World in Conversation 2021-2022 Prospectus by worldinconversation

20 21 22 PROSPECTUS 20 C E N T E R F O R P U B L I C D I P L O M A C Y E s t . 2 0 0 2 WORLD CONVERSATION INWORLD CONVERSATION IN

I am so happy it worked out this way.

If you cannot tell from what you see in these pages, I will say it explicitly:

We stand on vast stores of potential when human groups function well If we invested as much into this dimension of our world as we do in other dimensions, we would surprise ourselves with what we could create, what we could build, what we could solve especially with our opponents

FROM THE DIRECTOR

I now envision a world where, when asked what they want to be when they grow up, children around the globe will excitedly say, “a facilitator!”

In 2002, I had no idea what Sam (Richards) and I were launching. If I had known, I would have run in another direction, certain I had no preparation for the immense challenges, decisions, and complicated tasks ahead. The only reason I didn’t run was because I thought I was just lending a hand to a small side project while preparing for my "real work " But the encounters with people, problems, and incredible potential kept me returning semester after semester, year after year and now decade after decade.

Here’s to many more decades ahead

I spent a significant amount of time this year examining the twenty year history of this "side project" and reconnecting with the people who made the center what it is This process has given me utter confidence in and respect for the tiny acts each of us do every day to make all that you are about to read happen

Laurie Mulvey, 3

20C O N T E N T S T A B L E O F 4

WHERE WE STARTED WHERE WE ARE NOW 18 20 22 24 26 The First Team08 Staff and Curricula This Year By the Numbers We Train Path to Certification Certificate Recipients 28 We Study 30 Undergraduate Research Assistants 32 Alumni Interview Project: Facilitators Report a Transformative Learning Experience 44 We Serve 46 Participants at a Glance 48 Empirical Retrospective 54 Operations: Our Beginnings 61 66 Expanding Our Reach 68 Forging Ahead with Global Partners 72 Activating an Alumni Network 52 How It All Happens 56 Operations: The Architecture 58 Operations: The People 73 Advancing Communications Feedback from our Colleagues WHERE WE’RE GOING Appendix76 64 From the Assistant Director 5

WE STARTED STARTED WHERE 6

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In 2002, Dr Laurie Mulvey selected eight students from Dr Sam Richards’ SOC 119 course Race and Ethnic Relations in America to be a pilot team of small group facilitators for what they called the “Race Relations Project (RRP) ” With relatively limited experience, but immense trust in a simple vision of the power of conversation, this team set forth to talk with students around Penn State University Park with the central question: “What’s going on with race in our generation?”

THE FIRST TEAM

LAURIE CHRIS

This year, the members of this original team met again for the first time since they graduated They took us back in time to what transpired during the very first semesters of what is now World in Conversation Listen in on their recollections of a critical moment in our history: hat we now affectionately call the “First Team” is the group of students that I trusted to try something new. And they trusted Sam and me enough to move into uncharted territory with us. So we became collaborators and co-conspirators determined to understand more about race issues in our campus community. W

There was a lot of turmoil at the University especially when it came to race relations [The president of Black Caucus had received a death threat] So there was this climate of discomfort A lot of tension You know we didn't feel that the proper attention was being placed on it, that the faculty or the students were being properly equipped to address these issues I remember us having conversations with Laurie and Sam saying “We need to continue having these conversations We need to engage people or else nothing is really going to change ” And I remember them pulling us together and giving us the idea of what they were going to do And I loved it because a lot of people don’t have a safe space to have these conversations Most of the time, it’s forced on them and they can’t really say what they are thinking SAM I remember the growing interest around SOC 119 and the issues we addressed there I felt as though, if we can build that kind of interest in the classroom, we can surely do it outside the walls of the classroom

TAKKEEM [About a month after the student protest, two alumni approached Sam because they wanted to do something about this that was a much more long term solution]…not temporary, not a quick fix. And we were pretty radical so we just said it “we want to make everyone talk about this.” We thought we were being crazy.

It was like Penn State was in a bit of revolution itself. Sam and I would go to these different sorority and fraternity leaders and ask if we could come and speak at their meetings. And they would be hesitant. It was also post 9/11, and students had already camped out at the [student center]. So, it was hard to get people engaged in that way because conversation about race was not something that everyone was willing to have. We’d have to find the one person who wanted to have that conversation.

Darnell stepped into the role of administrative assistant for the project where he helped Sam to recruit groups and organizations that would be willing to join dialogues. This was difficult to do because the issues were so charged.

Takkeem

We were gonna have serious discussions about race, and we weren’t gonna let people just squirm out of them or just be quiet or sit in the back. We weren't gonna have those types of discussions. We were gonna have discussions where we nicely brought everyone into the conversation. And it was going to be peer to peer.

JESS H

DARNELL

LAURIE

TAKKEEM

All of us were SOC 119 TA’s before we became facilitators [for RRP]. SOC 119 was the space on campus if you wanted to learn more about race And it was a safe space And that culture and context extended into RRP that first year NYLA

RRP

I chose each of the students because they were uniquely competent and confident as discussion group leaders. They were also smart and passionate people who got things done. Although I was the only one who had studied groups, we all moved into this new project with fresh eyes and divergent lived experiences that allowed us to “beta test” everything. We didn’t rely on textbook answers or even race dialogue best practices. We were just paying attention to what got people speaking candidly and considering information from new angles.I remember going to the first [dialogue] and how sweaty and clammy my hands were because I was so nervous to sit in a room with people I did not know at all and start talking about something that is so intense. And we’re young and haven’t had that much experience [facilitating]. So we’re wondering what we are bringing to the table? What are we going to say? Am I going to feel defensive? How am I going to feel? We were gonna have serious discussions about race, and we weren’t gonna let people just squirm out of them or just be quiet or sit in the back We were gonna have discussions where we nicely brought everyone into the conversation And it was going to be peer to peer We started with [this] crazy idea not really thinking about how to do it [But] Laurie is all about solving big problems and putting a process together. She was like, “So we have an idea and now what do we gotta do to make this work well?” And it just became this big quality improvement project.

CHRIS As a facilitator, it is very difficult to hear what someone thinks of you and not react It was not easy having to pause, digest it, not take it personally, not internalize it and stay focused on your end objective, which is to start the conversation We quickly realized that groups of people needed something as a starting point for the conversations we were creating, especially with regards to a subject as complicated and contentious as race. We realized that the model of SOC 119—lecture and then discussion—worked well to encourage those conversations. But the groups we were leading on campus did not have a lecture component. So we were looking for creative ways to bring data into the conversations that could then be discussed. This led us to a year-long discussion among our team: Are we here to teach or to facilitate?

LAURIE LAURIE

We thought we could distill a SOC 119 lecture into five-minute "lecturettes" as a way to catalyze a conversation. We recorded five different videos for that purpose. Some of the topics included discrimination, race, inequality, and affirmative action. And facilitators would just pick the one they wanted to use that day.

MAUREL That first year, there was [a lot of] consensus in our dialogues because participants wanted to avoid conflicting opinions. We saw that consensus became such an obstacle to understanding each other. And breaking through that was so much of the work that we were doing.

There was a point where we were like, “Let’s just start throwing facts in without an opinion Like when I tell you this fact, what does that make you think?” And I remember, it did feel like sometimes we were just allowing the participants to go home feeling the same exact way they did when they entered the room

JONIt was between year one and year two that a few of us made a new type of video by speaking to people on the street That way it was students talking about an issue, not Sam teaching about what something is. And that was the evolution from teaching to something more experiential, where it was just about the people in the room. But it took us a whole two years to get there.

The team successfully facilitated 135 campus discussions that first year. They led dialogues on dorm floors, in fraternities and sororities, within meetings of student groups, as well as in a handful of University classes.

NYLA 10

JONWe definitely started year one like, “This is SOC 119 class crammed into an hour.” That was the model, and we wanted to impart that wisdom to start the conversation.

