dream Hands" and "Double Rainbow."

Joe Cavanaugh is a nationally-renowned speaker promoting timeless values and personal character to audiences of all ages. Whether it is the Nobel Peace Prize Forum, a PTA luncheon, an educator conference or a room filled with 200 teenagers, Joe loves to be in front of a crowd (sometimes three’s a crowd!) to share his passion for raising a generation of young people with good character. Joe also often speaks about the greater need for reflective leadership and the critical building blocks needed to create a healthy school.

With over 25 years of experience working with young people, he is one of the foremost communicators to youth on the topics of respect, integrity, courage and compassion.

In 1987, Joe founded Youth Frontiers, Inc., a Minnesota-based nonprofit organization that partners with schools to build positive school communities. Through programs that help young people realize the importance of living a life of character, Youth Frontiers is transforming the day-to-day experience in schools across America so that our schools – and therefore our kids – can thrive. Youth Frontiers' work has impacted more than one million students and educators and has received national acclaim by providing powerful retreats with the vision of changing the way young people treat each other in every hallway, lunch line, and classroom of every school in America so that today’s young people can make tomorrow’s world better.

Joe has been featured in several local, regional and national media including a 90-minute PBS television special titled Respectfully, Joe Cavanaugh.

He has been recognized by General Colin Powell of America's Promise as being “a leader in our nation's effort to rescue America's young people.”

Joe received his B.A. degree in Humanities from Saint John’s University in Collegeville, Minn. He and his wife Jane live in Edina, Minn. with their daughter. He currently serves on boards and committees for Saint John's University and Catholic Charities of St. Paul & Minneapolis.

Joe Cavanaugh is a nationally-renowned speaker promoting timeless values and personal character to audiences of all ages. Whether it is the Nobel Peace Prize Forum, a PTA luncheon, an educator conference or a room filled with 200 teenagers, Joe loves to be in front of a crowd (sometimes three’s a crowd!) to share his passion for raising a generation of young people with good character. Joe also often speaks about the greater need for reflective leadership and the critical building blocks needed to create a healthy school.

With over 25 years of experience working with young people, he is one of the foremost communicators to youth on the topics of respect, integrity, courage and compassion.

In 1987, Joe founded Youth Frontiers, Inc., a Minnesota-based nonprofit organization that partners with schools to build positive school communities. Through programs that help young people realize the importance of living a life of character, Youth Frontiers is transforming the day-to-day experience in schools across America so that our schools – and therefore our kids – can thrive. Youth Frontiers' work has impacted more than one million students and educators and has received national acclaim by providing powerful retreats with the vision of changing the way young people treat each other in every hallway, lunch line, and classroom of every school in America so that today’s young people can make tomorrow’s world better.

Joe has been featured in several local, regional and national media including a 90-minute PBS television special titled Respectfully, Joe Cavanaugh.

He has been recognized by General Colin Powell of America's Promise as being “a leader in our nation's effort to rescue America's young people.”

Joe received his B.A. degree in Humanities from Saint John’s University in Collegeville, Minn. He and his wife Jane live in Edina, Minn. with their daughter. He currently serves on boards and committees for Saint John's University and Catholic Charities of St. Paul & Minneapolis.

John, Retreat Director and Coach, first connected with Youth Frontiers as a senior high school leader on a Respect Retreat in Richfield, Minn., his hometown. There he discovered the wonders of Joe Cavanaugh and of facilitating change with large groups of people. He then spent several years wandering around the globe looking for his purpose in life. Time was spent performing on the stage (exciting!), playing with kids (energetic!) and throwing Frisbees on the beaches of the Bahamas (fun!). He even tried his hand in the classroom for a year, but grading nearly took him down (teachers are amazing!).

Through happenstance, John reconnected with Joe Cavanaugh and decided that Youth Frontiers was the perfect blend of energy, excitement and learning (minus the grading). John has been delivering retreats for Youth Frontiers since 2002, and when not on retreats, John uses his training as a co-active life/personal coach to help people lead more fulfilling lives.

