by Katie Parkinson

STA held an overnight retreat called Community 360 Oct. 19 through Oct. 20 in the Windmoor Center. Formerly known as Unitown, this retreat is designed to be a leadership development experience, according to Community 360 facilitator and member of the Board of Directors of the Kansas City Missouri School District, Airick Leonard West.

This retreat was open to all STA students, as well as students from Southwest High School. According to Spanish teacher Carolyn Hollstein, who is a moderator for Community 360, around 33 STA students and 15 Southwest students signed up to go on this retreat. In past years, the retreat has been cancelled due to weather issues and a lack of interest. However, this year Hollstein was hopeful about the retreat’s prospects.

“It [was] good for students to talk about something they normally don’t get to address with their peers,” Hollstein said. “I think it’s necessary to engage in these kind of conversations, being challenged to think outside of our box, maybe our personal situation, and to step into somebody else’s shoes and have a chance to be empathetic with others.”

According to junior and Community 360 leader Kiley O’Toole, the purpose of this retreat was to promote diversity of all kinds.

“We did a lot of big group discussions about racism, sexism and class-ism ” O’Toole said. “Then we broke off into smaller group – I was a leader of one – and you’d discuss [each topic] with your group.”

O’Toole also said that other activities included exercises like standing up if a person has ever felt a certain way or writing down stereotypes.

“[The retreat] did eliminate my stereotypes about Southwest kids, ” junior and student leader Mary Hart said. “I think it was kind of like ‘The Breakfast Club,’ where [the characters] figure out they’re really similar.”

According to O’Toole, she would have liked to have seen more of this community building rather than general discussions.

“I probably would have done stuff like getting to know people more,” O’Toole said. “There were so many people there from different economic backgrounds, and different race, and different sex, and different sexual orientation, so I think it would have been more beneficial to get to know each other and realize that everyone has issues, but deep down we’re all the same kind of people, and we’re all looking for the same thing.”

Similarly, Hollstein said one of the best parts about this retreat was the idea of challenging one’s own perspectives.

“I think that all of us can be really judgmental  myself included, and we don’t really realize it until we take a look at our perspectives of the world and of the people around us,” Hollstein said. “Being less quick to judge others would be a really good first step, and if that came out of this retreat for a few girls, then it would be a success.”

According to West, it was important to come away with the understanding that “all of us have a responsibility and a role in creating the world as want it; we needn’t simply accept the world as it is.”