JESS H

I remember feeling part of the danger of engaging in just dialogue about race is that you can perpetuate ignorance and misinformation And I was getting concerned that that is what was happening in our groups, that we needed to ground it with some literature, with some data, with something

The idea of dialogue is such an important thing and something we do all the time. But when you are talking about topics that are very intense and personal, it’s a very hard thing to teach. Mediation is basically what we learned. We weren’t there to tell people what to think. We were there to guide a dialogue. That’s it. That was our job. And we weren’t chosen because we knew more. We were chosen because Laurie thought we could learn the skill of facilitation.

Eventually we decided that our work was to get people to talk and to listen—both to others and to themselves. We were attempting to invite people to a candid exploration, and information and facts were taking us down a different path. We had to address the subjective experience. We had to call it forth, tease it out, reckon with it and allow others to reckon as well. Everything that has happened since has been built from those year one observations and discussions. The First Team helped us to determine that facilitated dialogue was essential to addressing race issues; and more importantly, it was rare.

t was a gutsy beginning, but commitment, curiosity and meaningful conversations set the foundation for a rapidly expanding project. I Creating something with a group of people where you felt 100 percent supported to fail, to be vulnerable, it was magical. And it taught you to take that love and support in the way you work outside in the world.

Looking back two decades later, we were all young enough and bold enough to think we could “do something.” That twin sense of trust and boldness is what stays with me when I look back at what we did and what we started.

TAKKEEM

JESS U And it just became like we’re gonna have these conversations, and they have to be meaningful, they have to be respectful, everyone’s gotta feel comfortable coming into the discussion Within the first two years, all the core components just came out A lot of what is in WinC today, 60 to 70 percent was built from the beginning It was very intensive, very clinical, and extremely professional from the very beginning.

JESS H

LAURIE

JON JESS H LAURIE TAKKEEM DARNELL SAM NYLA 2 0 0 2 12

2 0 2 2JESS U CHRIS MAUREL JON DARNELL TAKKEEM JESS H NYLA 13

WHERE WE NOW ANOW RE 14

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World in Conversation operates like a clinic. WE TRAIN students in an applied method. WE STUDY the method and related subjects. WE SERVE our communities by deploying student facilitators to lead small groups. 16

Each component dynamically informs the other. 17

WE TRAIN

Our academic courses (offered in collaboration with the Department of Sociology and Criminology) are designed to train students in our evidence based approach to small-group facilitation. We combine in class immersive workshops with responsive, personalized coaching, and a semester long practicum where students utilize their communication skills and facilitator mindset to guide small group dialogues. Our students collectively lead 2,100+ dialogues every year as their field work.This is where their most potent learning occurs. In 2022, students who successfully completed our entry level professional training were able to earn a Penn State undergraduate certificate in “Facilitating Small Group Conflict and Collaboration.”

SHEFFY MINNICK Facilitation Training Manager Since 2010 SARAH CHELIUS Facilitation Training Manager Since 2015 DELALI AGAWU Facilitation Trainer Since 2020 DEBBIE GUERRERO Facilitation Trainer Since 2019 CHILUVYA ZULU Facilitation Trainer Since 2017 BECKYCOWEN Snce2020 JAVIEREDUARDO MORENOWOLFSCHOON Since2020 OGANAOKWUOSA Since2020 TEACHING STAFF STUDENT LEADERS IN TRAINING 20

MAIN

The courses are scaffolded in such a way that students are first exposed to the fundamental mindset and skills of a small group facilitator. They then have the opportunity to develop their intervention practice

The teaching staff from our Foundational and Advanced courses implement a two tiered, integrated curricula. They cross pollinate regularly, assessing student progress and refining how learning objectives are delivered

SOC 469SOC 369

To develop confidence and proficiency in applying foundational facilitation skills To further grasp the role of the facilitator in managing communication processes To begin to understand the field of dialogue facilitation. OBJECTIVES

MAIN OBJECTIVES

Integrated Curricula

1 2. 3.

To understand the role of a facilitator in re-balancing patterns of communication in social relationships. To manage complex and contentious issues by engaging as many "sides" as possible. To recognize meaningful communication patterns in groups.

This year, more than ever before, the teaching staff were able to devote significant time to working together to keep a pulse on student development, course content, and application of research findings into updated lesson plans.

1 2 3.

2022 BY THE NUMBERS 2 College of Information Sciences and Technology 16 Smeal College of Business RUSSIA: 3 2 College of Arts and Architecture 2 College of Education 3 College of Earth and Mineral Sciences 17 Donald P Bellisario College of Communications 14 College of Engineering 11 College of Health and Human Development 3 Division of Undergraduate Studies 35 College of the Liberal Arts 5 College of Agricultural Sciences 8 Eberly College of Science 184 TOTAL FACILITATORS BRAZIL 1 COLOMBIA: 1 World inConversation AY 21/22 facilitator numbers: Diversity of thought and contradictory viewpoints have always been a core pedagogical element of our courses. Students from all fields of study have something unique to bring to the classroom and so we strive to train students from every college and discipline at the University. 22

Facilitators184 101 Penn State 17 International Site 45 Hours of Practicum COLLECTIVELY LED Dialogues2,135 56 Penn State 13 International Site 60 Hours of Practicum Foundations Facilitators Advanced Facilitators Students from our international sites explicitly and pointedly challenge American views in enriching ways (and vice versa). This catalytic component of learning is impossible to attain without students from different places in the world. What started as an idea to give students in other countries an opportunity to learn from and with Penn State students quickly turned into an essential component of our training program. 23 AFGHANISTAN: 2 IRAQ / KURDISTAN: 20

EVERY SEMESTER STUDENTS

The primary goal is to certify an entry level professional expertise in the skills and mindset required to guide small groups to improved outcomes.

STUDENTS ENTER THE TRAINING SYSTEM WITHOUT PRIOR KNOWLEDGE OF FACILITATION SKILLS OR THE MINDSET OF A FACILITATOR THE VAST MAJORITY ARE EXPOSED TO THE CENTER THROUGH PARTICIPATION IN A NINETY MINUTE DIALOGUE, WHICH THEY ATTEND FOR A UNIVERSITY COURSE WHO DEMONSTRATE INTEREST AND POTENTIAL ARE INVITED TO JOIN THE FOUNDATIONS COURSE IN THIS COURSE, STUDENTS SPEND FIFTEEN WEEKS LEARNING THE BASICS OF OUR METHOD AND DEVELOPING FOUNDATIONAL FACILITATION SKILLS UPON COMPLETION OF THE FOUNDATIONS OF FACILITATION COURSE, STUDENTS MAY OPT INTO A SELECTION PROCESS FOR THOSE WHO WOULD LIKE TO CONTINUE THEIR LEARNING. IF SELECTED TO BE IN THE ADVANCED COURSE, STUDENTS SPEND FIFTEEN WEEKS PRACTICING THEIR SKILLS WITH A MORE CHALLENGING COHORT OF PARTICIPANTS AND DEEPENING THEIR UNDERSTANDING OF SMALL GROUP FACILITATION

2 3 PARTICIPATE IN A DIALOGUE TAKE SOC 369: FOUNDATIONS OF FACILITATION TAKE SOC 469: ADVANCED FACILITATION (SEMESTER 1) 1 ATTEND A SELECTIONS SESSION 4 Path to Certification

5 6 TAKE SOC 469: ADVANCED FACILITATION (SEMESTER 2) EARN UNDERGRADUATE CERTIFICATE: FACILITATING SMALL GROUP CONFLICT AND COLLABORATION STUDENTS WHO DEMONSTRATE BOTH A PROFICIENCY WITH BASIC FACILITATION SKILLS AND A DEDICATION TO IMPROVEMENT TAKE A SECOND SEMESTER OF THE ADVANCED COURSE DURING THIS SEMESTER, THEY WORK TOWARD EARNING THE CERTIFICATE. AFTER THREE SEMESTERS OF FACILITATION TRAINING AND 165 HOURS OF PRACTICUM, STUDENTS ARE ELIGIBLE TO EARN A CERTIFICATE THAT APPEARS ON THEIR UNIVERSITY TRANSCRIPT Twelve hours is the average weekly practicum experience of our undergraduates (compared to eighteen hours for pursuit of master’s degree in similar field) For Comparison: 25

