Area students are coming together to discover that they have more in common than they think. Students from Apollo, Tech, Sauk Rapids-Rice, ROCORI and Foley high schools are meeting every month to break down prejudicial barriers and find their shared experiences.
Dr. Eddah Mutua, a communication studies professor at St. Cloud State University (SCSU), created the service-learning, community-based group Communicating Common Ground (CCG) in 2006.
The main objective of the group is to facilitate conversation about race and culture among high school students. Monthly meetings during the school year are assisted by Mutua’s SCSU communication students.
“Kids get to know other kids [from other districts] outside of sports, which can be adversarial, competitive,” says Linda Snowberg, a tech intergration coach at Sauk Rapids-Rice High School.
Freshmen through seniors are given the opportunity to join the meetings. It’s voluntary and there is no time commitment. They can attend one meeting or all of them.
For Apollo student Mahider Gevrehawari, this CCG session is her first time, and she comments, “I’m expecting a good conversation.”
This month’s theme is “Embracing Cross-Cultural Opportunities.”
Students are split into groups. Each group has students from each high school along with two SCSU students, who kick-off the conversation. The conversations start simple to discover that common ground.
“If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go?” asks one of the SCSU group leaders.
Each person is given the opportunity to share where and why. Answers include: Spain, Dubai, Loas, Germany, Paris, London, Ireland, Antarctica, Scotland, Bora Bora and Jamaica. Many are surprised to have named the same location for the very same reason.
While the students are gathered in their groups, Mutua gives them the framework.
“E pluribus unum. What does it mean?” asks Mutua.
A student raises his hand to answer, “One of many.”
“Ubuntu is an African philosophy that means oneness… Omoiyari is the Japanese philosophy for oneness. We can borrow from different cultures and bring them together,” says Mutua.
With this ideology in mind, the students are put to the task of continuing to find those common threads amongst themselves.
Games are used as icebreakers. Some groups play Two Truths and a Lie, others carry question charts to obtain as many autographs from their peers as they can.
Once the games are finished, students get down to the nitty-gritty. They discuss personal experiences, how to avoid assumptions, what actions they can take to bring together that “oneness” that Mutua encourages.
The discussions are meaningful, in-depth, intuitive and get to the heart of oneness.
Understanding their common ground, students leave prepared to create a more connected–and peaceful– tomorrow.