This summer, we wrote to you about an upcoming program at Centennial designed to promote student voice,  encourage discourse, and build community. The topics planned are pulled from approved curricula and are centered around issues important to our student body. Through our newsletters, we will share vignettes and discussion questions our students engage with so you can continue the conversations at home. 

To launch the program, students set norms within their NEST groups, discussed what it means to engage in discourse, and ultimately, what their wish for our Centennial community is. We also talked about what belonging is. 

Potential family discussion topics for this weekend include:

• What is your wish for our family? Your school? Our community? The world?

• What do you think your role is in achieving those ideals?

• What does it feel like to belong? 

• Have you ever noticed someone who might have felt like they didn't belong?

• Have you ever felt like you didn’t belong? What would have made it different for you?

• What is a courageous conversation?

• What are some thoughts, feelings, or emotions that might happen when you’re having a courageous conversation?

• When and/or why do people have courageous conversations?

• Can you think of any examples of when you might have a courageous conversation?

• Can you think of examples of when you might not want to engage in a conversation about a difficult topic? 

• Why is it important to participate in tough conversations?

• What do you think it means to consider your impact versus your intent? 

• Has there ever been a time when you said something that was misunderstood by the person you were talking to? How did you fix it?