Junze Liu Finance Fall 2024 Lily Cooke Political Science Spring 2023 Natthaphon Chainatthakul Biomedical Engineering May 2022 Olivia Solomon Psychology and Criminology Spring 2022 Rebecca Cowen Psychology and Sociology Spring 2022 Taylor Niggel Rehabilitation and Human Services and Psychology Fall 2023 Mohammed Al Dallal Petroleum Engineering Spring 2021 Momen Muhanned Arabic/English Translation Summer 2021 Javier Eduardo Moreno Wolfschoon Business Spring 2023 Shahad Bahjat Mohammed Redha Petroleum Engineering Summer 2022 Tina Shams English Fall 2021 CERTIFICATE RECIPIENTS Meet our first cohort of facilitators who have officially earned the “Facilitating Small Group Conflict and Collaboration” certificate. 26

Alexandra Waterman Journalism Spring 2024 Amanda Li Business 2024 Amaris Smith Criminology 2024 Antonia Ugochukwu Risk Management Spring 2022 Aujanae Johnson Psychology Spring 2024 Brittany Fisher Supply Chain and Information Systems Spring 2024 David Arukwe Psychology Spring 2023 David Saggio Journalism Fall 2022 Hannah Rupurtus Journalism Spring 2023 Adam Zaidi Computer Science Spring 2022 27

The center is built upon decades of Grounded Theory research from the training of facilitators, to the development of a dialogue methodology and course curricula, to how operations and logistics systems have been built and continue to evolve.

Grounded Theory research is cyclical in nature, and entails an iterative data collection and analysis process that moves almost seamlessly between the two. As you collect data, you analyze it, and as you learn from analysis, you continue to collect more data. This process ensures that each forward progression in the research process is based on informed hypotheses that follow the data. This year we expanded the infrastructure that supports our research by 1) dedicating more staff to research work, 2) conducting alumni interviews to study the longterm impact of facilitator training, and 3) developing a new undergraduate research assistantship. STUDY

Grounded Theory is an empirical method that is qualitative, inductive, emergent, and participant observation oriented. At its core, Grounded Theory research starts in "unknown territory" and ends in rich "grounded" hypotheses, and as such, is a facet of the scientific method that is dynamic and responsive to living systems.

Sociology *Justin Ball, not pictured 30

Olivia Solomon “It felt like we were in a position of leadership here, and it felt really good to be trusted with that responsibility.”

Our seven research assistants supported the timely analysis of qualitative data for the Alumni Interview Project (AIP) They worked diligently on the daunting task of turning twenty to thirty page interview transcripts (solid blocks of text, rife with typos, mistranslated words, and no spacing) into readable documents. In the process, they developed an understanding for how a Grounded Theory research process works, and in particular, how hypotheses emerge inductively from the data.

Justin Ball The RAs fully transcribed thirty-six interviews over the course of a semester. This allowed for our AIP team to conduct a rigorous data analysis that produced compelling preliminary findings in a short span of time; findings that have immediate implications for our training and outreach

This year we offered a new professional development opportunity for undergraduates: a 3 credit course of Independent Research (SOC 494). Research Assistants

Javier Moreno Wolfschoon Ollinger

Eduardo

Business Hannah Rupertus Criminology Liz Kittle Sociology Margaret Fletcher Education and Public Policy Olivia Solomon Psychology and Criminology Jacob

“I never thought I would’ve been a research assistant in college because I used to think research meant sitting at a desk looking at numbers. But this opened up a whole new realm of what research could be.”

Undergraduate AIP Research Assistants

300/SOC

Meet our

Gain practical research experience Learn a qualitative method Learn how research informs strategic decisions of an organization Gain experience in the field of program evaluation and impact Build on communication skills Meet our Research Staff Laurie Mulvey Director Chiluvya Zulu Facilitation Trainer and Research Associate Swati Kasat Research Associate and Communications Assistant Erin Baumgartner Communications and Operations Associate Yuli Prieto Research Associate and SOC 119 Course Assistant Learning Objectives of Research Assistantship With the success of this inaugural team, we have decided to permanently include Research Assistants on our roster of opportunities for students. 31

ALUMNI INTERVIEW PROJECT 32

Last year, just as we were finalizing our 2020 21 Annual Report, we realized, “The center turns 20 next year!” This revelation led our staff to wonder if we could interview a few alumni from the very first team of facilitators in 2002, or perhaps one person from each era, to highlight in this report. Soon, we found ourselves sending an email to 629 individuals “just to see” if anyone would be interested, and more than 100 alumni volunteered their time to be a part of this Interview Project. Before we knew it, we were involved in another Grounded Theory research endeavor, using a purposive sampling method in which each round of interviews informed how we proceeded with the next round. In exploring the impact of facilitator training on the lives and careers of former students, the Alumni Interview Project has already helped shed light on what students learn at the center and what they do with that knowledge. Our sample and our working hypotheses are described in the next sections.

Facilitators Report A Transformative Learning Experience

Below we discuss the way in which WinC’s unique learning ecosystem supports the development of a "facilitator mindset" and how this mindset is carried into our alumni’s relationships and careers. Finally, we discuss the challenges and potential of the work of a small group facilitator.

Generation after generation of these students who have left Penn State reported that having been a part of the center leaves a lasting imprint on how they think about people and social topics. We interviewed alumni from every era of the center and, though much has evolved and changed in two decades, the impact of what they learned appears to be robust over time.

Note: All quotes in this report are from interviewed alumni.

orld in Conversation (WinC) trains students from a wide range of cultural and vocational backgrounds to become small group facilitators.

100+ alumni so far (20% response rate to initial invitation) 15+ countries represented so far sampling based on ancestry, era, tenure with center, sentiments toward method Focus groups (including the first team) 24 22 Mixed or Multi-racial 3 7 Native American/Indigenous 6 1 51 100+ 38 2007 2010 people 2002 2006 people 28 One on one (or two on one) interviews) 17 2011 2015 people 19 2016 2021 people 15+ Countries Alumni 36 Hispanic/Latinx White/European (non Hispanic) Black/African American/West Indian /Caribbean/African 25 12 East Asian/Pacific Islander Indian/South Asian subcontinent Middle Easters/North African 12 1 Men Women 49 Non Binary A SNAPSHOT OF OUR SAMPLE 35

Practicum and Mindset Shift

ALUMNI INTERVIEW PROJECT 36

LEARNING ECOSYSTEM

While alumni point to a capacity to empathize as an outcome of their training, we think the development of a non dual way of thinking is also evident “I came into WinC and all my beliefs were the absolute right, correct things on earth And then my mind just opened to so many different dimensions and I realized nothing is absolute ”

Because alumni report coming to appreciate other people as multidimensional and issues as complex, for some this translates into the capacity to reckon with paradoxical ideas “It’s important to acknowledge that what’s true for me is not true for others… And that doesn’t mean you have to agree with [those truths] at the end of the day. But you move through the world understanding that two things, three things, many things can be true at the same time.” This mindset shift means that alumni come to see the social world differently than many of their peers and colleagues and begin to piece together a new worldview “I learned how to not jump to conclusions... I try to examine and break things down to multiple truths. I accept a lot of stuff that I wouldn’t be able to accept before those conversations.”

In social life, we tend to learn one fact about a person that places them in a group and then plug in a "pre written" cultural narrative to understand them

Our student facilitators register for a workshop based class and a practicum where they facilitate two 90 minute small group dialogues per week This amounts to approximately 100 hours of practice over their first two semesters of study (which is commensurate with a master’s level counseling practicum). In this venue, students discover how to be a facilitator by actually being one. In this role, they come to develop curiosity about people and the value of multiple viewpoints because the role requires an individual to "take all sides" in the midst of divergent views and experiences This is a difficult position that catalyzes an inner process “You learn a lot about yourself because you have to challenge yourself and how you are thinking.” They also develop the ability to listen actively to what is beneath a person’s stated perspective. Our alumni use the term "empathy" to explain this aspect of the mindset shift they experience: “It was about listening to other people share their experiences that are different from your own, and that helps you understand where they’re coming from and build empathy.”

