'Understanding, Empathy, Respect for Differing Perspectives'

Humphrey Students doing improv for their orientation.

This past August, we collaborated with the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs on the orientation for their incoming students. We co-developed a workshop based on their Constructive Dialogue initiative, to help students bridge divides and work collaboratively across their differences. Dean Nisha Botchwey of the Humphrey School, recently wrote a post about the initiative and how it went:

So, how to translate that lofty goal into practical steps for 150-plus incoming graduate students? Through improv, of course.

The Humphrey School partnered with alumnus Tane Danger (MPP ‘16)—whose company, Danger Boat Productions, facilitates events and training sessions with a healthy dose of improv and comedy—to lead the orientation workshop. 

Danger began by giving the large student group an overview of the day’s activities. 

“The goal is to figure out ways to bring people together to have all kinds of conversations, where we can understand each other and see each other as human beings, and we can be OK saying we don’t always agree,” Danger told the students. “I fundamentally believe that we can find an area of agreement with just about everybody. Improv teaches you that you have everything within you to succeed at this. It doesn’t mean it's easy or you won’t struggle, but you can do it.” 

After the large group presentation, the students broke into several small groups led by Danger and his colleagues. They guided the students through a series of activities designed to demonstrate how to have better conversations, how to become an active listener, and how to get used to being in uncomfortable situations. 

You can read the rest of Dean Botchwey’s post about the workshop and orientation here.