These slides were part of the "A toolkit for building intercultural empathy through non-verbal communication" presentation at the 2022 NAFSA Bi-regional VI and VIII in Pittsburgh, PA.

An activity from Thiagi: "As a teenager, if you ever desperately wanted to belong to a group but you were not permitted to do so, you know how it feels to be excluded. This jolt deals with the concept of exclusion (and inclusion) in groups."

This activity challenges participants to interrogate how stereotypes affect our first impressions and the value that we place on others. In this activity, participants will place one card from a deck of playing cards on their forehead. They will then interact with each other based on the values on their cards. They will then reflect on how they were treated and how they treated others based on those values. Additionally, they will relate these experiences to issues of diversity, inclusion, and cultural norms.

This activity challenges participants to recognize different communication patterns involving pacing. They will also reflect on how differences in pacing are perceived and how they might interact with individuals who use different patterns from them. In this activity, participants will first learn three different ways that people pace their communication. Then, they will role play using these patterns and discuss how they managed these various roles.

This activity uses a parable—a story that typically imparts a moral lesson—to get participants thinking about cultural differences and similarities. Participants will first read a parable that is provided to them and then discuss their assumptions and moral judgments of the characters based on their own cultural values.