Alumni interviews make it clear that there is a nuanced way of understanding people and contentious issues that develops in students who are learning the basics of small group facilitation. There are two factors in the learning ecosystem of the center that seem to catalyze and support this shift: 1) the practicum experience in which students regularly practice the facilitator role in real dialogues, and 2) a learning community that provides encounters with a plurality of perspectives.

The mindset development of facilitators in training disrupts that automatic process. “How I now connect with people is very different because it’s seeing whole humans... Understanding that helped me to be less judgmental.” It appears that alumni maintain this mindset, and it continues to shape how they interact with people, ideas, and ideologies “I still try to be very critical of what I think, say, and consume because I know that it could be just one example of one experience and there’s a multitude of experiences and opinions out there.”

Alumni report that a certain "energy" is created by being in a community of people from many world cultures and social positions who are all in a shared pursuit and are all being challenged to consider topics more deeply and expansively. “You start to see your own biases and your own BS. But that was actually okay because it was illuminating and everybody agreed that there was nobody who felt like they were above anything. Everybody felt really, really horizontal There was no higher or lower, better or worse We were all in this together, mining our own historical baggage and personal baggage and racial baggage and gender baggage.”

The variety of people who are part of these classes combined with the intention to value the range of their perspectives seems to provide a rich platform for student facilitators to examine their own and others’ ideological positions as participants in a dialogue So they have the chance to experience both the facilitator and participant role as they are learning. “It was the most confusing time in my life. Rewarding, yet confusing just to know all these people from different parts of the world, and challenging my own beliefs and also challenging their beliefs at the same time.”

Because many alumni describe feeling uniquely "seen" in this context, they were able to participate in the learning process as their "whole selves" which may have increased their investment in the process. “When I would walk into WinC there was some sort of feeling that came along with that: people and a space that made me feel more whole than anywhere else. I felt like I spent time with this group of people who really saw me and we saw each other and we invited the whole version of ourselves in I realize that that was powerful and important.” Because this learning community provides a context that enables the exploration of ideas and values outside of one’s own cultural inheritance, it catalyzes the development of a more nuanced, more culturally competent and more global mindset.

“The ability to ask an open ended question is literally life changing. [Where] yes or no questions could shut a door, [asking] open ended questions gives you so many different avenues to attack a problem or to just get someone to open up ” Through their practice, student facilitators also develop a nuanced understanding of people in conflict that allows them to become curious about the other side. “What it comes down to is having a conversation... with people who see the world from a different lens… [This] brings me to a place of wondering what else do I need to learn about? What else is out there? Who else do I want to understand better?” An "evidence based" social intelligence emerges in student facilitators that is the product of their many experiences facilitating dialogues with a variety of people and around a spectrum of contentious topics.

Learning Community and Mindset Shift

A significant component of learning at WinC also involves semester long peer to peer conversations with other facilitators in training where differences between them are centered and explored as they examine a variety of social issues together.

The practicum also provides students with an experience that is their own and thus, they learn based on first hand observations in dialogues “It is absolutely important to suspend judgment when you are trying to facilitate different opinions. And the reason why I learned that is because people aren’t always what they seem and their ideas aren’t always what they seem when their first few words come out.” Because the role of facilitator requires the act of putting your own views aside in service of a group (like medical doctors with patients and lawyers with clients), as well as approaching the group with more effective communication skills, student facilitators witness new possibilities in conversations.

ALUMNI INTERVIEW PROJECT 37

Even their closest relationships tend to be influenced by what they learned. “Getting to a place of comfort in talking about the uncomfortable is a powerful bonding mechanism I think it makes me closer to people I want to be closer to, whether we agree or disagree At the end of it, it’s a lifelong conversation ”

While students forget many dimensions of their college coursework, our alumni do not appear to forget how to intervene in relationships for the betterment of those relationships It seems to become an ingrained part of who they are.

On Relationships

ALUMNI INTERVIEW PROJECT

How exactly do they employ what they learned? Alumni tell us, “I’m just generally curious about your background and how you developed your beliefs because that’s really what is substantial.” This curiosity translates into asking questions that surface new perspectives, paying attention to what is not being said, and using an understanding of group dynamics to strengthen the quality of interactions between people around them.

On Career “Really needing to not insert ourselves or our opinions when we were facilitating those dialogues was a great lesson in restraint and self control. It taught us so much about patience and being comfortable with tough conversations.”

We observed two specific dimensions where facilitator mindset most often shows up for our alumni: relationships and careers While this is not the intention of facilitator training, both of these spaces provide informal opportunities for them to apply what they’ve learned in their day to day lives This tends to begin while they are students and continues into their post graduate lives OF FACILITATOR MINDSET

IMPACT

A small group facilitator operates like a third party in a dispute. Their interventions support and redirect communication patterns for the benefit of the group Our alumni tell us that they often find themselves in their closest friendships, social circles, family, or with their children deploying this third party mindset. “You end up [re]structuring the dimensions of how you’re thinking and you have no choice for that to seep into other parts of your life.” Their everyday conversations and informal relationships are impacted by what they learned as a student: “I think that the skills that I learned of really connecting and really diving deep on some of these topics have really helped me do that in my own relationships and friendships with people now.”

The practical experience of facilitator training provides career benefits to alumni in any field of work

“The ability to get people to talk and not be driving a narrative, that’s something that can be used anywhere.” The mindset they develop makes them stand out as they traverse their careers, whether that includes graduate school, job interviews, or leadership positions at work. “[WinC] gave me the edge that a lot of professionals look for because it’s one of those things that everyone expects of a good leader to handle difficult conversations, situations, and problems… I am always coming back to core facilitation skills.”

Alumni also tend to develop an ability to navigate discomfort during difficult encounters where opposing views exist “Just because someone might have a different view than you doesn’t automatically mean that they’re your enemy; they just see the world differently and that’s not necessarily bad.”

But the relevance of facilitator training to fields such as engineering, business, medicine, science, law, and the military is also common to hear. “I’m in finance now and I do sales for a bank… But thinking about the skills I learned at WinC to be able to connect with people and have conversations and feel comfortable, especially in times where it can be a little spicy, that’s been really helpful for me I would say it’s the most important thing I’ve done.”

Facilitation skills strengthen how groups and relationships function, which makes it applicable to a wide variety of professions. “People tend to want to bring me to places of conflict when there are contentious issues or when there’s a hard project because of the specific skill set that I know ” Our alumni are also able to bring fresh perspectives to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives and affinity groups in workplace settings, and they are recognized by their coworkers and peers for their unique and valuable skill set. “I’ve been in so many affinity groups… and I felt very proud that I’ve been tapped on to be a facilitator for those groups ”

ALUMNI INTERVIEW PROJECT 39

But many of our alumni struggle to figure out how what they learned in their facilitation training can formally become part of their professional life. For most, it is a corollary to everything they do But some alumni report trying to pave the way for facilitated dialogues in their work spaces

As would be expected, facilitation skills translate seamlessly into professions such as counseling, social work, conflict resolution, and peace building (and give our alumni an advantage in those contexts) “I work as a marriage and family therapist There are just some basic facilitation skills that are so helpful to have That part of it came so much more easily to me because of my [WinC] experience.”

“It is like a magic trick because people don’t expect people to be able to do this stuff. They expect it’s going to be crazy and frustrating And then when you smoothly provide avenues for solutions, people are pleasantly surprised.”

“I love pushing facilitation, pushing for my company to get facilitated dialogues because I believe in the power of them. But it is difficult to leave that WinC world and all of a sudden nobody gets it.”

ALUMNI INTERVIEW PROJECT

And the person I was talking to was like ‘Wait, what? You empathize with that?’” In moments of polarization, alumni are often made to feel that they are taking a position that is not only different and confusing from those in their social circles, but worse one that is unethical So it is common for alumni to experience pushback. “Some people might say you are too understanding of other people. But everybody is coming from a different place.

And yet, most do not leave what they learned behind. Deploying this nuanced mindset in private life has many challenges “I just got into an argument the other night I was trying to empathize with someone who’s very un empathizable in our current cultural moment.