John also has a passion for the team sport of Ultimate Frisbee, in which he is both a national and world champion player, having played for two local powerhouse teams, Sub Zero and Surly, and for Team USA at the world championships in Italy. Now that he’s getting up there in years, John coaches the next generation of ultimate superstars at Minneapolis South High.

John was born to parents who lived within a secret society of Jedi-like human mentalists. As a result, he acquired special powers, though he generally keeps his Jedi-like powers under wraps except in extreme circumstances. These situations might include but are not limited to: removing electronic devices from sealed plastic containers, avoiding dangerous wild animal attacks and multitasking in dangerous situations.

John considers himself an expert at the fine art of origami and he was once commissioned by a very famous dignitary (can you say Prezident?) to make 1000 peace cranes for the people of the east in an effort to ensure proper trade relations throughout the 1980s.

John invented most of the handshake and thumb wrestling techniques that you consider essential. He has almost no body odor and was asked to be in a study of other similarly un-smelly people. He declined because the study involved rubber suits and highly trained dogs, and he objected for moral and ethical reasons.

Jon is a veteran Retreat Staff Musician at YF, husband, and father of two boys. Jon has a passion for the creative side. He is a guitarist, singer, songwriter, producer, sculptor, director, break dancer, chef and idea man. He has facilitated close to 1500 retreats for YF and has more than 20 years of performance experience as a front man/side man in many national touring acts. You can check out his debut solo CD Dark Pony "Suburban Serenade Vol.1" on iTunes. This CD showcases many of the songs Jon performs on retreat for YF and $1 from every CD sold will be donated back to YF on behalf of Jon and his family.

I don't lie. This is seriously my bio...

Jon is a veteran Retreat Staff Musician at YF, husband, and father of two boys. Jon has a passion for the creative side. He is a guitarist, singer, songwriter, producer, sculptor, director, break dancer, chef and idea man. He has facilitated close to 1500 retreats for YF and has more than 20 years of performance experience as a front man/side man in many national touring acts. You can check out his debut solo CD Dark Pony "Suburban Serenade Vol.1" on iTunes. This CD showcases many of the songs Jon performs on retreat for YF and $1 from every CD sold will be donated back to YF on behalf of Jon and his family.

Originally from Holland, Mich., Jorge, Retreat Director and Musician, grew up surrounded by music. After carefully considering careers in space exploration, paleontology, ninjutsu, and painting, he picked up a guitar as an awkward teenager and thought, "This might be great too." He wrote his first song when he was seventeen and quickly fell in love with creating in this medium.

Jorge moved to the great city of Minneapolis to study music in 2002 and, for a long time, searched for a way to combine his love for performance and his desire to make a difference. He found a place in Youth Frontiers where he now functions as both a Retreat Director and Retreat Musician.

Jorge currently lives in South Minneapolis with his beautiful wife, Janelle. He loves movies, biking, and Twins baseball. He is also the frontman of Minneapolis-based rock band, Headlight.

Born JF9000 on Juno 15.5, year 3891 in the parallel universe, Kroutonga, Jorge is best known by his stage name, Jorge (pronounced, "Hor-Hay") Fig, of the popular hip-hop collective Nifty by Nature of whom the hit track "Hip Hop Hor-Hay" was written after.

In 3919, Jorge was a part of a major incident involving three space cruisers, a double-T speeder, and a Q5-level transporter that caused a rift in the space/time continuum and landed him on present-day earth.

After years of rehabilitation, government testing and scientific analysis, Jorge was released into the world to lead a normal Earth life. He discovered many things to love here, such as tracksuits, mustaches and Calvin and Hobbes.

Jorge quickly found that arriving from another place gave him a unique perspective on things and decided to use this gift for good. He joined forces with Youth Frontiers in 2012 (Earth year) to make a difference in schools across the Solar System (the loss of Pluto as a planet in 2006 has made this task much more feasible).

In his free time he enjoys jumping rope, high-fiving, and playing Mongo Volleyball, all while carefully avoiding his parallel-universe self.

