Interested in becoming a facilitator? Info. Sessions for the spring 2022 team are happening NOW — PSU students register HERE! THE WORLD NEEDS MORE DIALOGUE FACILITATORS. Most of us approach difficult conversations with the implicit intention to either "win" or to defend something; facilitators encourage us to seek mutual understanding instead. This is not an easy job, but it allows others to become subjects where they were once seen as objects; and it allows conversations that never seemed possible to actually happen. Dialogue Facilitators manage information, communication and interaction patterns between people in small groups so that they can explicitly and meaningfully “think together” on the basis of their different social positions. How do they do this? With TRAINING. Each week, we deliver multiple sections of the following courses that develop in students the unique mindset and skills needed to facilitate dialogues. Because students can only learn to facilitate by actually doing so, they dedicate many hours to a practicum experience where they facilitate the dialogues for WinC. WE OFFER THE FOLLOWING UNDERGRADUATE COURSES IN FACILITATION AT PENN STATE. Foundations of Facilitation is our introductory facilitation course. Foundations facilitators begin simply—by learning how facilitated dialogue is different from the conversations they have with friends, family, and classmates. Student facilitators participate in weekly meetings where they learn the basics of facilitating dialogues, and then practice the training by facilitating WinC domestic and global dialogues. Advanced facilitators come to see that they cannot learn to constructively facilitate a dialogue without studying sociology, nor can they do so without studying communication. That is what makes their experience truly “applied sociology”—because sociological concepts practically intersect with and shape the communication technologies they deploy. Advanced facilitators practice their training by facilitating an average of three, ninety-minute WinC dialogues per week. During their tenure with WinC, student facilitators develop unique competencies that prepare them to lead and manage groups across all professional fields. What we know from our alumni from the past 20 years is that the practicum experience at the core of their training opens doors in professions as varied as Science, Medicine, Social Policy, Business Management, Marketing, Social Work, Law, and Education. OUR UNDERGRADUATE CERTIFICATE BECOMING A FACILITATOR IF YOU’RE NOT A PENN STATE STUDENT, WE’VE CREATED THE FOLLOWING RESOURCE FOR YOU: READ OUR BOOK MISSION To host groups that allow people to “think together” across borders VISION To make visible the crucial role of small group facilitators in every sphere where people conflict and collaborate METHOD Small group facilitators manage information, communication and interaction patterns between people so that they can explicitly and meaningfully “think together” on the basis of their different social positions. DONATE LOG IN © World in Conversation — 2021