Being a skillful facilitator means taking on a mindset that sees beyond teams in a world that operates by the rules of teams (including conceptual binaries and zero sum games). And it means seeking value in what an opponent is seeing, along with a willingness to work with them Wherever a student facilitator has concluded that a particular perspective is completely "wrong" or completely "right," this will be a place where they will wrestle with a process that is meant to disrupt that clarity This leads some to challenge the entire profession OF A FACILITATOR MINDSET

CHALLENGES

Nonetheless, these experiences seem to "make or break" the trajectory of some alumni’s relationship to the profession.

Professional Stance in Private Life

“I learned that there are two sides to every story and when you add the second side to the story, no matter what, just the fact that it exists will change the story as you know it. Or at least how you feel about the story.” However, for some alumni, the core gesture of taking all sides as a facilitator remains unreconciled because it was experienced too personally. It can also lead some to feel unseen or unrepresented because their own voice and experience seems to be diminished when they are facilitating “It’s extremely hard when your identity is being challenged. I’m a Black woman and I had to be a neutral party in a conversation that is challenging who I am. So, it was very difficult in that sense.”

At other times the way a student facilitator operates in the role can be experienced as a moral failure: “There was one male student in the room that completely dominated… and I was trying to redirect and pull in the two women in the room, and they just shut down. My brain could not handle that. I really struggled with that a lot after that specific dialogue.” All of these experiences happen in training and in professional settings But they may be more likely to occur with beginners who are navigating complex group dynamics without the expertise to address them effectively.

It seems to be difficult for some of our alumni to "turn off" the facilitator mindset that they have developed, because it is applicable to so many areas of life where people are in relationships and interacting 40

Beyond "Right or Wrong" With a few exceptions, our alumni do not land in vocations where they operate as professional facilitators. So they find that others in their circles are not familiar with the logic of a profession that takes on a pluralistic and inclusive stance rather than a win lose position.

Everybody has different pains. And in [WinC], when you are sitting down and you have to deal with such tough issues together, you learn that ”

Facilitators are people who live in the world like everyone else and are subject to the force of the groups that surround them. Even when they understand those dynamics, alumni are not likely to be able to take on such a counter cultural position in those contexts “There’s no room for someone who’s in the middle, or who has a different perspective. Even myself, I went into a defense mode of either you’re with us or you’re not.”

“It’s all hard. It’s hard to bring up a conversation if people don’t want to talk about it It’s hard to stay neutral, it’s hard to not take things personally All the lessons have not become easier, but they have become more part of the routine. I know how to activate them instantly.” While mindset elements like empathy, active listening, curiosity, and withholding judgment (along with the corollary communication skills) are considered "soft" in the professional world, facilitators would say that they are anything but soft

All of these challenges highlight the bold and difficult stance that the role of a facilitator encompasses “As a facilitator, it is very difficult to hear what someone thinks of you and not react. Having to pause, digest it, not take it personally, not internalize it, and stay focused on your end objective… We got a lot of training to not take it personally.”

“There are times where I am really emotionally hurt and drained and it is so easy for me to... write everybody off... But the second I give myself the space to be a little bit more thoughtful, I always go back to what I learned from World in Conversation.”

That can lead to personal, internal struggles, and it can make ethical and moral questions feel ever present. “Maybe a curse of this type of work is that I could have conversations with people who have two opposing sides on a topic and understand where one side is coming from and understand the other side. And it became harder for me to assert my own opinions on things because I could kind of see it from either side.”

"Hard" Skills

ALUMNI INTERVIEW PROJECT

Being a facilitator does not appear to be an "American thing" or a "white thing" or a "woman thing "

Many alumni see that small groups of people can benefit when one person in that group takes on the role of "seeing beyond teams."

Others see the work of a facilitator in broader terms.

Each person in the collage to the right is an alumni who was interviewed this year.

“If you care about justice and you want to understand the truth, then you’ve got to understand perspectives that you don’t agree with.”

They are compelled to take on a countercultural "non team" stance, despite the confusion it may cause to the people around them “I feel like I have my groups of conservative friends that think I’m this super neo liberal thinking guy And I have liberal friends who are like ‘Are you some kind of Republican?’ That makes me feel like I’m doing something right.”

“If you think of a true democracy, it’s a forum based on consensus, based on people coming together and discussing, instead of narratives being played out by dominant institutions that want to shape a certain view This is what WinC is I imagine WinC happening inside of every small town ”

Many alumni start by telling us, “WinC was truly life changing for me.” Our data shows that this has a lot to do with the mindset shift that occurs when practicing the facilitator role. This shift is toward a non dual and nuanced way of understanding people and issues that includes curiosity, the capacity to see all sides, an understanding of group dynamics, and the ability to briefly withhold judgment and empathize. Our alumni did not "major" in small group facilitation, and yet entry level facilitation abilities create lasting effects in the lives of our alumni. If this training can have such a robust impact on student facilitators after ten, fifteen, and twenty years, we continue to imagine how "an army of small group facilitators" working in professional contexts for which the role is designed could impact the world.

Practitioners of every vocation need to clearly see that vocation’s purpose and function in society in order to choose it. Small group facilitation is no different. As such, individuals who are in alignment with the larger purpose of small group facilitation are more willing to work through the inherent challenges that come with the role “To create a conversation between people that might change their lives just having that as an incentive, to be honest, is what kept me going ” There are alumni from a wide spectrum of cultures who recognize the crucial role small group facilitators can play and want to be part of that “We need somebody to facilitate conversations between people because we can’t see past our own opinions and views of the world.”

SEEING THE POTENTIAL

Alumni from every cultural context see the possibility (and the pitfalls) of what dialogue can do Facilitation work has its challenges, like any profession, but those who choose it, recognize its potential. “The leaders in this country, everyone who’s in decision making, no matter what industry, should be involved in these kinds of conversations.”

WE SERVE

We serve the Penn State community and communities around the globe by deploying trained facilitators to guide small groups to examine intractable social problems in a constructive way. This year, our participants had the opportunity to examine important subjects related to what kind of society they want to live in. They dove into the headlining social topics, but with a guided approach designed to include as many unique perspectives into the conversation as possible—with the intention of finding the value in these differences. We hosted 2,135 dialogues, the largest number to date, with participants joining from 9 colleges at Penn State, and from our 11 partner locations in 9 different countries. To do this, we are navigating seven time zones daily. For the first time, more than 1,000 students and citizens from our international sites were able to participate in our programming.

Introduction to Human Development and Family Studies Values and Ethics in Biobehavioral Health Research and Practice Values and Ethics in Health and Human Development Professions Hospitality Professional Development Seminar Knowing Right from Wrong Introduction to Sociology Labor and Employment Relations Introduction to Criminal Justice Criminology Developing Career in Labor or Employment Relations Race, Ethnicity, and Culture* 11,297 College of the Liberal Arts Discover Industrial Engineering Explore Chemical Engineering First Year Seminar Special Topics Introduction to Engineering Biomedical Engineering Seminar Electrical Engineering First Year Seminar Logic for Computer Science Contemporary Issues in Civil and Environmental Engineering 1,144 College of Engineering Introduction to Mechanical Engineering Respect the Environment Growing Your Future Engineering Research Sustainable State The Engineering Mindset Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) Engineering House Busin First 1,3 Smeal 1,655 College of Health and Human Development Information, People, and Technology 138 College of Information Sciences and Technology 19, TOTAL P Biomedical Engineering Medical Center Education Abroad 276 Tailored Programs Student Affairs Millenium Scholars Program Drawdown Scholars Program 46

ness Administration Year Seminars 99 College of Business Principles of Journalism Media and Democracy 526 Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications Introductory Physics II Organic Chemistry II Science Dean’s Scholars Program First Year Seminars for these majors: Biology Forensic Science Biotechnology Chemistry Mathematics 1,681 Eberly College of Science Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Microbiology Premedicine Science Astronomy Physics Statistics Apocalyptic Geography Geographic Perspectives on Environmental Systems EMSC First Year Seminars 590 College of Earth and Mineral Sciences The Role of Resident Assistant: Theory and Practice 95 College of Education 882 *includes repeat participants who attend multiple dialogues ARTICIPANTS 1,081 International Partnership Locations Saint Petersburg, Russia Bogotá, Colombia Herat, Afghanistan Macae, Brazil Castellanza, Italy Gouda, Netherlands Najaf, Iraq Mosul, Iraq Erbil, Iraq/Kurdistan Al Kut, Iraq Al Mukalla, Yemen 47

2022 48

*We have collapsed some survey items that were worded differently over the years in order to visualize the data over time. consistently reported positive experiences

Over the past two decades, the communities we serve have very in our facilitated groups. We think this points to the felt sense of value that occurs when people come together in productive ways.