Josh C., Retreat Musician, began his musical career at the tender age of 5 weeks. It was the middle of a church service when, after demolishing a bottle of milk, Josh began to burp to the beat of a communion hymn. He has been enthralled with rhythm and music ever since. Whether it has been playing drums and percussion in a garage band, or singing with all his might at the front of a stage with guitar in hand, Josh has been in love with music since taking his first burp, er, breath.

Josh, like many of his co-workers, will tell you that Youth Frontiers is a dream job. Josh has felt right at home since his first day and with each passing moment, falls more and more in love with the work he is able to engage in at Youth Frontiers.

When Josh is not playing music on retreat he can be found with his daughter swimming, flipping, kicking soccer balls, sliding on slides and writing raps.

Many, many years ago there was uttered a prophecy of a child whose birth would change the landscape of human life. This child, though odd in appearance would captivate all those around with a vast potpourri of stories, dances and songs.

With each word spoken brains would swell with curiosity. With each step, hearts would be a flutter with amazement and fearlessness. With each melody the very fabric of the human spirit re-imagined.

This child of legend would reek with the aroma of excellence. In fact, his very presence is prophetically hypothesized to fill one’s nostrils with a smell best described as fresh baked lasagna and mildew. Yes, an odd combination to be sure, but amazing all the same. Enticing and repugnant is only a gift a child of prophecy can possess. The identity of this child has been kept a mystery until such a time as this.

This child is not Josh, but it would be really cool if it were. But it’s not. It’s some guy named Arnold.

Joshua J., Retreat Director, knew he had a passion to perform for people when in eighth grade he became a semi-professional Elvis impersonator. Since then he has used such skills, along with his passion to inspire young people, to good use.

Joshua attended his first Youth Frontiers retreat in high school, and remembers thinking back then, “I would love to do that!”

Prior to landing at Youth Frontiers, Joshua visited the Pyramids of Egypt, graduated from Crown College and has been a youth minister/speaker for the last 14 years. He is currently working on his Master’s in Transformational Leadership at Bethel Seminary.

When not on retreats Joshua enjoys geocaching, being a Youtuber, critiquing theatre as an Ivey Award evaluator, “The Andy Griffith Show” and spending time with his spunky family.

Joshua J., a.k.a. Calvin,” was born in Hill Valley, Calif. in September of 1968. His passion for music bloomed when his band the “Pinheads” won the opportunity to play at their high school dance in the fall of 1985. Joshua was inspired to greater success by his father George who authored the best selling novel, “A Match Made in Space.” To this day Joshua lives by his father’s wise words, “If you set your mind to it you can accomplish anything.”

Joshua is best known for being the world’s second time traveler, with a trip to the years 1955, 2015 and 1885. Joshua credits himself and his best friend Doc for preserving his very existence as well as the space-time continuum.

When not time traveling Joshua enjoys playing Chuck Berry on the guitar, hover boarding, spreading manure on old man Tannen’s yard, diverting the Libyans and spending time with his beautiful wife Jennifer and kids at the Café 80s.

Kesiah, Retreat Director, has been with Youth Frontiers since 2007, though it feels as through it has been a part of her life since Junior High when she was a student on a YF Courage Retreat. She returned to work with YF as a high school leader, thus starting her career at YF.

She grew up in Forest Lake, Minn., with nine siblings, and when she wasn’t changing a younger sibling’s diaper or feeding them a bottle, she found her fun playing sports and participating in performance arts. After changing thousands of diapers, she felt that it was appropriate to devote her life to working with youth… and not just to be sure that their diapers were dry and the babies happy. Kesiah considers working with kids a privilege and she is delighted to walk into work everyday knowing that she gets to make a difference in the world.

Kesiah attended the University of St. Thomas where she studied Social Work and Political Science. In her spare time she loves playing and watching sports, running and doing anything outdoors. She also loves to cook for just about anyone.

