The Transformative Power of Storytelling: Bridging Cultures and Inspiring Connection

What do you think of when we say story? Is it a favorite movie or book, a story passed down by a grandparent? As adults, we use stories in every aspect of our lives, from the social media we consume to the way we interact with our colleagues, clients, friends, and family members.

Dive into the captivating world of storytelling with Shenandoah University's First Year Seminar (FYS) students as they unravel its power to connect cultures, generations, and professions. Discover how stories unite us. This episode celebrates storytelling as a bridge across cultures, fostering empathy, trust, and understanding.

1:16: Different Ways Storytelling Conveys Messages From ballet to cartoons, storytelling offers opportunities to foster creativity and impart essential life lessons. Bleu Do'zia, executive director of Selah Theatre, highlights theater's role in empowering youth, even in communities with limited arts access. Produced by Antonio, Aviv, Emma, Giovanni, Kyla, and Mia.

6:30: How Storytelling Evolved from Cave Paintings to Social Media  Trace the evolution of storytelling from ancient cave paintings and Egyptian hieroglyphics to the dynamic realm of social media.  Produced by Aaliyah, Arwa, Bodie, Heiri, Ralph, and Will.

11:02: Storytelling in Adult Daily Life and Careers  Hear from students as they discuss the integral role storytelling plays in such varied careers as nursing, acting, and music therapy. From veterinary science to elementary education, storytelling enhances connections, fosters empathy, and supports diverse learning. Produced by Abby, Aubrey, Chloe, Hannah, Katie, and Makaia.

16:54 - How Storytelling Unites People Explore the unifying power of storytelling in building empathy, trust, and connections among people. Discover how shared stories foster understanding and compassion, breaking down barriers and creating bonds across diverse backgrounds. Produced by Annie, Diego, Lily, Peyton, and Timothy.

Join us as we embrace the stories that unite us, bridging cultural divides and fostering human connection.

Special thanks to FYS mentor Riley Broshears for helping produce this episode and to co-professor Bleu Do'zia for contributing her storytelling expertise.

Thank you to the FYS students who worked to synthesize their perspectives on storytelling for this episode: Will Ashley, Aaliyah Bates Blocker, Bodie Beach, Diego Blanco, Makaia Bliss, Kyla Carter, Aubrey Dunbar, Peyton Foranoce, Aviv Haroz, Arwa Hassan, Timothy Johnson, Abigail Kuster, Mia Nelson, Ralph Parker, Heiri Romero-Guillen, Antonio Saladino, Giovanni Santoro, Hannah Smelser, Annie Starliper, Lily Tippets, Katie Toker, Chloe Vaughn, and Emma Wheatley.

And a big thank you to Shenandoah University and the FYS team (Bryan Pearce-Gonzales and Leann Curley).

Transcript

00:01 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
What is storytelling? Is storytelling picking up a favorite book to read to a child? Is storytelling listening to the stories that your grandmother or grandfather share with you over the holiday table? Is storytelling the magic that's currently going on in Wicked or Moana on our video screens Wicked or Moana on our video screens or is storytelling something even deeper? Is it something that unites us and connects us and helps to bridge gaps between us? This week, on the Adventures in Learning podcast, you're going to hear about storytelling from the point of view of 23 students who are first-year seminar students at Shenandoah University. They are full of some amazing ideas and I can't wait for you to share their adventures in learning. So, without further ado, sit back, relax and let's visit the world of, once Upon a Time, wonder, curiosity, connection. Where will your adventures take you? I'm Dr Diane, and thank you for joining me on today's episode of Adventures in Learning. 

01:16 - Antonio S (Guest)
Hey everyone. This is our little group here and my name is Antonio Saldino. And next. 

01:23 - Giovanni S (Guest)
I'm Giovanni Santoro. 

01:24 - Mia N (Guest)
I'm Mia Nelson. 

01:25 - Emma W. (Guest)
I'm Emma Wheatley.

