JWI Scholarship
For the student who could not otherwise come
The Joshua Wilderness Institute is Hume’s gap year: a year of Scripture, community, and work on the grounds of Hume Lake, for young adults eighteen to twenty-four. A JWI scholarship gift helps pay for a student’s tuition fee.
Hume Lake
What the year is
A nine-month gap year, on purpose.
Scripture and worldview, for credit
“Earn up to 12 college credits through Biola University” studying the Bible, theology, and Christian worldview, and memorize the whole book of Philippians as “a core spiritual discipline of the year.”
The Joshua Fast
A nine-month break from “social media, streaming content, and other digital noise.” The program’s most distinctive feature is what it asks students to give up.
Five trips
“Five transformational trips,” from “camping in the forest to serving overseas”, including the Dominican Republic and Turkey.
Living and working at Hume
Students “live and work on the grounds of Hume Lake Christian Camps”, in community, and on the same summer season the campers get, from the other side of it.
Program facts from hume.org/joshua, 2026-08-15. Quoted phrases are Hume’s own.
What it costs, and the gap
The year is $25,000. Most students cannot pay it.
Hume already closes much of the gap itself: every student works on campus and earns an average of $3,000 toward tuition, a summer on staff afterward earns $3,000–$4,000 more, and early enrollment takes up to $1,000 off. After all of it, the average student still pays “between $12,500 and $22,500.”
This is why your gift is so important. Your gift can help a student pay the remainder of their tuition fee
One student, one check
The 2007 class went to Israel because someone paid for one of them.
John Jennings applied to no colleges, only Joshua. His class was the first JWI class to travel to Israel, and he went because a family friend who, in his words, “did not have a lot of money” wrote the check that sent him. Twelve years on, his classmates were pastors, missionaries, church planters, and what he called lights in secular industries.
Give a JWI scholarship
Send the one who applied and cannot pay.
Scholarship gifts go to need-based aid for Joshua students. The program decides who; your gift decides that there is enough to say yes.
A week for a child. A year for a young adult.
Camperships send a child for one week. This sends a young adult for nine months. Both are the same act: opening a door someone could not open themselves.
See campershipsStay connected
Updates, impact stories, and opportunities to give. No noise.
Other ways to give
Not everyone gives by card
A check in the mail, a donor advised fund, or a conversation with someone at Hume. All three reach the same place.
By mail
Make checks out to “Hume Christian Camps” and send to:
Hume Christian Camps ATTN: Development 5545 E. Hedges Fresno, CA 93727Donor advised fund
Recommend a grant to Hume through your donor advised fund. Hume is set up for online requests through several of the larger providers.
Start a DAF requestTalk to someone
Hume’s Development team can take a gift over the phone, answer a question about a fund, or help with a gift of stock or property.