Beyond our Echo Chambers: Understanding the Other

Echo Chambers was a seminar where we talked to high schoolers from Sam Houston High School (SHHS) in Louisiana about political issues. They're generally much more republican than we are at BB&N, so the idea behind the seminar was to understand their point of view and have respectful conversations about politics with people we disagreed with.

The structure was:
Week 1: Getting to Know You
Week 2: Political Typologies Quiz Discussion (just BB&N students)
Week 3: Object Share: Story Exchange
Week 4: Stereotypes Exercise
Week 5: Fishbowl Exercise
Week 6: Issues Deep Dive
Week 7: Questions of the Other Side
Week 8: Reflection (just BB&N students)

I really learned a lot from this seminar. We covered a lot of different topics - gun control, immigration, foreign policy, DEI, abortion, LGBTQ+ rights, etc. Even though we disagreed a lot with the SHHS students - sometimes over things I struggled to even understand their perspective on - we found a lot of common ground and understood that all of us were coming from a place of wanting the best for their communities and the country.