two years ago you would have told me
that today I’d be standing on a stage in
the middle of attention fountains of
Kyrgyzstan I would have thought you were
crazy
I had a great length in a small mountain
town in Canada a wonderful family my
kids are in university I have a dog pad
a big vegetable and flower garden that I
love and a job that I was very
passionate about I think sometimes don’t
realize that we’re out of personal
crossroads until something calls us and
you get an opportunity for a new
challenge and new learning when I first
started telling my friends and family
that I was considering applying for this
job is that where Kyrgyz what is a
dangerous you know what you’re doing are
you sure and of course I wasn’t sure
it’s a big deal to pick up your life and
change it across the world but there’s
something about being asked to work with
a different group of students at
brand-new University with a bold vision
that was compelling in a new kind of
challenge so a lot of my move here was
part of a bigger journey that happened a
few years earlier and it has to do with
Kraft Dinner who knows the crock dinner
is a few North American students so
crustier is a kind of junk food that’s
really common in in North America it’s
basically noodles there’s some chemical
cheese and the reason this became an
event in my life was that I gun had was
brought to me one day in my
in Canada and he’s incredibly depressed
he hadn’t been lead in his room he was
series only he was at a place of really
thinking a lot about wanting to die and
as part of the assessment attend I
talked him about all kinds of things
including sleep and evening and told me
all he’d eaten for srivastav’s crock
dinner we didn’t have a cafeteria in our
residence he didn’t know how to cook he
would make three boxes in the morning
and have it for lunch and dinner
and no one when there’s mental health
issues or suicidal thinking it’s not all
about nutrition but I do believe her
body and mind are very connected and it
concerned me that he hadn’t an any
protein or fruit or vegetables so as he
started to look at how we could help
this young man I worked with student
advisors in the in the university
residents and we came up with an idea
the dinner club and once a week that
group of students would get together and
a student often greater aggressive you
might either brand another soup or we
have international students who might
even bring a recipe for a stir fry and
we were shocked together they learn how
to shop for good nutritious food and
then we would cook a meal together and
as we started happening I realized that
I was kind of being out of my office and
into the kitchen and it was creating a
different kind of relationship with
students traditionally counselors as
they call it to sit in their office and
they made for a student with that
problem to me and excitement to come in
and that’s all been really helpful but
some students aren’t comfortable at the
consulate
I probably had these family-style
dinners together then they show up in my
office little while later but we have a
different kind of relationship because
he chopped carrots together needs to sat
down and have a meal where we talked
about the meat and about stress and how
things are going so this is a starting
point for me and really starting to
think about how to do more preventative
work in terms of creating relationships
with students in the places that they
live and study and I love this quote by
it by Margaret because she says whatever
the problem I believe community is the
answer and I think often when he can
create a community of belonging a lot of
the other kinds of stresses have a
bigger container riverview were
supporting each other in those kinds of
struggles so I also just wanted to talk
a little bit about a power of listening
so that’s we’ve got the dinner table or
in the counseling office we’re learning
more and more about how amazing it is
when people feel deeply listened to and
this quote from a Cuban proverb says
every head is a world and so we’ll never
totally understand another person’s
experience or their reality but
listening is the bridge when we start to
really enjoy each other on a journey and
understanding and whenever a student
walks into my office there are some kind
of crossroads they’re trying to make a
decision or they’re dealing with some
kind of turmoil or issue they’re trying
to figure out and I’ve come to believe
more and more that my job isn’t to give
advice or to tell them
– but to create a safe place where they
think all their nervous system and then
their own missin answers can surface and
in addition of neuroscience is really
backing up that listening is actually
changes our brains and when you look at
the structure of the brain there’s
multiple crossroads and one of the
things I think is really fascinating is
the things that we think about the
things that we feel our actions and
decisions are always strengthening the
neurological pathways of the brain so
let the animals of the mountains in
there in where the horses and cows build
pathways the more you travel down a
pathway the easier it is to access so
the more that you are able to access
gratitude or appreciation and feel cared
for the more those counties in your