01:26 - Aviv H (Guest)
I'm Aviv 

01:27 - Kyla C (Guest)
And I'm Kyla Carter, and today we will be talking about the different methods of storytelling that convey various messages and impact the youth All right, so one of our first topics will be dance and movement. 

01:39 - Giovanni S (Guest)
So like, even if we're going back to like the Nutcracker, right, I mean there are so many, you know, different, there are so many age ranges in that show and there's no, there's no dialogue in a ballet like the Nutcracker. So you have all these kids, all these adults that are just figuring out different ways to tell this one big story through movement and that that impacted me as a kid. Anybody else? 

02:01 - Aviv H (Guest)
Yeah, I think that's so true. I think that when it comes to dance and movement, it's such a different and interesting form of storytelling because we don't have words to convey the messages we want to bring to the audience, so instead we have to create different characters and ideas through our bodies and shapes and movements, which just allows us to experience and explore different possibilities within the realm of storytelling, aside from the traditional forms of storytelling. 

02:30 - Kyla C (Guest)
Speaking about more traditional forms of storytelling, I personally really am into animation and what that can do for children. I think in a multicultural aspect, a lot of children learn english through watching cartoons um and the lessons that they've learned. I know I was super impacted as a kid by the cartoons that I watched on tv. 

02:53 - Antonio S (Guest)
I remember what you said about. Sometimes you learn a language from watching a a certain type of thing, because I've learned russian mostly through, actually, this one animation called masha and the Bear. 

03:05 - Mia N (Guest)
Yes, I love that yeah, right yeah. 

03:07 - Antonio S (Guest)
Because my mom's Russian, so I would go to Russian school, but I'd be like eh I don't want to learn that. 

03:13 - Kyla C (Guest)
Just learning different perspectives and about different cultures, especially for young children it's really digestible through cartoons and entertaining for them. Yeah. 

03:27 - Emma W. (Guest)
I think also we get a lot of storytelling as children in the classroom with picture books and such like that. I remember my favorite picture book as a kid was the Kissing Hand, which taught me a lot about how important your parents are and how much you should appreciate them. And that's just one of many, many stories you learn along the way. 

03:41 - Mia N (Guest)
Yeah, Going on from in the classroom. I think a big other form of storytelling is through art. I remember being in elementary school and it was like every month or so we would have like someone come in and they would bring different paintings and sculptures and as a kid we would come up with different stories to interpret like a painting, in your own way. It was just so much fun as a kid. 

04:06 - Emma W. (Guest)
And then I think our final topic that is probably the most popular, especially today, is theater for youth, which we actually have a special guest, Professor Blue, to talk about that. So let's head over to her. 

04:19 - Giovanni S (Guest)
So we are currently here with Professor Blue, who is our FYS teacher and also the executive director of the Sela Theater Project, and we just had a few questions for you just about your experiences in general, because we're doing our presentation on the impact through storytelling and different methods. So how has working with children impacted your ways of storytelling for the stage? 

04:43 - Bleu Do'Zia (Guest)
That's a good question. Your ways of storytelling for the stage? That's a good question. 

04:47
I think one of the misconceptions when working with children is that they are not capable of telling hard stories or they're not capable of developing complex characters, and that is far from the truth. So a lot of young people in this area do not have access to the arts as most cities or towns may have. It's very limited in what is offered. Some schools don't even have theater programs. So a lot of the students that I work with may come from different cities and towns that are just five, 10 minutes away, but they don't have access to a youth program. 

05:27
Some companies wait until the summertime to work with young people and that's just not the case. We work with young people all year long because we have seen the effects that it has on them mentally. We've seen the effects on how it works with them academically and socially. So it has been a very hard, complex world in the Shenandoah Valley to consistently advocate for youth programming and youth theater and youth arts. That's not just about monetary gain. That was a long way around that sorry, that was beautiful, I loved it. 

06:04 - Kyla C (Guest)
Thank you so much for your time. Thank you Good morning. You way around that sorry, that was fantastic. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you Good morning, you feel? 