You know that movie, “Home Alone”? Well, that movie is based on actual events that happened to Kesiah. Kesiah is one of 10 children and her parents forgot her (yes, just her) on their way out the door to their family vacation in 1992. Eventually they discovered her absence and her mother began her trek back to her darling daughter. In the meantime, Kesiah was having the time of her life terrorizing robbers, eating lavish sugar meals, spending time at expensive hotels and making friends with women in parks who love pigeons.

During a heartfelt reunion, Kesiah’s mother felt so guilty for forgetting her favorite daughter, she excused all the damages that were made to the family’s estate and reputation. At the end of the day, she made out with millions of dollars for selling her story and her soul.

Megan, Retreat Staff Manager, has been a member of the Youth Frontiers team since 2005. She is a speaker on student retreats, and an occasional Casio-keyboard-special-effects "musician" on Kindness Retreats.

Megan had quite the list of careers in her earlier life that naturally led her to Youth Frontiers: From theater outreach, to coaching soccer, to counseling at a music camp, to substitute teaching (a very brief stint), to entertaining as a singing telegram, Megan has done it all.

When not facilitating retreats, Megan can be found singing with a professional chamber music choir, Exultate, or jamming out on her 1914 upright piano that could use a good tuning... always. She currently lives in her hometown of Minneapolis with her partner, Adelia, and furry dog, Murray.

Meguano “The Lizard,” had a challenging childhood. While being born with lizard hands and feet provided much amusement for her older siblings and made crawling quite a breeze, she always felt somehow "different" from the rest. The agony she faced as a young teenager struggling with scalcne (a form of acne that reveals itself as small, green and purple scales forming on one's face) only made her current pursuit and passion all the more vital: Rights for All Lizard People (RALP, for short). She believes strongly that through dialogue, the myths and fears surrounding reptilian humanoids can be overcome, and that all species will live harmoniously, as they do on the planet, Zanskordf.

When not lobbying for RALP, Meguano enjoys sunning herself at the beaches of local Minneapolis lakes, and digging holes in the sand in search of turtle eggs.

Meguano is currently training for the upcoming lizard-people version of the Iron Man, The Neodymium Reptilian.

Rita, Retreat Director, searched far and wide for a job that would utilize her ability to lift 50 pounds. Imagine her delight when coming across Youth Frontiers. Not only does she get to do heavy lifting (she's hoping to eventually be strong enough to do a single pull-up), she also gets to flex her performance and writing skills, draw from her background in education and work with incredible young people every single day. She is proud to be part of an organization with such an important mission.

In addition to Youth Frontiers-ing, Rita can be found on stage around the Twin Cities performing improv and other various theatrics. If you're lucky, you might catch her playing an old, Southern man. That is her go-to character. She has no explanation for this...

Rita once had to watch a cow being born during a field trip in the third grade. Having never fully recovered from this trauma, Rita has made it her life's work to ensure better field trips for students around the country. Such field trips would include attending space camp, the running of the bulls in Spain, visiting a tater-tot manufacturing plant, or, of course, any sort of time travel. None of these has been actualized.

She also fully believes that, given the opportunity, she could beat a T-Rex in an arm wrestling battle. Anyone could. Those arms are ridiculous.

Sally, Program Manager and Mind Retreat Director, has been at Youth Frontiers for more than 10 years, bouncing her way around the office – from Retreats to Communications to Sales and back to Retreats again. With a background in theater and communications, she has a passion for what YF does, and how YF does it – and she loves sharing that with others.

Sally now develops new programs for the organization, from sales workshops to fundraising events to coaching speakers to creating new programs for schools. When not at YF, Sally loves to read cookbooks (but is a horrible cook), is a budding yogi and enjoys long runs on the weekends preparing for her next 10K race. She also has three super-sweet kiddos, a super-cool husband and an attention-starved dog that she too often forgets to feed.

Someone once told Sally that she had a "Grandma name," and though some people might take that as a compliment, Sally took it to mean that she was somewhat old-fashioned. So, she decided right then and there to embrace that idea shut herself off from the modern world and live in seclusion. You see, Sally spent many years struggling to get along with people. One unusually bright and lovely day (Sally rarely goes outside), she felt this odd sensation – what she now knows is something called happiness – and got inspired.