brain are there for your own resilience
of alkene and being listened to
it’s really part of that because every
time you feel really listened to the in
in my case that house where the student
our brainwaves start to synchronize the
heart rate starts to beat at the same
time and the student is able to just
find their own place of newsom when
they’re in that same place so I also
just wanted to show you another amazing
group of students some of who are here
today and I’ve been learning from them
so this is the health council it’s – a
few people in this picture and this was
the group that organized a carnival last
fall and again I kind of came with my
ideas or many years I coordinated
and my fusion college campus around
mental health awareness but in the
health council said we didn’t know each
other better working so hard you really
need something fun and bonding so I
realize my job is to serve them they had
lots of creativity lots of dynamic
energy and passion and they put on an
easy carnival that brought together
families and all the students there’s a
lot of games and fun and dance and there
was another example for me to realize
that my job is service are really
listened to their dreams their goals and
to give service to them so that they can
bring those into the world so – not hot
enough famous Vietnamese month says we
are here to awaken from the illusion of
separateness I want to end by telling a
story about something that happened a
few weeks ago a group of students and
some staff and faculty meant to the Coon
bell Valley which is about an hour from
there and while we were there we were
welcomed by Curry’s family who had were
stuck in time’ and jam and teeth but
then we walked up at 10:00 in behind
their winter pasture in
and for many many generations and to get
into the value that I didn’t see before
me had to cross the river because those
snowmelt all that needed more flooded
than it had in the last time I was there
and there we were started helping each
other across the river we need a Cheney
and and everyone crossed safely and
later on yet tiger lying on the grass
and I had this glimpse of what it would
be like to wait and when the illusion of
separateness I realized that in this
group you first seven countries there
was a pianist and Kyrgyzstan Tajikistan
Pakistan India United States Canada we
have Sunni Muslims and he has she and
Muslims he had an atheist Buddhist a
Christian we were old and young male and
female but while we were there helping
each other across cheering each other on
we were just earthlings part of this
earth this planet is home thank you
that today I’d be standing on a stage in
the middle of attention fountains of
Kyrgyzstan I would have thought you were
crazy
I had a great length in a small mountain
town in Canada a wonderful family my
kids are in university I have a dog pad
a big vegetable and flower garden that I
love and a job that I was very
passionate about I think sometimes don’t
realize that we’re out of personal
crossroads until something calls us and
you get an opportunity for a new
challenge and new learning when I first
started telling my friends and family
that I was considering applying for this
job is that where Kyrgyz what is a
dangerous you know what you’re doing are
you sure and of course I wasn’t sure
it’s a big deal to pick up your life and
change it across the world but there’s
something about being asked to work with
a different group of students at
brand-new University with a bold vision
that was compelling in a new kind of
challenge so a lot of my move here was
part of a bigger journey that happened a
few years earlier and it has to do with
Kraft Dinner who knows the crock dinner
is a few North American students so
crustier is a kind of junk food that’s
really common in in North America it’s
basically noodles there’s some chemical
cheese and the reason this became an
event in my life was that I gun had was
brought to me one day in my
in Canada and he’s incredibly depressed
he hadn’t been lead in his room he was
series only he was at a place of really
thinking a lot about wanting to die and
as part of the assessment attend I
talked him about all kinds of things
including sleep and evening and told me
all he’d eaten for srivastav’s crock
dinner we didn’t have a cafeteria in our
residence he didn’t know how to cook he
would make three boxes in the morning
and have it for lunch and dinner
and no one when there’s mental health
issues or suicidal thinking it’s not all
about nutrition but I do believe her
body and mind are very connected and it
concerned me that he hadn’t an any
protein or fruit or vegetables so as he
started to look at how we could help
this young man I worked with student
advisors in the in the university
residents and we came up with an idea
the dinner club and once a week that
group of students would get together and
a student often greater aggressive you
might either brand another soup or we
have international students who might
even bring a recipe for a stir fry and
we were shocked together they learn how
to shop for good nutritious food and
then we would cook a meal together and
as we started happening I realized that
I was kind of being out of my office and
into the kitchen and it was creating a
