College is a formative time for many young adults. During those four-ish years, students grow an immeasurable amount. Unfortunately, this is also a time many people fall away from the faith. Without their parents or their home church around, students often slowly stop engaging in a Christian community.
If your church has students heading off to a university or community college, consider mailing them a survival kit that will arrive during their first or second week of class! Students will love receiving a package, and it will remind them that they’re still connected to their home church.
If your campus is by a local college or university, have new students fill out a connect card and send them a package too!
These ideas are for kits you can put together and send in a box, or hand-deliver if your students are close enough! Use these ideas as a starting point for your own personal kit based on your students’ needs.
What to Include in Every Kit
Regardless of what theme you decide to choose for your college student kit, these items will serve any student well, encourage them in their faith, and remind them of their home church!
Bible
Devotional book
List of local churches
Put everything in a branded totebag (inside shipping box)
All-Nighter Must Haves
College students will stay up all night to finish papers or cram in a few more hours of studying. Give them a kit with some essentials that will keep them focused! You might even send this box right before or during finals week; if you send it then, you can also include some summer activities they could participate in when they come home.
Keurig cups
Popcorn
Taco Bell gift card
Desk Necessities
College students are always losing pens and such—so give them some basics to keep stored away in their desk or backpack in case they run out!
On-The-Go Essentials
College campus can sprawl over miles, so students often don’t have time to go back to their dorm and grab stuff in between classes. Similarly, commuter students are resigned to the campus until they go home for the day. With these items, they’ll be prepared for anything, whether it starts raining or their phone dies! (Bonus: give them a sturdy backpack to put it all in!)
Gum
Emergency Box
It’s a rude awakening when you have a semi-emergency and you don’t have the medicine cabinet at your parent’s house to raid! This little emergency kit will cover almost all of their bases for scrapes, sniffles, or stains!
Portable stain remover
Stuff You Probably Forgot to Buy
After about two days in their dorm, student will realize they forgot to buy something on that huge trip to the store… These items are commonly forgotten because you might not need them every day, but you’ll definitely miss them when you don’t have them!
Mini laundry detergent
Q-Tips/Cotton Balls
Breakfast bars
What other gifts have you given college students that they’ve loved?