Each bar in the following graphs indicates the percentage of participants who "strongly agree" or "agree" with the particular survey item that year. Each graph illustrates these percentages over a number of years.

2004 AN EMPIRICAL RETROSPECTIVE

We believe we are starting conversations that make a difference. Did we? Range: 70 95% *missing 2013 14 and 2014 15 This dialogue allowed me to analyze a social challenge more thoroughly. Range: 71–91.88% During this dialogue, there was an atmosphere that allowed our group to express any perspective. Range: 88–96% I will continue this discussion with someone I know. Range: 53–68% *missing 2013 14 and 2015 16 49

“At some point in our conversation I thought to myself, ‘I’ve never seen it that way before.’” (2009 2022) Strongly Agree Agree Neither Agree *actual distributions of data for this survey item (2009 2022) 50

e nor Disagree Disagree Strongly Disagree “Penn State should continue to direct funding toward World in Conversation.” *actual distributions of data for this survey item 2013 2022 51

HOW IT ALL HAPPENS

Operations, logistics, and technology teams are the engine that puts small group facilitation into action. Their roles require individuals to be agile and meticulous, as well as to be able to marry numbers and data points with workflows and the needs of people.

This year’s teams provided the infrastructural supports that enabled us to serve the largest number of participants overall, as well as host the largest number of global dialogues to date.

This group of seasoned staff and interns innovated systems and structures to support new developments in research, communications, and alumni engagement, while also cross training new team members. Every year, more and more individuals are choosing to contribute their unique talents to this team to ensure that the center can train, study, and serve.

Darnell Holmes

Sam Richards

Operations: Our Beginnings

In 2002, the Race Relations Project began with a selected group of student facilitators. Their work was critical to what the center has become. However, you can have a room full of facilitators ready to guide a conversation, but without participants, there is no conversation to facilitate.

Jon Schreiner

Beth Gregor Bryson Nobles

2 0 0 2

Dr. Sam Richards (and an undergraduate assistant) acted as the operational infrastructure for all of the RRP’s programming for the first five years of the center’s operations. The first undergraduate assistant was Darnell Holmes (followed by Jon Schreiner, Bryson Nobles, and Beth Gregor) Sam and his assistant for that year recruited participants and partnering professors and campus units, scheduled dialogues and facilitators, tracked attendance, and... the RRP functioned and even grew significantly during that time.

2 0 0 6

2 0 2 2 55

Tamaira Quezada

Take a look at where we are now

Tamaira recalls, “The only thing I received when I got the job was a half piece of paper with some emails of the professors who were participating in the program. From that I had to create my own systems for doing everything, and also keep my mind open for re creating those systems as the program grew.” And it did. For the next two and a half years, Tamaira and Sam built new scheduling tools, addressed registration problems, assessed the numbers, strategized about processes, and adjusted systems in real time. In that dynamic period, everything needed to be built and everything was open to adjustment and improvement. Today, we have grown from that half piece of paper to a complex and refined operations team.

In the fall of 2006, Tamaira Quezada laid the foundation for an evolutionary change. She was the first full time Penn State employee who had the singular role of managing operations for the center. She had not been a trained facilitator. Instead, Tamaira was a talented logistics person. She was an organized, analytical problem solver. These qualities made her perfect for the role. Sam describes, “Honestly, we had been operating by the seat of our pants. We didn’t even have the bandwidth to comprehend how much we needed staff other than facilitators in place.”

Qualtrics Kaltura Google Suite Canva Adobe Suite Slack Office 365 Microsoft Teams Zoom WhatsApp Squarespace Airtable The tools that make it possible THE COMPLEXITY OPERATIONS: 56

Taylor James Administrative Coordinator Operations: the People MANAGEMENT Penn State Michelle Frisby Operations Manager Danna Jayne Seballos Assistant Director This trio of roles works in tandem to support people to be dynamic in response to new needs and transitions while keeping a deep and complex operational infrastructure alive year after year Our operations team now includes more than twenty-five individuals at University Park campus and a network of international site coordinators. JD Blaschak Global Coordinator Joy Chiles Office Coordinator STAFF Penn State Each professional staff member holds a very unique role that is responsive to multiple programming needs and requires communication with more than fifty people on any given day These are the faces called upon first to launch new developments at the center and respond to a problem at a moment’s notice Darniesha Pressley Social Media Assistant Jeff Hamill Educational Program Assistant Jamie Adgerson Livestream Moderator Not Pictured STUDENT INTERNS Internships (for course credit or monetary stipend) are available to undergraduate and graduate students interested in operations, technology, or logistics A primary role is acting as the operations support person in the more than twenty dialogues that happen each day Penn State KevnLiu InformationScenceand Technology DiarayeBah EnergyBusiness andFinance TaehyunYook AccountingandChinese AlessandraDeSano Crminology SerenaHong DataScience StephenCampbell TurfgrassScience ApoorvaSharma Economics PedroDosSantos EducationandPublcPolicy Chiluvya Zulu Facilitation Trainer Sheffy Minnick Facilitation Training and Global Programs Manager Aashita Anand Summit Coordinator 58

Jasmine Coon Criminology LynnYang PlanetaryScience&Astronomy AvaFearer FrenchLinguistcs JeremahHooks Economics Christa MariaNgam Bobehavioralhealth MeenaKumar Science These leaders are responsible for creating and/or maintaining systems that are instrumental to our programming such as attendance, registration, intern training, or global partner coordination They communicate daily with our professional staff while also working with and mentoring their peers STUDENT STAFF Penn State Glory Ramos Labor and Human Resources and Human Resources and Employment Relations Leonardo Silva Materials Science Engineering Loren Harper Biobehavioral Health Abdul Allehyani Risk Management Mariam Tananibe Neuroscience INTERNATIONAL SITE COORDINATORS We’ve spent eleven years building international partnerships with colleagues who are eager to support and extend the power and potential of facilitated dialogue. These individuals recruit participants for our global dialogues and engage in day to day communication ensuring that our method is robust enough to serve people and communities with needs, interests, and risk factors that may be vastly different from one another Igor Assaf Macae Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF) Since 2021 BRAZIL Flavio Sarandy Macae Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF) Maria Filippova St Petersburg Smolny College Since 2021 Sofia Valivetskaya St Petersburg Smolny College Since 2021 RUSSIA Not Pictured 59

Basim Razzo Erbil and Mosul Since 2018 Dunia Ali Mosul Mosul University Since 2020 Ali Baroodi Mosul Mosul University Since 2019 Maram Ameen Najaf Cambridge Institute and the American Institute for English Learning and Future University Since 2019 Dr Mazin Al Kut Wasit University Since 2021 IRAQ AND KURDISTAN Shahad Bahjat Erbil Knowledge University Since 2021 AFGHANISTAN Maliha Zaheer Gouda, Holland Since 2015 Rafi Nadiri Roeselare, Belgium Since 2013 Hasib Rassa Herat Since 2014 Mohammed Rashidi Amsterdam, Holland Since 2015 Maryam Gulam Herat Since 2015 Yuli Prieto Bogotá Universidad deo Rosario, Corporación Universitaria and Minuto de Dios Since 2019 COLOMBIA Renata Rincon Bogotá Universidad deo Rosario, Corporación Universitaria and Minuto de Dios Since 2019 YEMEN Abdullah Alfalagg Al Mukalla Hadhramout Unversity Since 2021 THE NETHERLANDS ITALY Jane Everett Castellanza Università Carlo Cattaneo Since 2021 INTERNATIONAL SITE COORDINATORS (cont.) 60

FEEDBACK FROM OUR COLLEAGUES

“I have always thought these sessions were quite valuable and my students almost unanimously agreed. Many of them suggested they would like to do more of them. You people do a great job. I hope you know it is appreciated.”

