Trevecca brings “bridging the gap” to equip students with skills to have important conversations

By Michelle Loria Alvarado

Assistant News Editor

During Monday night chapels from Sept. 23 to Oct. 7, students will learn from faculty members how to engage in healthy and productive conversations about difficult topics.

“One of the main reasons that I was excited about Bridging the Gap curriculum is because of this semester’s political issues and the elections,” said Erik Gernand, Trevecca chaplain.  “I felt like our university would likely benefit from just learning some very basic skills about how to show up in a conversation with some tools to help navigate things when you’re talking to somebody who disagrees violently.” 

Bridging the Gap is a curriculum offered by Interfaith America that helps students and educators build the skills to talk over divisive topics effectively. 

“It is important that we teach our students how to engage in respectful conversations, and that is by being curious, it’s by not necessarily going in to change someone’s mind, but in truly understanding,” said Jeffrey Wells, professor of communication studies.

The curriculum has four modules that will be taught by a faculty member who went through this program. 

Gernand taught the first module during chapel Sept. 12, and it is called “Why build bridges?” In this module, Gernand explained what bridge building is and navigated with students to discover their why. 

The second module is called “Listening” where students will explore the value of listening and will define the difference between typical listening, and listening to build bridges. Wells will lead that discussion during the Monday night chapel Sept. 23.

The third module will focus on the importance of storytelling and teach students some techniques for sharing stories about themselves. This module is called “Sharing your Story” and Amy Smith, assistant professor of psychology, will lead the conversation Sept. 30.

Justin Jose, director of leadership and community engagement, will teach the last module Oct. 7, “Engaging Tension Constructively,” which teaches students how to assess the risks and rewards of having or not having a difficult conversation and provides a helpful framework.

Students who attend the four sessions will be invited to a dinner on Oct. 17, where they will discuss some political issues, practice the skills discussed in these four chapels, and participate in some giveaways. 

“We’re going to do a dinner. We’re going to do giveaways, and we’re going to talk about what we think through politics as people of faith,” said Gernand. “There will be lots of different opinions and lots of room for conversation. But the thing I’m excited about is the people who are there will have built the skills to be able to have that conversation well.”