Highline international students were invited to the Marine Science and Technology Center (MaST) for the “Summer Refresh Retreat”. These 11 students were given a reprieve from the isolation that can surface during the summer months. In partnership with the Public Speaking Center (PSC), the Counseling Center, and the MaST, faculty is looking to create a new space for international students.

Communications Director Lisa Voso shared, “Highline is your second home. If you are missing family, let us know.”

Imagine being hundreds, or even thousands of miles from home. Dropped into a strange culture, depending on a secondary or even third language. For all international students at Highline College, this is a reality.

During the retreat, this new space was garnered using a two pronged approach to connectivity. The first of which centered around bringing students into a state of “flow” through play and poetry. For Amy Rider King, Director of the Public Speaking Center and Communication Studies professor, a flow state is defined as being focused and excited about the topic at hand. Her background in writing, poetry and theater make way for the rest of her plan. 

After quick introductions, and light stretches, she begins by getting the students comfortable in the MaST Center and in their bodies. Her first exercise involves having students stand in a circle. Once in place, they say the word “Whoosh!” and signal for the person standing to their left to continue the pattern. 

Within a minute, students who have never met each other before, and may not enjoy speaking in public, are excited doing just that. For the 11 students involved in the day’s retreat, every one of them is participating in the activity. Working on this momentum Rider King transitions into paired group work. 

The goal of this next event is to have the pairs dig in a little. She challenges them, prompting them to “find something they have in common that you can’t see.” These are things like having the same hair color or height. The students flourish with this direction. No doubt, because that is something they are prone to doing everyday. Many bond over food, college majors, or most interestingly a love of tarot reading. 

With each new exercise, the class bonds strengthen. Working with the students’ enthusiasm, Rider King directs their energy inward. Using the beautiful landscape of the Puget Sound, she prompts them to write. With a theme of water she asks them to journal about the day’s events, to describe whatever is coming up for them. 

The room sits in silence for ten minutes, what emerges are heartfelt expressions. Some center around the mindfulness they feel in the moment, for most, memories surface. For Wendy, an international student from Asia, water brings to mind “sad movies, happy tears, and flying over the ocean to come to the U.S.” 

With her quiet remarks the room is in agreement, and perhaps a reminisce of the same. After a break, the day’s events continue with another workshop. Led by Director of Counseling Larisa Wendfeldt, her curriculum centered around awakening the body and mind by means of meditation. The work presented to the students began by standing on the pier and letting the environment affect the senses. 

She encouraged all in attendance to just notice what they were seeing, feeling, hearing, smelling or touching. She implored students not to try and judge their findings, but to just sit with them until something else came along. 

After creating the space for mindfulness, Wendfeldt took students to the next level in their learning. She handed them a raisin, and asked them to again focus on the five senses. First feel it, then study it. Next, squish it between your fingers close enough to your ears to hear it, and lastly taste it. Invoking the same restrictions on the experience, telling students not to judge but only identify what they were experiencing. 

While chewing, she probed students to think. What did it take for this raisin to get here today? How many people were involved in that process? To remember it was once a grape, and before that a seed. As Wendfeldt guided the room the students savored her words along with their snack. 

With their new processing tools in mind, students went back to writing. With several prompts geared towards preserving in pen their experience, the room once again fell into a state of solemnity. 

“This exercise encourages you to slow down, and look at things more closely. Be present in noticing things and notice what’s right in front of you,” Wendfeldt echoed to the room.

Students begin to open up about moments they find for mindfulness in their lives. For Phillip, a long time Highline student, he likes to focus during quiet times. “The moment before I fall asleep, I reflect. I let my body relax and let myself just rest,” he said.

His example resonated with the class. Through this process, students have shoes off, most are laid back, all are attentive to goings on in the room.

In reflecting on the day’s events over dinner, many students expressed gratitude. One student commented she had not spent more than ten minutes away from her phone in so long.

One student in attendance, Phuc, expressed his favorite take away from the day: “When I came [to the US] I didn’t know what to do. Now I’m happy to be here. I’ve exchanged contact with students I’ve met here today. I’ve learned so much about mental health. Moments [we had] sharing together were very good. I’ve learned [about] my mind through the deep ocean. Thank you.”