Ronald Danner, Professor Emeritus of Chemical Engineering 61

“We are committed to educating world class engineers, and I am very pleased with our partnership with [WinC]. You are offering a form of programming that is a true model... It covers communication, tracking systems, and so many more things to make the lives of our faculty easier and engages our students.”

–Ivan Esparragoza, Assistant Dean for Curricular Innovation and Program Assessment in the College of Engineering

–Jackie Bortiatynski, Director of the Center for Excellence in Science Education “I will tell you now: including WinC within the assignment I did was a real success! I’d love to talk about expanding this and also consider ways in which we can work together to support this.”

Maggie Messit, Norman Eberly Professor of Practice and Editorial Director of the Bellisario Media Center

“I can’t imagine how much work it takes to track engagement of so many students. Particularly as this semester has been incredibly challenging in helping students transition back to face to face instruction.”

WHERE WE GOING GOING ARE 62

20 22 63

People are at the core of World in Conversation, an incredibly interconnected, responsive, and adaptive entity. People are the reason, the creative force, and the vision behind what we do And people are at the center of my role as assistant director. My work is to keep us agile, dynamic, and collaborative. That’s why I’m committed to activating the talents of our staff and students while also encouraging them to stretch into areas they might not have imagined for themselves. As an adaptive manager, my commitment to improvement is counterbalanced by my dedication to processes that are time-tested and data-driven.

So in our twenty years as an organization (and my thirteenth year as part of it), I am moved to share that we haven’t left anything behind in particular our integrity, our dedication to facilitated small groups, and a core belief in our founders’ vision

As to what lies beyond 2022, “Stay tuned. We’ve got a lot more in store for you.”

FROM THE ASSISTANT DIRECTOR

In 2022, as our staff launched into new areas of research, communications, and outreach, we did so with an eye to our past, to our roots, and to all who have had their hands in this project for the past two decades. I hope you will see yourself in this report because you are still with us.

Danna Jayne Seballos , 65

Korean, Spanish, Farsi/ Dari, Arabic, Polish, Chinese (Mandarin), Hindi, Portuguese (Brazilian), Russian, and Italian.

Transformando el Conflicto y la Colaboración Transformacja Konfliktu Wspólpracy

Lisa Dribin Project Manager Jeff Hamil Tech Darniesha Pressley Tech Sam Richards Co Founder

The Spanish, Polish, and Korean versions were the first to be translated. Each text based digital book is being synced with a recording, providing a dual format that gives readers the choice of simply reading the text or listening to it as an audiobook. A reader can also opt to listen while paging through the book, which contains excellent illustrations to complement the text.

Transforming Conflict and Collaboration (Mulvey, Minnick, Frisby 2019) is a digital book designed for a broad, international audience as an introduction to developing the skills of a small group facilitator. It is also a companion to our facilitator training courses. This year, we kicked off a project to make the content freely available for many, many more people around the world. Under the project management of Lisa Dribin, a new WinC team has been working on translating the book into eleven languages:

한국어

Transforming Conflict and Collaboration Español English Polskie

Expanding Our Reach 갈등과 협업 전환하기

Book Translations in Eleven Languages 66

Without a single language as the barrier, we can introduce more and more people to small group facilitation and the basic skills they can utilize to address issues in their own communities. And with that, the practical applications of small group work as well as the visibility of this vocation can expand.

“When I spoke with Kamila, the war in Ukraine had just started. Her husband is in the Ukrainian army and had just been called away to serve. As we talked, his family who had just arrived as refugees from Ukraine was in the next room. My close contact to what was happening there poignantly demonstrated to me that what we are doing is strikingly real.”

The future truly starts here.

Yuli Prieto Colombia Spanish Hyunseo Choi South Korea Korean Kamila Trochowska Sviderok Poland Polish Iga Wilczynska Poland Polish Audio The Translators

This project is also more than the translations. While working on the Polish version, our project manager experienced an explicit reminder of the relevancy these cross-border collaborations.

Every translation expands the reach of facilitator training and the ability of people to engage their opponents in grassroots dialogues.

Our director facilitating in the Netherlands role in the evacuation with our team, wrote an account of what happened from her vantage point.

Rafi Nadiri, our lead Afghan partner with his family in Belgium

Forging Ahead with Global Partners

“Before I came here I knew the situation of being a refugee because I was teaching about law and I have traveled a lot. I knew the tragedy of being a refugee. But having to abandon everything was different I’m very grateful to everyone who has brought me [to the Netherlands], but it’s really hard to see myself safe knowing that my family and my colleagues are not.”

Throughout their visit, Sam and Laurie also heard stories from every person of their dramatic experiences during the evacuation Each was riveting and miraculous Dutch citizens and Afghan refugees after a facilitated dialogue

A WinC staff member who played a 68

One thing that Sam and Laurie learned is that amidst all of the profound losses and gains in their lives, our colleagues are hungry to get back to their work with us They are ready to make facilitated dialogues happen in Afghanistan again and even to create new opportunities for dialogues in the Netherlands and Belgium (between citizens and new immigrants) We are very pleasantly surprised to find that our partnership with this team remains robust and poised to pick up where we all left off

In June 2022, Laurie Mulvey and Sam Richards (our founders) traveled to the Netherlands and Belgium to meet with our Afghan colleagues, who have recently become refugees. They were forced to evacuate their homes last August when the Taliban takeover put their lives in danger While they are doing well overall and getting familiar with their new homes day by day, some of them have yet to find permanent housing and jobs. Even more, being homesick for family and worried about the well being of loved ones still in Afghanistan are constant burdens for them.

Eraj Haidari

We needed forms with each family member’s information, scans of passports, national IDs, birth certificates (for children), and marriage certificates The process was filled with knowing vaguely what the ideal information was, but not knowing what degree of missing or imperfect information would be acceptable Some families did not have passports for all family members, or had been in the process of renewing expired passports at the time that the government shut down In one particular case, I messaged back and forth with a colleague whose daughter did not have an official birth certificate, and although she did have an official card from the hospital (in Dari, the Afghan language), her birthday was incorrectly written and did not match her national ID (with the correct date). But we moved forward with the hope that these details wouldn’t be a detriment to the visa application process due to the severity of the situation in Afghanistan Meanwhile my mind was thinking forward a number of steps and wondering what the impact of these discrepancies or missing documents might be some day in a new country

n August 11, 2021, a small team of WinC staff was hastily convened to assist with organizing visa documents to help some of our Afghan colleagues prepare to leave Afghanistan Sam Richards, Sheffy Minnick, and I Erin Baumgartner all entered a Zoom call where a conversation bounced back and forth between worlds, discussing things that were completely new to me: a three year NATO grant that had established a working relationship between World in Conversation and our colleagues in Afghanistan, the current visa options available to Afghan nationals, and a lot of personal information about individual team members My notes from that meeting are a jumble of names with sounded out spellings, notes about the families of each colleague with question marks as Sam and Sheffy tried to recall if a particular partner had two or three children and discussions of who exactly we would be able to include in visa application packages Meanwhile there was also talk of the kind of threat these individuals and families were facing as a result of their work with an American organization.

For weeks we organized information amidst shifting plans Some days there would be no updates, while on others there would be a surge of messages and documents sent as new information about the situation surfaced. We primed ourselves that things could start moving any day while also making sure not to raise false hope or make promises that couldn’t be kept We primed ourselves that things could start moving any day, while also making sure not to raise false hope or make promises that couldn’t be kept

In the days leading up to this meeting, news reports were informing the world that city after city was being taken by the Taliban By August 15, they had seized Kabul, marking Taliban control over almost the entire country Only weeks before, on August 2, the U S Department of State had announced a new Priority 2 (P 2) visa, which would grant certain Afghan nationals (and family members) access to the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program. Those eligible for the P 2 visa were individuals who worked for the U.S. government in Afghanistan but did not meet the time in service qualifications for a Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) It was clear after that first meeting that our Afghan colleagues needed P 2 Visa packages And everything needed to move forward quickly With WhatsApp as our primary communication platform, we launched a chat including five of our Afghan partners But over the coming weeks, that chat would grow to include eighteen people.

airport together The route itself was carefully mapped out by our Dutch contact in order to avoid Taliban check points

The first plan was for everyone to meet at the hospital, but only minutes before Sam told everyone to start moving toward the hospital, a new contact was added to the WhatsApp chat and revised instructions followed This Dutch military contact who was on the ground in Afghanistan (and who I would only ever know as the phone name "Kabul") informed the group that they should instead go to the airport gates, and from there would need to navigate to the Dutch pick up spot.