06:08 - Emma W. (Guest)
good, all right, you good, thank you so much. Good, all right. Thank you so much, blue, that was wonderful. 

06:20 - Arwa H (Guest)
Hello listeners, this is Arwa Aaliyah Katie. 

06:23 - Ralph P (Guest)
Bodhi Will and I'm Ralph. 

06:26 - Arwa H (Guest)
Today we're going to be talking about storytelling. Over time, Storytelling is a very big and important part of our history and our daily lives. The earliest and most commonly used way of storytelling is word of mouth. Word of mouth is very important for our evolution. I'm learning from our experiences. We use it daily, like talking to our friends, telling stories about our childhood and many more. Now, what's one of the earliest recorded storytelling devices? 

06:57 - Bodie (Guest)
Cave paintings, stories that have been recorded on the walls of caves for thousands of years, that give us some insight into the lives of people back then and what they had to deal with on a day-to-day basis. Contrary to some belief, these stories were recorded after the dinosaurs, so any cave paintings that included the dinosaurs are, in fact, fake. These pictures are very important historically, since there are no verbally recorded stories from these times. In addition, something similar is Egyptian hieroglyphics the entire written language is, to our understanding, pictures that they used pictures as the written language, which tell their own stories with each and every sentence. 

07:45 - Heiri R-G (Guest)
Going off of that, the next form of storytelling is through plays. A play is a form of storytelling that primarily consists of dialogue between characters and is intended to tell different kinds of stories. There are many different types of plays, such as comedies, tragedies and historical ones, and also musical theater, which is stories told primarily through songs and other forms of dialogue. A stage play is specifically crafted for the stage, as it's, in the name, distinct from works meant for broadcast or cinema, such as films. 

08:32 - Will (Guest)
Plays have been around for thousands and thousands of years, and eventually these tales were transferred to the screen through film. In its earliest stages, movies were merely just movie pictures with no noise. Music had to be manually applied separately from the film. These motion pictures started out very simple and very short, but as time went on, the movie industry took the genres from your typical stage plays and expanded on them as well as added more. As technology, access and quality improved, so did the quality of the films that were produced. The plots and characters became more complex, the technical aspects became more elaborate and over time, things like CGI were added to increase realism and further enhance the way stories were told on the big screen. 

09:18 - Ralph P (Guest)
Photos Like cave paintings. Photos are the more modern version of cave paintings. People who tell stories by using photos are called photojournalism. Um URTH Magazine came together with photos that told stories. First place winner was Mammal Corley. These photos are powerful because they are global and talk and talk about the world and its problems okay. 

10:10 - Aaliyah B (Guest)
So, going off of everything we talk about today, I'd consider storytelling like a final form of things that we've combined from cave paintings maybe not so much out of my oh my god out of museums, but definitely word of mouth tapestries, films, plays and photos. It has a big influence on storytelling because we see it all over the place. We have stories everywhere and we see and hear them every day. Social media, at least right now, in a sense is the ultimate form of storytelling, whether it be through school, networking, business or just a personal journal. In a sense, a great portion of the vast majority of storytelling as a whole is shared through social media. Storytelling is what makes social media social media. 

11:02 - Hannah S (Guest)
We're going to be talking about how storytelling ranges into adult lives and how it can help all of us in our future careers, and so for this, we decided to interview the daytime shuttle driver, Miss Dawn. We're here with Miss Dawn, the daytime shuttle driver. Miss Dawn, we wanted to ask you how do you feel storytelling has helped you to communicate and connect with students, and how has it changed your job Hi yes, storytelling has absolutely changed my job and even my everyday life. 

11:29 - Dawn (Guest)
When students get on the shuttle and they share their life stories with me, it really helps me to connect with them on a much more personal level. Hearing from them has really given me a passion for what I do and I love being able to connect with them. 

