Dare to ask: A first-year assignment that builds empathy, curiosity and civil discourse

What does a California fire chief have in common with a British beauty queen, a West Virginia senator, a Florida school principal and a top official at the United Nations? Each was interviewed by a first-year Commodore as part of a summer 2025 assignment for all incoming students titled "Stories that Connect Us." 

More than 1,600 first-year students were asked to interview someone in their community who could deepen, broaden or shift their understanding of the world-and to document the experience through a written story or reflection. This exercise, the first of its kind at Vanderbilt, drew a response that was nothing short of extraordinary. 

Students interviewed and wrote about people from all walks of life, including public officials, CEOs, religious leaders, trauma surgeons and Olympic champions. They also spoke with family members whose pasts had been difficult or unexplored, and with community members whose stories and perspectives are often overlooked, including custodial workers, emergency responders and neighbors who lost their businesses and homes.  

For many students, this was their first time conducting a formal interview-an experience that pushed them out of their comfort zone. Still, their response to the challenge was overwhelmingly enthusiastic: Of more than 1,000 students surveyed, 98 percent said it was a positive experience.  

Even more striking was the evidence that the assignment opened students' minds and shifted their thinking. Three-quarters of respondents said the interview process changed their perspective on a topic they discussed, and more than two-thirds said they learned something unexpected or new about themselves. In addition, 85 percent said they learned something new about how to talk with other people-an instrumental gateway experience as they entered a new college campus.

The assignment underscores Vanderbilt's commitment to free expression, pluralism and civil discourse. It gives every incoming student the opportunity to become a deeply engaged listener as well as an agent of knowledge creation and storytelling, rather than just a passive consumer.   

Writer-in-Residence Amanda Little led two October workshops for first-year students to further develop their "Stories that Connect Us" reflections.

The benefits of the summer assignment have continued well into the fall semester. The theme set the stage for the commentary and conversation with Jacqueline Woodson at the September Lawson Lecture; 22 first-year students were interviewed for a short film about the assignment that will be released later this fall; three were selected to present their essays on stage at Fall for the Arts during Family Weekend; 60 students signed up for October workshops-led by Amanda Little, award-winning author, columnist and writer-in-residence in the Department of English-where they shared their submissions and developed interviewing and writing skills; and on Sunday, Oct. 19, 12 students presented excerpts of their essays at the Southern Festival of Books, discussing the ways storytelling can bridge social and cultural divides. 

Elizabeth Orders, for example, described her experience of interviewing U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia as a "personal and intellectual breakthrough," and said she learned that a student and an elected official from different political parties could still find personal and ideological common ground. Jack Diemar, who grew up in Jewish day schools, discovered in an interview with a Catholic priest that "there was so much more that connected us than divided us." Carlota López, who interviewed a top public official in Bogotá, Colombia, said she learned "how many mistakes can be made on the road to professional success." 

First-year student Elizabeth Orders was among the 12 students who shared their reflection essays at the Southern Festival of Books at Bicentennial Capitol Mall on Oct. 19, 2025.

Many students went so far as to describe their conversations as "life-changing" and "career-defining," and in a twist of marketing genius, one student suggested that the Vanderbilt motto, "Dare to Grow," should become "Dare to Ask."

What was perhaps most moving about the response to the summer assignment were the personal transformations students described: "I learned to get comfortable with discomfort," one student said. "When I stuck with an awkward pause or asked a tough question, that's where the growth and insight happened." Another said she learned "that the strongest people often carry the heaviest burdens," and a third discovered "that everyone-everyone-is interesting."