It was a'ight. It is a program run by counseling center paraprofessionals. They are basically undergrad students who aspire to one day run programming and give advice to youngsters. Our presenters did well, but I felt really old. There were twelve people there and I think they were all freshmen/sophomores. That's cool.
Basically we did an icebreaker with a ball of yarn where we had to throw it to people who share interests with us. I got thrown the ball of yarn multiple times because I like everything. Maybe if I was Alejandra I would be yarn-less. We also did a lot of interactive exercises where we "speed-friended" and role-played.
At the end of the workshop I don't know if I had truly learned anything, but I think that if I was a freshman or sophomore I would definitely have taken some great knowledge from this. It basically discussed how to be a good friend and then how to bring in different cultural background in that relationship. One of the best things covered was how to analyze conflict and address it in a way that is beneficial to both parties.
You must observe the situation at face value, then weigh in the judgments made by people based on their cultural identities. Then you must look at the feelings felt by both parties and the needs they are trying to fulfill based on these feelings. So if your friend John asks if he can bring his boyfriend to your party, but you think your friends will be weirded out by two dudes and you tell him no and then he is mad: analyze what happened (he asked, you said no), what judgments (you felt like there would be homophobia), feelings (John feels confused, hurt, sad, oppressed. you feel conflicted, cautious, anxious), and then needs (John wants acceptance and for people to meet his boyfriend, you want John to be comfortable but also for you homophobic friends to be comfortable). And then you communicate with John and try to figure it out.
It seems like a simple, fairytale approach to conflict resolution, but it's ok to dream sometimes.
I forced them to take a picture of me with the handbook.
ALSO
On my way to this workshop I stumbled upon a World Fair in the Illini Union. They had a lot of world foods (bananas, samosas, danishes... our world is apparently really simple) and booths for different clubs from different countries (Scandanavian Club sounded the best because they had a photo of Robyn up on their board). I stood around and signed up to receive info about volunteering in Israel and then I left because some guys with guitars were playing music from the 90's... poorly.
I then went grocery shopping and ran into Bill Berger.
That video has nothing to do with anything, I just thought I should share the wealth.
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