by Anna Mayfield, staff writer
Sociology professor Gloria Nikolai has been offering an opportunity through Unify America for many years. And this year was no different. Joined by other faculty members at PPSC, Nikolai connected her students to the organization that aims to replace political fighting with collaborative problem-solving.
Unify America provides participants an engaging experience that attempts to resolve political polarity. Nikolai says, “Unify America offers access to people my students wouldn’t meet in any other way. I have continued it because 100% of students who participated have responded very positively about the experience.”
The first step of the experience is filling out a brief questionnaire on background, ethnicity, political status and biases, then choosing a date and time to participate. When the date arrives, the participant joins a video call and is paired with someone whose background and political opinions may vary. The pair is given a series of possible goals that we as a country can set for ourselves, and they are asked if they agree or disagree with the statement and why. The pair discusses it, then each person submits their answers and the pair moves on to the next goal.
As one of Nikolai’s students, I was very nervous going into the experience. I’ve had many difficult experiences with political conversations and hesitated to sign up. Although Nikolai expressed the positive impact of the experience when she presented the extra credit opportunity to the class, I was nervous my conversation would go differently than expected.
To my surprise, I was paired with a kind gentleman named Jerome Gardner. He was prepared to dive head-first into the experience, which eased my nerves. As the conversation continued, we discovered that although our backgrounds and front-facing political views differed, but most of our opinions on more profound matters were the same. For instance, although we disagreed on whether America should offer aid to countries in need, we agreed that it can only go so far.
We began to have deeper conversations about the questions answered and learned a bit about each other through the discussion.
Gardner said he would participate again if given the opportunity. He even included that he gained hope for the country’s future from the conversation.
After participating in the Unify America challenge and experiencing the change of pace in a political conversation and how refreshing it can be, I recommend this experience to everyone. It changed my perspective in many ways and has proven to be a valuable lesson. By the end of the Unify America experience, I felt more optimistic about political conversations.
Another student who participated said, “This experience really allows you to see that when we have a calm conversation without the bias of labels, we are able to see others’ perspectives and even come to an agreement. This is a great reminder that we are all in this together, and we all want the same things, we just need to be willing to be civil with each other and work together.”
