Our Story-Share Workshop

My spouse and I had the great pleasure of working with the peer mentor and two students from my PSU Freshman Inquiry class on Immigration, Migration, and Belonging Friday and Saturday in Seaside. We did a workshop on story sharing. Christina did a wonderful job laying out the process, then Meiling and Paola shared each other's stories in front of about sixty people to give them an idea of what the process could be like, and it was such an incredible experience.

Story sharing entails telling a meaningful story to someone, then they do the same with you. Then the two of you join other pairs in a circle, and everyone shares. The point of the process is to build a sense of radical empathy. When you try to embody someone else's story, the walls that separate us strt to crumble.

That certainly happened at our work shop. There were so many stories of suffering and redemption, and the high school students at the workshop resolved to go back and start a story-share movement in their school to bridge the many divides.

It was the courage of my young students who really made it work, another reminder of why I so love teaching at PSU in general and this class in particular.