A $5,000 diversity grant from the Stackpole-Hall Foundation of St. Marys allowed Pitt-Bradford students to travel with faculty and staff members to Massachusetts recently for training as Compassion Ambassadors.
Students Miles Davis-Matthews, a senior international affairs and history-political science major from Washington, D.C., Brianna Hall, a sophomore pre-dental student from Scranton, and Daniella Tyger, a sophomore psychology major from Olean, N.Y., attended a Mindful Self-Compassion Core Skills Training facilitated by Dr. Kristin Neff and Dr. Chris Gerner, both world-leading experts in self-compassion.
Accompanying them were Angie Wolfe and John Schlimm, both instructors of freshman seminar at Pitt-Bradford.
Wolfe, who is also director of leadership development and community engagement at Pitt-Bradford, said, “I selected this topic as the focus of the grant based on the premise that we must look within before we can extend our gaze outward or we are apt to create harm rather than cultivate community healing.”
As Compassion Ambassadors, the students will make presentations about self-compassion to Pitt-Bradford freshmen and the community.
Over the summer, Wolfe served as a presenter for the Olean (N.Y.) Area Charter for Compassion and Chautauqua Institution's “Cultivating Compassion in Your Community” at Chautauqua. She spoke about “Building Capacity for Compassionate Presence” and was among regional and international speakers at the event.
Pitt-Bradford joined the Charter for Compassion in 2016.