Summer Frosh Civil Dialogues Program

Applications are now closed for Summer 2025.

Learn how to ask with curiosity and listen with empathy. 

Over the summer, new incoming students are invited to join peer-facilitated small group discussions to begin building the skills necessary for active participation in campus discourse, for robust intellectual growth, and for engaging in conversations with diverse perspectives.  

Through four 90-minute virtual sessions of no more than 10 participants in each group, students will hone and practice skills for engaging in productive dialogue across difference, share political values in a pluralistic setting, and build small communities through conversation.

Central to the experience is a commitment to curiosity about ourselves and others, a willingness to listen and engage with intellectual humility, and a desire to build pluralistic communities that accommodate many different viewpoints.  Students will participate in 1:1 conversations and small group discussions where they ask each other robust questions, share values, and recount experiences that have shaped their worldviews.  

Students will also explore their own views with their peers on a variety of contemporary topics facing society today. These topics will be open and up to students and their peer facilitators to decide, but could include topics such as: 

• What do you think are the pitfalls, if any, of social media usage among young teenagers?  Should phones be banned in schools?  Why or why not?
• To what extent, if any, should addressing climate change rely on technological solutions only?
• What does freedom of speech mean to you and what does this mean for discourse on college campuses?

At the completion of the program, students will have begun building core skills of active listening, open inquiry, and for engaging sincerely with others about topics that are of central importance to students and civic life.

Logistics and Requirements for Summer 2025:

• Groups consist of 8-10 incoming students + 2 peer facilitators (upperclassman)
• Students are required to attend four 90-minute sessions during the month of August on Tuesdays or Wednesdays
  • Tuesday sessions are from 10:00am - 11:30am PST
  • Wednesday sessions are from 6:00pm - 7:30pm PST
• Students are expected to attend all Tuesday or all Wednesday sessions in the program.  Students cannot mix and match.
• Students may request up to one partner to apply with and be assigned to the same dialogue group.
• The program is limited to 150 incoming students and transfer students only.

Questions about the program can be directed to Collin Anthony Chen at canthony [at] stanford.edu (canthony[at]stanford[dot]edu)