The Penn Public Talk Project has launched a new program that gives faculty, staff and students the opportunity to articulate and share with each other their hopes, dreams, and aspirations for the Penn community of the 21st Century. Starting with undergraduates, PennTalks will encourage students to share their thoughts with peers, senior administrators, and the entire Penn community. Student volunteers will be trained to lead a series of small group conversations in their college houses, fraternities, sororities, interest organizations, and any other place that students get together.
Students may participate as either facilitators or members of a group. The program starts with facilitator training on Friday, March 3, followed by small group discussions during March and early April. Each conversation will feature a small group of individuals learning from one another in an interactive, collaborative manner. Volunteer student facilitators will lead the conversations. Though discussion guides will be distributed in advance to all participants and will feature a variety of questions and alternate viewpoints designed to stimulate discussion, PennTalks conversations have no pre-determined agenda or outcomes and are intended to foster energetic, honest discussion about the issues and concerns that matter most to the student participants.
Enthusiastic support has been received from several student groups, including the Undergraduate Assembly. The UA is co-sponsoring the project and working to secure both facilitators and the broadest possible student participation in the discussion sessions. Civic House is also serving as a co-sponsor and providing facilities for training and additional discussion sessions.
In addition to the community-building effects of the program, the findings should present a vision of the Penn community students want to build and could inform future strategic planning and campus initiatives. If successful, PennTalks will be expanded to include staff, graduate students, and faculty. As a program of the Penn Public Talk Project, organizers are hopeful that PennTalks will serve as a model for robust, productive community discourse at other colleges and universities.
For more information visit the PennTalks website.
Contact: Dr. Stephen P. Steinberg, Executive Director, sps {at} pobox.upenn(.)edu