A document called “Route Orange” had been sent to everyone in the chat It contained instructions for getting to the airport, what to do once inside the gates, advice for what families should bring with them, safety basics for avoiding panic, what delete anything on cell phones that could be detrimental if the phone ended up in the wrong hands One note within this document read, “Have good morale, but be prepared for a very difficult situation ” Through scattered communication with our partners, it became clear that carrying out these instructions was a heroic mission you might see in a movie. Our colleagues were to follow instructions to get to a particular checkpoint and then shout “HOLLAND HOLLAND” as a sort of secret code We would soon learn that these instructions were not as easily followed as we might have thought Once inside, they saw that the "Holland pick up spot" was actually a large chaotic area filled with hoards of people, and there was a trench of water separating the crowds from the soldiers Our colleagues would shout as loudly as they could, but still were not getting the attention of the Dutch soldiers. We were not optimistic that our efforts would secure their evacuation. Given the numbers of people leaving, it was a long shot. But amidst preparing documents and endless waiting, Sam happened to communicate with a contact in the Netherlands who worked with the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs Through this connection, a new plan emerged to get our Afghan colleagues to Holland instead On the morning of Tuesday, August 24, during a regular WinC staff meeting, a slew of WhatsApp messages came from Sam explaining that "things were starting" and that when he said "go," our colleagues would need to immediately leave their homes and move toward the airport It all happened that abruptly.

“Everyone PLEASE respond to this: You need food and water for two days, and you only get to take a small carry-on bag. Do not try to take too much or nothing will come.”

Throughout this time, Sheffy worked diligently on WhatsApp alongside "Kabul" to keep tabs on everyone via Google Maps This meant continually asking for updates on the progress of their movement toward the airport, as well as getting real time location information. At this point, we were working with seven families and a total of twenty three Afghan individuals By 2:30 p m EDT all families had made it to the airport gates, and the final directions were given before we would potentially lose contact because of jammers at the airport gates

Chaotic crowd at the "Holland pick up spot," as photographed by one of our team members

One of his initial messages was poignant, “Everyone PLEASE respond to this: You need food and water for two days, and you only get to take a small carry on bag Do not try to take too much or nothing will come ” This would be the start of a very long day

Our newest colleagues in the Netherlands sent photos showing them toasting Prosecco to celebrate the wonderful news that our Afghan partners people they had only come into contact with the day before were now in a safe place The elation and relief they expressed was a sentiment I understood deeply A photo of our colleague holding up his orange phone screen ended up being on the front page of a Dutch newspaper. Another one of the Afghan colleagues was interviewed on national television about his arrival in the Netherlands Only days later the wife of yet another colleague gave birth to a new baby

It was at 2:30 a m in Afghanistan early evening in Pennsylvania when messages coming in started taking a new tone. Morale was low, people were feeling ill, and desperation was setting in. At one point a voice text came in with one of our colleagues lamenting, “I am in the water and shouting, but there are no soldiers here, just Afghans ”

* * * * *

Some of our colleagues having just arrived in the Netherands Don’t lose hope. Don’t leave the Holland spot (and PLEASE don’t go home). Take turns, try not to exhaust yourself, stay together. And it will take time, but this will work eventually.

screenshots of a solid, bright orange color on their phones and to hold this screen up (in the midst of the nighttime darkness) as a unique way to be visible Eventually this plan worked and our colleagues got the attention of the Dutch soldiers and were finally led into the airport and onto a scheduled flight leaving that morning at 11:00 a.m. from Kabul to Islamabad to Holland. The following day we got news that our Afghan partners were in Holland, in quarantine for the coming two weeks

A colleague with his son and daughter at Kabul airport 71

Messages would continue coming in well after 11:00 p.m. EDT, or 7:30 a.m. (the following morning) in Afghanistan. Through the early hours of the morning, our colleagues primarily sent voice memos updating us on what was happening, with loud background noise alluding to the still hectic environment and photos further revealing the number of people jammed into the space Photos also showed the reality that all of this was happening in an outside space and in the darkness of night WinC staff and our Du continued supporting our co by step, minute by minute. knowing what exactly to refrains were repeated: Do don’t leave the Holland spo don’t go home). Take tur exhaust yourself, stay toget take time, but this will work e In the meantime, our military using their networks to find through to the Dutch soldie Creativity prevailed and a n forward Because orange wa getting the Dutch soldiers’ a was devised for our colleagues to take

Months later I had a Zoom call with our Afghan colleagues during Laurie and Sam’s visit I saw them for the first time since that first meeting between worlds They spoke of how they were settling into their new homes, described how their children were beginning to learn Dutch, and reflected on what it meant for them to now be refugees. As the conversation wrapped up, plans were made to talk again soon because they were ready to start dialogues again They were as ready as ever to keep moving the work forward

A L U M N I S U M M I T | S E P T E M B E R 2 4 , 2 0 2 2 Over three decades of training small group facilitators has led to a multigenerational global network that now spans more than fifty countries, with leaders in a wide range of job sectors In September 2022, we will host our first Alumni Summit in recognition of the center’s twenty year milestone. Our intention is to strengthen this far-reaching network through workshops, dialogues, informal meet-ups, and plenary sessions. Summit: a gathering of people who care deeply about the same subject. Our registration launch was met with great enthusiasm We met more than 40 percent of our event capacity within one month of opening registration with an even spread of people from 1991 2022 We have also received an impressive average read rate of 73 percent for all summit emails sent to the more than 1,200 individuals in our alumni database. ACTIVATING AN ALUMNI NETWORK 72

Michelle Frisby Kasat Research Agawu Administrative Coordinator Baumgartner Communications and Operations Associate

Associate Delali

Graphic Multimedia Designer Taylor James

Operations Manager Laurie Mulvey Director Swati

This publication used to be a one page letter we sent annually to the deans of partnering colleges. In 2015, we decided to turn that into a more robust report of our yearly activities. We now have a professional team who curate, write, analyze, and design materials to highlight what we do, activities that would remain invisible otherwise. With the continuous evolution of the center and the rapid pace of the academic year, this document allows us to pause and digest our latest innovations and breakthroughs, as well our challenges and blind spots. It also ensures that our data are clean and our records are accurate. It even helps to inform staffing and programming advancements. We hope it allowed you to get a clearer view of what we’ve been up to, what we have to offer—and where we’re headed.

Erin

ADVANCING COMMUNICATIONS

“We are seeking to advance the capacity for humans to solve problems with their opponents.” —Dr. Laurie Mulvey 75

n = 18,687 The sample includes both one-time and repeat Penn State participants, many of whom were required to register. Evaluations are anonymous. For all items, the results were consistent across the fall 2021 and spring 2022 semesters.A P P E N D I X 76

Tel

This publication is available on request.

The Pennsylvania State University is committed to the policy that all persons shall have equal access to programs, facilities, admission, and employment without regard to personal characteristics not related to ability, performance, or qualifications as determined by University policy or by state or federal authorities It is the policy of the University to maintain an academic and work environment free of discrimination, including harassment The Pennsylvania State University prohibits discrimination and harassment against any person because of age, ancestry, color, disability or handicap, genetic information, national origin, race, religious creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or veteran status and retaliation due to the reporting of discrimination or harassment. Discrimination, harassment, or retaliation against faculty, staff, or students will not be tolerated at The Pennsylvania State University. Direct all inquiries regarding the nondiscrimination policy to the Affirmative Action Director, The Pennsylvania State University, 328 Boucke Building, University Park, PA 16802 5901; 814 865

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