11:41 - Hannah S (Guest)
That is so beautiful. Thank you so much for joining us today. Okay, so, from that interview, what did we all gather? 

11:51 - Chloe V (Guest)
Um, we gathered that, like we all use story, we're gonna use storytelling in the future. Like through all careers we could use it. 

12:00 - Hannah S (Guest)
Well, I guess now we could all go around and say how storytelling's best gonna benefit us in our own careers Absolutely Definitely, yeah. So I'm Hannah and I'm majoring in Conservation Science and Management, with a minor in Animal Health and Wellness, and I'm hoping to later attend veterinary school. And while I may be working with animals, it's just as important for me to make a great connection with the owners of the animals I'll be treating. Storytelling is the ultimate way to connect with others and make them feel safe and welcome, and when someone's worried about their pet, I'm able to take a moment to tell them about all the other animals I've helped in times I've been in their same shoes. And when a person does unfortunately lose their beloved pet, I can take the time to listen to all the stories they have of them and really share those emotions with them in that moment, because storytelling is the ultimate way to connection and empathy. I look forward to being able to help people feel at peace and other pets are in good hands through the connection storytelling will bring us. 

12:52 - Abby K (Guest)
Okay, I guess I'll go next. I'm Abby and I'm majoring in elementary education, so I want to be a teacher and I feel like education pretty much just aids itself into storytelling and heavily relies on the power of it Because, like, not only will I be literally reading stories to kids, but also storytelling to make things like, you know, multiplication and fractions and history fun for kids. So I mean, teaching is all about keeping kids engaged, and to keep kids engaged you've got to make it entertaining. So using storytelling and features of storytelling make it so much easier to keep kids entertained so they're actually learning the material you're trying to teach them. 

13:34
Teaching also comes with being able to tell stories in many different ways for every kid to understand whether it be the technique I use in teaching or reading, or just reading the story. That shows diversity. Being able to tell and recognize diverse stories is also a really important part of teaching. I also want to create like a safe environment for students of all backgrounds, so using multicultural and diverse stories is gonna be extremely important and beneficial to my classroom as a whole, and I just think storytelling is like one of the backbones. You got to have to teach and be an educator because it's just important. 

14:07 - Chloe V (Guest)
My name is Chloe and, as a psychology major and theater minor, I'm passionate about understanding people and finding creative ways to connect with them. Storytelling combines both interests, making it an incredible tool for my future career In psychology. It helps me express emotions, reframe their experiences and discover their resilience. My theater background strengthens this by teaching me how to convey ideas and feelings in ways that resonate with others. Whether working with clients, sharing research or advocating for mental health, I want storytelling to build trust, inspire growth and help people can create positive life narratives. So yeah. 

14:41 - Aubrey D (Guest)
That was beautiful, Chloe. 

14:43
Hi everyone. 

14:45
My name is Aubrey and I am a musical theater major. My whole job is based on storytelling. So because of the power of storytelling, I'm able to relate and share stories that don't necessarily have my name on them, but they can make an audience so convinced that they believe me. But that's what I love about storytelling. I love the way it can make people feel from a single line or word or song. I love being able to put on a mask and then completely remove it by the night's end. I think storytelling is super powerful in adults' lives and can allow emotions to be accessed. It's a very powerful tool. It's a very powerful tool. 

15:21 - Katie T (Guest)
Very nice, thank you. My name is Katie and I'm a music therapy major, and in the profession of music therapy, it's very important to use storytelling not only to tell stories to the kids you're working with or anyone, whether it's kids or adults. It's very important to use storytelling not only through music, but also to help them express their own life story through music, and so it's very important for me to learn storytelling, whether it's an actual story that, like everyone knows, and just converting it to music, or just creating stories on the spot through improvising. 

16:05 - Makaia B (Guest)
I'm so good. Hi, I'm Makaia and I'm a nursing major. As a future nurse, storytelling is involved when communicating to patients and even with the treatment. Storytelling is a great way to connect with others and build trust with patients. Stories can be used to soothe or calm patients' anxiety if they're nervous about something, or to give further context or information about their diagnosis. In nursing, communication is a main part of the job and storytelling is just another way to communicate. Thank you. 

