Bridging the Gap, a Kentucky Program, Aims to Teach College Students How to Hear Differing Opinions

Goings said that many of his students have never left Appalachia or eastern Kentucky, where the university is located, before enrolling. “Just be curious about other people,” he said he tells his students. “Be kind in the way that you have conversations, and be humble in that.”

Adams said that one of the challenges the program has faced so far is attracting students from more conservative backgrounds. The participants — at least in Kentucky — have been students with moderate to liberal ideologies or beliefs, she said.

Kentucky’s program works in partnership with Interfaith America, the Chicago-based nonprofit that merged with Greer’s Bridging the Gap in 2022 and began to offer it as part of the group’s existing programs on college campuses.

Rebecca Russo, Interfaith America’s vice president of higher education strategy, said that while there is a story of increased divisiveness and polarization on college campuses that mirrors the national landscape, “it’s not the full story.”

There has been “a dramatic increased interest” from students, faculty, staff and administrators in bridging divides in constructive ways, in part because of fatigue over protests and disagreements about issues like the war in Gaza and abortion, she said. “We’re seeing a real hunger for changing the culture and creating communities where people are really equipped with the skills to engage productively across divides.”

On the retreat’s final day, Kevine Niyogushima, a Bellarmine sophomore studying communications, said she hadn’t expected to open up as much as she did, or learn so much about herself.

“I have gotten deeper knowledge about myself than I even knew, and then listening to people, listening to understand … it’s stronger now,” said Niyogushima, who immigrated to the U.S. from Tanzania when she was 19. She was introduced to the program during a history of education course she took her freshman year taught by Adams, the chief DEI officer. After a friend who participated last year told her “it was life-changing,” she decided to sign up.

Niyogushima said that, on campus, she often talks only to close friends who share her background because she worries her English isn’t good enough or that her experience of immigrating to the United States sets her apart from others.

“This would make me want to reach out and just listen to everybody’s story. I feel like I would be more open to connecting with more people than just the people that I am close to,” she said.

Contact staff writer Javeria Salman at 212-678-3455 or salman@hechingerreport.org.

This story about the Bridging the Gap program was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for our higher education newsletter.

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