She decided she needed to push herself to really grow as a person. She walked into the doors of Youth Frontiers and realized that this place was it. YF made good on that wish and asked Sally to stand up in front of 150 seventh graders every day and try and blow balloons out of her nose. It worked! Ten years later, Sally still struggles with all the extroverts at YF, but she has also found a wonderful place to shut herself away from 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. She figures, "Hey, if I have to talk to people, these people are the best I've found to talk to."

Sam, Retreat Director, first worked with the Youth Frontiers team as a high school small group leader on a Courage Retreat in Moorhead, Minn. That’s where he first locked beards with Zuel, former Retreat Director with Youth Frontiers. They hit it off and Sam was encouraged by Zuel to join the YF staff.

It wasn’t until a few years later after college that Sam finally had the privilege to join YF. Now, Sam is always excited to hit the road to talk to students about Kindness, Courage and Respect.

When Sam is not on retreat he can be found making good food and hanging out with friends.

When Sam was a young boy, he was aiming to impress his mother with his newly acquired biking skills when tragedy struck. He was attempting the rarely successful fake-sleep maneuver on the handlebars of his bike. With his eyes closed and a heart full of hope, the trick was going great until he struck a curb propelling his body forward and his teeth into the handlebars.

Thanks to Newton’s laws of motion, Sam’s front teeth were sent firing into the back of his head. He was rushed to the emergency dentist where they failed to remove the tiny baby teeth lodged in his brain. Although injured, he made a full recovery. It wasn’t until several years later that doctors discovered the teeth that unfortunately remained in Sam’s brain caused him to have the power to see the future.

Sebastian, Retreat Staff Musician, has been playing music professionally since he was five years old. His first “gig” was a standing agreement with his mother to be paid $6 every time he learned, memorized and performed a new piano piece, a tradition he wishes he still got away with today.

After spending a year studying at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Sebastian returned home and joined up with two high school friends and his brother to form the band, Dropping Daylight. They spent the next six years recording albums and traveling around the country in a vast array of uncomfortable vehicles. Touring brought them face-to-face with rock stars and lots of amazing fans.

Sebastian hopes to use his experiences in music and the amazing messages of YF to help enrich the lives of youth around the country.

Sebastian lives in Minneapolis with his favorite human being (wife), Lauryn, and his favorite non-human being (German Shepherd), Charlie.

A little known fact about Sebastian is that he is the performer of every recorded keyboard/piano part in existence. When you hear the opening riff to “Jump!” by Van Halen, that was him. When you hear Chopin’s “Ballade in G Minor” on public radio, that was him. When you hear “Piano Man,” you’d think that the piano part was Billy Joel, but you’d be wrong. It was always Sebastian (Billy still SANG the part… just to avoid confusion).

After turning down multiple offers to be supreme chancellor of Burnsville, Minn., Sebastian decided he need a little time off to re-read all seven “Harry Potter” novels. He was three-fourths of the way through “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire,” when he was interrupted by an endless angry mob of furious keyboard players, fed up from the years of having no work. He appeased them* by agreeing to take on a new hobby… golf. He has yet to get the ball in the hole.

*Sebastian has since reneged on his agreement with the angry mob, and has continued performing every keyboard/piano part in existence.

Stephanie, Retreat Staff, first experienced a Youth Frontiers retreat many years back as a sophomore at Chaska High School. After graduating from St. Ben’s University, she had the opportunity to work on YF’s Youth Corps team. Two years later, that year-long opportunity turned into a full-time position with the retreat staff – what she would call her dream job.

Stephanie enjoys everything about her job at YF, including the amazing staff. She also enjoys coaching high school diving, working at the Blue Door Pub, traveling and playing with her boxer pup, Winnie.

With many years of experience in freestyle dancing, Stephanie is sure to challenge you to a dance-off where she’ll whip out moves that will blow your mind. Just go ahead and challenge her on a retreat – and see what happens.