different kind of relationship with
students traditionally counselors as
they call it to sit in their office and
they made for a student with that
problem to me and excitement to come in
and that’s all been really helpful but
some students aren’t comfortable at the
consulate
I probably had these family-style
dinners together then they show up in my
office little while later but we have a
different kind of relationship because
he chopped carrots together needs to sat
down and have a meal where we talked
about the meat and about stress and how
things are going so this is a starting
point for me and really starting to
think about how to do more preventative
work in terms of creating relationships
with students in the places that they
live and study and I love this quote by
it by Margaret because she says whatever
the problem I believe community is the
answer and I think often when he can
create a community of belonging a lot of
the other kinds of stresses have a
bigger container riverview were
supporting each other in those kinds of
struggles so I also just wanted to talk
a little bit about a power of listening
so that’s we’ve got the dinner table or
in the counseling office we’re learning
more and more about how amazing it is
when people feel deeply listened to and
this quote from a Cuban proverb says
every head is a world and so we’ll never
totally understand another person’s
experience or their reality but
listening is the bridge when we start to
really enjoy each other on a journey and
understanding and whenever a student
walks into my office there are some kind
of crossroads they’re trying to make a
decision or they’re dealing with some
kind of turmoil or issue they’re trying
to figure out and I’ve come to believe
more and more that my job isn’t to give
advice or to tell them
– but to create a safe place where they
think all their nervous system and then
their own missin answers can surface and
in addition of neuroscience is really
backing up that listening is actually
changes our brains and when you look at
the structure of the brain there’s
multiple crossroads and one of the
things I think is really fascinating is
the things that we think about the
things that we feel our actions and
decisions are always strengthening the
neurological pathways of the brain so
let the animals of the mountains in
there in where the horses and cows build
pathways the more you travel down a
pathway the easier it is to access so
the more that you are able to access
gratitude or appreciation and feel cared
for the more those counties in your
brain are there for your own resilience
of alkene and being listened to
it’s really part of that because every
time you feel really listened to the in
in my case that house where the student
our brainwaves start to synchronize the
heart rate starts to beat at the same
time and the student is able to just
find their own place of newsom when
they’re in that same place so I also
just wanted to show you another amazing
group of students some of who are here
today and I’ve been learning from them
so this is the health council it’s – a
few people in this picture and this was
the group that organized a carnival last
fall and again I kind of came with my
ideas or many years I coordinated
and my fusion college campus around
mental health awareness but in the
health council said we didn’t know each
other better working so hard you really
need something fun and bonding so I
realize my job is to serve them they had
lots of creativity lots of dynamic
energy and passion and they put on an
easy carnival that brought together
families and all the students there’s a
lot of games and fun and dance and there
was another example for me to realize
that my job is service are really
listened to their dreams their goals and
to give service to them so that they can
bring those into the world so – not hot
enough famous Vietnamese month says we
are here to awaken from the illusion of
separateness I want to end by telling a
story about something that happened a
few weeks ago a group of students and
some staff and faculty meant to the Coon
bell Valley which is about an hour from
there and while we were there we were
welcomed by Curry’s family who had were
stuck in time’ and jam and teeth but
then we walked up at 10:00 in behind
their winter pasture in
and for many many generations and to get
into the value that I didn’t see before
me had to cross the river because those
snowmelt all that needed more flooded
than it had in the last time I was there
and there we were started helping each
other across the river we need a Cheney
and and everyone crossed safely and
later on yet tiger lying on the grass
and I had this glimpse of what it would
be like to wait and when the illusion of
separateness I realized that in this
group you first seven countries there
was a pianist and Kyrgyzstan Tajikistan
Pakistan India United States Canada we
have Sunni Muslims and he has she and
Muslims he had an atheist Buddhist a
Christian we were old and young male and
female but while we were there helping
each other across cheering each other on
we were just earthlings part of this
earth this planet is home thank you
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