Cohort 12: Civil Discussion

Cohort 12’s tenure coincided with the 2020 experience of a global pandemic and a contentious presidential election. The students saw an opportunity to promote constructive civil discourse in an environment that was becoming increasingly heated and polarized. The vision of the CommonWealth Project was to help teens to build these skills at a young age, so that they would be better prepared to engage as active citizens and be a positive force in their community and world.

Inspired by the previous cohort’s CultureBridge project, Cohort 12 chose to partner with the OU Simulation Center to create an experiential learning simulation for participants to grow their practical skills in civil discourse. The goal was for participants to build active listening skills and learn how to remain open minded and composed, even in heated discussions. Working with Director of the Simulation Center Kristin Foulks (Rodriguez), students crafted scenarios labeled “low heat, medium heat, and high heat,” whereby participants engaged in conversations with varying levels of intensity.

Kristin recalled the co-creation process with the students: “That was a wonderful experience. We introduced them to the idea of the low, medium and high system and then they really took the idea and ran with it. They came up with all the good ideas themselves... I was really impressed with how intuitive they were.”

To complement these scenarios, the students also created video interviews of prominent local community members about their experiences in civil or uncivil discourse. State Representative Monroe Nichols and City Councilor Phil Lakin were among those interviewed by the students, sharing personal stories of political engagement at the local level.

In their third year, the Cohort 12 piloted the simulation with a small group of friends and family. Due to in-person restrictions around COVID-19, they were unable to share it more widely with the Tulsa community before graduation. The OU Simulation Center added the CommonWealth Project simulation to its catalog of offerings for OU-Tulsa students. In a recent interview, Director of the Simulation Center Kristin Foulks noted that the themes and content in CommonWealth remains highly topical and relevant to OU-Tulsa students.

Despite the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic constrained the cohort’s ability to meet in- person, students reflect that YPI was still a highlight of their high school experience. In a student survey conducted in their third year, several Cohort 11 students reflected on YPI’s role in their life during the pandemic:

“YPI helped me connect with others during a time when that wasn’t really possible. I lost touch with some friends at school in the transition to distance learning, but since YPI is already such a tight-knit community, the transition online wasn’t awkward and I didn’t feel much disconnect between my peers.”

“YPI has given me something to look forward to in a really confusing year. It is so exciting how close our project is to being done and really rewarding to see where we came from.”

“YPI has been consistent. Despite the uncertainness of everything this year, YPI has remained intact. Even though our last couple of years look differently than we have imagined they would be, we have managed to keep YPI in our lives. I have something to look forward to every Sunday and every other Friday. YPI has been a huge part of my high school life, and I am glad that unlike many other things in our lives today, YPI wasn’t taken from us.”