Are you in your first year (or first time) at K-State? Join us for a K-State tradition – Wildcat Dialogues.
Mark your calendars for 7-9 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 18! Wildcat Dialogues is an intercultural learning and leadership event designed for all first-year K-State students. This evening provides an opportunity for meaningful dialogue and building connections, as we work to create a community of belonging for all. For those who can’t attend Sept. 18, there is a make-up session 3-5 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 24. See registration forms for details.
Registration is due by Sunday, Sept. 15:
During Wildcat Dialogues, students will:
- Learn how to create communities of belonging
- Build cross-cultural relationships through meaningful dialogue
- Engage in active listening, empathy and perspective-taking
- Build a skillset to understand cultural differences and similarities
“I got the opportunity to facilitate a group of about 10 students through an evening full of great dialogue. Being a student myself, we all got to interact, laugh, and have meaningful conversations that I remember to this day. Having a space to come together, meet new people, and engage in meaningful conversation is truly special,” said Halle Schindler, graduate student in business administration.
Wildcat Dialogues is one of K-State’s signature intercultural learning events for all new students. The event begins in the K-State Student Union ballroom with a few K-State students sharing their stories about their identities and how those have shaped their experiences here and beyond K-State. Next, participants break out into groups of 8-10 students in various locations across the Student Union, led by trained facilitators to reflect and learn from others’ stories in the group.
“Every year we host Wildcat Dialogues, we make more progress toward a more welcoming campus where students have a clearer understanding of what it means to create belonging – for themselves and others,” said Mariya Vaughan, assistant director of K-State First.
“The value of this program can’t be underscored enough for our first-year students, to help them understand what our identities mean and to learn for themselves what identities they hold and how that impacts their sense of belonging.”
For more information please visit the Wildcat Dialogues website. You can also set your event reminders on the University calendar, and Facebook.
This event is coordinated in partnership between the Staley School of Leadership, K-State First, the K-State Student Union, the Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging, and the Department of Student Belonging and Inclusion, Mortar Board Senior Honor Society, and the DOW Center for Multicultural and Community Studies, alongside a large committee representing students, faculty and staff. This collaboration represents the commitment by our campus community to create a culture of belonging for all.
For questions, email Tamara Bauer, Staley School of Leadership, at tamara@k-state.edu, or Mariya Vaughan, K-State First, at mbjv@k-state.edu.
