Diversity, equality, commonality and connection. These were the themes of the intercultural and interfaith conversation hosted by the Crossroads Community Center and Intercultural Student Council at the Ferguson Center Thursday.
As part of the Your Story, My Story program, students, administrators and community members met with the goal of connecting and finding common ground amongst people of different ages, races, birthplaces and faiths.
"This is for every person of every faith and every spiritual philosophy. No matter Christian, Jewish, Muslim or atheist," said Beverly Hawk, director of the CCC.
The dialogue group of about 30 people was split up into random groups of two people who had never met. The pairs were then asked to share their life stories with their partner. Each participant had 10 minutes of sharing, 10 minutes of listening and five minutes of questioning with their respective partners.
After the conversations, the group rejoined and shared the details with everyone else.
Matt Copeland, a junior majoring in marketing, and Sharif Nawar Rashmee, a UA graduate, shared interesting stories of their college travels.
Ekua Mensah, a parent of a UA student, and Hawk found out they were both cancer survivors when they were paired together.
"The point of the exercise was to find someone completely different from us, and I blew it," Mensah said.
Two students said in the group discussion they even realized they both went to the same church in the same town.
As part of the program, the CCC also showed a video about a dialogue group between Palestinians and Israelis, which was the basis for the program.
CCC program assistant and first Muslim president for the Interfaith Council Ranita Sharif moderated the Your Story, My Story dialogue group. She said she learned about the dialogue group while attending an Interfaith Youth Core convention in Chicago, Ill. She said students can find more information about the dialogue group programs at www.ifyc.org.
The dialogue group was part of a broader initiative, Community Conversations, by the CCC. Brice Miller, assistant director for the CCC, said simplistic programs such as this could start a momentum of change to bring people together.
Miller also said he is excited about continuing the Your Story My Story dialogue groups by having the program twice a semester.
To learn more about the CCC and the initiative, students can go to the CCC office in 232 Ferguson Center or go to www.crossroads.ua.edu.
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