It’s not every day that a high school student gets to hear herself on a recorded song across multiple music platforms. Fresno Christian student, Julia Castiglione, ’25, attended Circuit Riders youth camp this past summer and joined a group of musicians that recorded an original worship song.
“It was crazy that a song that we wrote for a music track is actually out and people are seeing God through it,’’ Castiglione said.
With multiple locations, students travel from all over the world to spend over a week at the camp. Circuit Riders is a YWAM (Youth with a mission) educational community whose goal is to reach the next generation and be devoted to delivering Jesus’ word. The camp is filled with worship, Bible teaching and students with a common love for Jesus, which creates a memorable atmosphere for participants.
Alongside the camp, Circuit Riders participated in the Jesus Club 2024. Circuit Riders partnered with Jesus Club 2024 to travel to high schools all across America. They also hosted city-wide gatherings to rally high school learners for a night of worship.
Worship is essential to Circuit Riders. Attendees choose to partake in passion groups, one of those groups being a music track. The goal for the music track is to teach musicians how to write songs and share their feelings with God. In the music track, people were given the task of picking a parable in Matthew and dissecting it. Students are placed into eight different groups each group includes an instrumentalist and vocalist.
Musicians choose a random topic and genre and create two songs. One song is chosen with a category like camp food or members of the camp and you select a genre like rock or country to sing too. The other song is a worship song. The students are given the project of creating a worship song based on the parable they read. Once the song is made the eight different groups come together and listen to all the songs.
One of the songs called “Set Me Apart” really caught the attention of the group’s leader. Their leader thought it would be a good idea to record the song and make it official.
Castiglione is known on the FCS campus as a worship leader and incredibly-talented singer. Castiglione has a breathtaking voice that fills the room when she holds a mic in her hand. Castiglione, along with a few other students, created their song called “Set Me Apart” in under an hour, it is now published on Youtube, Spotify, and Apple music.
“Set me Apart” is a moving song that talks about God’s authority and how we are his seed he planted in us. The song helps listeners strengthen their faith and recollect on the importance of how powerful God is. Castiglione’s experience creating the song felt more like a divine appoitment.
“Somebody sang a lyric and then it just flowed from there. The holy spirit took over that moment,” Castiglione said. “It was crazy that a song that we wrote for a music track is actually out and people are seeing God through it.’’
Being a high schooler, with a released song is infrequent and rare. Jaden Archuleta is from Vancouver Washington and is the lead singer and guitarist in their song. Archuleta has a strong passion for singing and music and hopes to lead worship and make music to glorify God. Archuleta talks about what it’s like hearing her song on Spotify and how amazing it is.
“It’s so cool listening to Spotify and hearing our song come on, I would’ve never believed I had a song on Spotify,” Archuleta said. “It’s my dream.”
One singer in “Set me Apart” is 19-year-old Ryan Beck, who is from Los Angeles, and has a strong passion for music and glorifying the Lord through worship. He enjoyed the process of making the song in collaboration with others.
“Being one of the people who was singing in this song was so special to me, as the writing of this song was an amazing process,” Beck said. “The fact that God can use us to glorify him creatively is so amazing and has inspired me so much as a believer to continue using my talents to glorify him.”
Circuit Riders devotion to worship is prominent in their actions and the creation of “Set me Apart” is evidence of this.
Check out the song on either Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube.
To read more from the Feather visit Fresno community gathers in remembrance of 9/11 or PROMO: 39th Annual Homecoming.