16:35 - Abby K (Guest)
So that's our little bit about storytelling and how it helps us with our future careers. We hope you guys enjoyed listening to our little tidbit. Thank you so much. Thank you, thank you. 

16:54 - Timothy J (Guest)
Welcome to the First Year Seminar podcast. Here we have me, Timothy Johnson. 

17:01 - Lily T (Guest)
Annie Starlupper, lily Tippett, peyton Furlanoche.

17:09 - Diego B (Guest)
And Diego Blanco. 

17:12 - Timothy J (Guest)
Today we're going to talk about how stories unify people. Today we're going to talk about how stories unify people. One way I think stories unify people is building empathy between people. So, like, one of my examples is how, you know, you see someone and they're like doing something a certain way. You're just like, oh, why are you doing this? Like, this looks stupid. They're just like, oh, my parents, you know, know, this is how they taught me how to do it. Or you see someone that's like on the side of the road. Their car is broken down and you know, a lot of people would just like zoom right past them because they're just like, oh, I have something that I need to do. But some people like see that there's a stranger in need and they want to hear their story and understand, like, like what, what happened. Like, you know, why are you going through this and how can I help you get out of this dish that you're in? 

18:03 - Annie S (Guest)
So, yeah, Stories can also be used to entertain people. So, going off of what Timothy said, I feel like this can also bring a certain level of connection. So say, someone had a long day at work or maybe they had a really great day. They can tell their story to their friends or to their family and maybe they add a little bit of humor to it or they do a lot of gestures as a way to keep people engaged and entertain them, and that also I feel like that brings a level of connection that really engages people rather than just talking like a robot. 

18:52 - Peyton F (Guest)
Stories can also help people to learn more about each other. There are a bunch of different types of books that teach about culture, people with disabilities, people who come from different homes. Specifically, there are a few books that I have seen in my life that are about people with autism, and for me, that hits close to home, because my twin brother is actually autistic and I grew up surrounded by people with autism, is actually autistic and I grew up surrounded by people with autism, and it's really important for little kids to understand how to interact with those type of people and not be afraid, not bully them. As they get older, it's easier for them to be able to interact with those types of people, even people who are different. 

19:35 - Diego B (Guest)
They need to see different types of people in books so that they understand how to communicate with one another um, yeah, so for to kind of bring it all together, um, you know, going back to what timothy said about like people empathizing with people's stories, um, obviously, books is one way to do that, because you can tell any story you want with whatever messages you want in it. But I think some other ways that people like share their stories are, like you know, videos online where people just like kind of rant or whatever. You know other podcasts people like go facebook. That'll be like uh, here is judy's sad story, please donate money. You know like. 

20:24
So, like you know, people use their stories to share and relate to other people who are willing to help and people who will understand the struggles that they are. So, yeah, people can use stories to just grow a connection to others, feel more empathy, feel all that. But I think stories can also build a lot of trust between people as well, and I think stories are the way that people like glow, glow grow closest to each other, just because it's a way to really understand the other person. And and, yeah, I like stories, they're pretty chill. 

21:07 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
This is Dr Diane, your host of the Adventures in Learning podcast and the professor of these amazing first-year seminar students at Shenandoah University. We hope that this episode has given you something to think about in terms of how you use stories in your daily life, whether you're using it through the podcast you listen to, through your own social media posts or through your interactions with your family, friends and colleagues. We would love to know how stories are a part of your life. Drop your ideas in the comments, Please share, and we look forward to seeing you for next week's Adventure in Learning. You've been listening to the Adventures in Learning podcast with your host, Dr Diane. If you like what you're hearing, please subscribe, download and let us know what you think, and please tell a friend. If you want the full show notes and the pictures, please go to drdianadventurescom. We look forward to you joining us on our next adventure.