2020-05 Newsletter
Hello Conversationalists!
As our new reality of living in the world of 2020 continues to unfold, we hope that you have remained healthy and safe! Last month we mentioned that we would not allow our conversations to be halted by this pandemic, and through some great partnerships and planning, we were successful at finding safe & convenient means to keep the conversations going! Read on to see what we were up to in the month of April!
FreeIC Intercollegiate Zoom Call
In this time of Covid-19, online classes have been an effective method of continuing education. Though this solution has been effective for lectures, it misses out on maintaining an important aspect of campus life, which is student interaction and idea exchange. To solve this problem, Professor Mark Uristra of Linn Benton Community College, and Lindsay Hoffman of the University of Delaware, partnered with FreeIC to implement a solution. That solution was a FreeIC Zoom chat where students from both colleges could speak and interact with each other!
On April 21st, 63 students from the two colleges were able to engage in small group conversations! From mythology to misunderstandings about arranged marriages, the students had a blast making friends & engaging in conversations! If you are interested in having FreeIC facilitate an exchange between your online learning community and another, reach out to us at http://freeic.org/contact
FreeIC partners with BridgeUSA & Heterodox Academy to host Q&A with Jonathan Haidt
On April 23rd FreeIC had the privilege of partnering with Bridge USA and Heterodox Academy to host a live, online Q&A session with Professor Jonathan Haidt! Kyle hosted the event and featured Professor Haidt speaking on many topics from past experiences that have shaped his outlook on things today, to potential future effects of Covid-19 on students and colleges, to new concepts of ethical obligations. It was a great conversation, and we look forward to hosting similar events with other professors and thinkers in the months to come! To see the full Q&A session, check out the link posted below.
FreeIC Hosts Zoom Session with Rotaract Europe & Rotaract Mediterranean
Social distancing halted our Rotaract events planned for March, but April brought the opportunity to continue our free intelligent conversations online! On April 24th Kyle and 16 Rotaractors from Rotaract Europe and Rotaract Mediterranean connected online for small groups and 1:1 conversations. We look forward to partnering with Rotaract to foster even more conversations in the weeks to come!
New FreeIC Blog Post!
Check out the latest blog post about FreeIC at the University of Delaware from guest writer Professor Lindsay Hoffman! Professor Hoffman looks to encourage her students to talk across their differences and saw FreeIC as a perfect tool to help encourage that bold, yet open type of behavior! To learn more about Professor Hoffman and her experience with FreeIC, checkout the Blog Post!
We're looking for writers to share their stories! If you would like to write your FreeIC story and have it featured on the blog, please reach out to us at http://freeic.org/contact!
Join Our Slack Community!
In addition to further connecting conversationalists to their communities, we also want to connect conversationalists to others who are interested in talking to anyone about anything. So, if that description accurately describes you, come check out our slack channel where you can receive event news and stay connected with other FreeIC conversationalists around the world!