Born a child country singing sensation, Stephanie began line-dancing her way through venues while she was still in diapers. Her folks called her “Star Dazzler” and her fans just called her a cutie-pa-tootie. At the age of seven, Stephanie got sick of her country career and decided to remove herself from the spotlight – to a more secret and private life in the woods. There, she took up the ancient study of wizardry.

In the deep forests of Gahool, Stephanie discovered her magical abilities. And low and behold, (good thing she lived in the owl forest of Gahool), she received her letter from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. As you all know, her experience there was much like that of Harry Potter’s – and yes, she did have a red-headed best friend.

After saving the world twice and graduating with honors, Stephanie now owns a small pet shop where she sells owls and invisible dinosaurs. And her favorite color is orange.

Todd M., Retreat Director, spent plenty of his life in schools as he attended kindergarten to grade 19 and a half. It took him an extra half a year to finish college and an extra year to complete graduate school where he finally received his Master of Arts in Organizational Leadership from Bethel University. He is still disappointed that people receiving doctorates get to be called “doctors” and no one will call him “Master,” not even his disobedient dog, Flash.

Todd truly loves and appreciates his job at Youth Frontiers because it allows him to work with students, something he has done since graduating from high school. He truly feels working with students is a “calling” in his life and reminds himself that he is fortunate to come his job every day.

Todd also loves to spend time with his wife, Kristen, and his two sweet, loving and incredibly fun daughters, whom he is teaching to golf and hang out at the beach. Besides work and family, Todd loves to work on his golf game, exercise and taste-test Dove chocolate.

Todd recently ate some fruit that was exceptional. In his immense shopping expeditions and explorations, he discovered that Costco has some of the best produce this side of the Mississippi. Todd really loves strawberries, cherries and apples. He cannot vouch for other fruit items, as he doesn’t purchase other fruit in large mass quantities.

On a recent trip to Costco, Todd saw his friend JT, who had just gotten married. Todd, who had been playing golf that day, was quite sweaty, and told JT to shake his hand instead of bro-hugging because of the excessive sweat. JT disregarded Todd’s request and bro-hugged him instead, saying that he’d missed Todd and didn’t mind the sweat. Todd was happy.

Todd H., Business Operations Manager and Retreat Director, graduated magna cum laude from DePauw University's economics honors program, McDermond Management Fellows, but turned down careers with Proctor & Gamble and Gallo Wine to pursue an acting dream in California. There he received a Master of Fine Arts in Acting from the University of Southern California. After enjoying a 20-year stage and commercial acting career, which included running a non-profit theatre company in Los Angeles, Todd was looking for a more meaningful way to use his presentation skills.

He joined Youth Frontiers in 2005 as a Retreat Director, bringing both his flair for drama and his business knowledge to a growing non-profit company. As both the Business Operations Manager and a Retreat Director, Todd connects the mission and programs of Youth Frontiers to the management of a successful non-profit.

Todd enjoys writing songs and improvising on the piano. He is a huge high school hockey fan, and spends much of March in front of the TV watching the high school boys’ and girls’ state tournaments. His wife, Midi, is a teacher of more than 20 years and is currently in the St. Louis Park, Minn., district. His daughter, Griffin, is a fluent-French-speaking high school swimmer. They have enjoyed traveling together to Singapore, Australia, France and Ireland.

As a child, Todd spent a lot of time in the woods hanging out with the Keebler family. As he outgrew the ability to enter their tree house, he ventured to the city and took what he had learned from them to invent a bottomless cookie jar. This provided him with great wealth by the age of 21. He sold that company and reinvented himself as a tap dancer. He learned, and has performed, all the classic Fred Astaire AND Gene Kelly routines around the world – literally. He tapped his way around the world doing these routines.

Having been named the Third Most Interesting Man in the World by the “Utne Reader,” he decided to go into seclusion to escape the attention, where he co-wrote a book with J.D. Salinger in 2002. Now at Youth Frontiers, he will never forget his elven roots, and is still addicted to Butter Pecan cookies.