Imago Dei Experience returns for conversations on healing and growth
Photo by Senior Photographer Sara-Kate Dixon
The Imago Dei team will host its second Imago Dei Experience on Friday, Feb. 18, from 7-9 p.m. in the School of Religion. The club plans to facilitate conversations on healing and growth as God’s image-bearers. The Experience aims to use intimate discussion, presentation and allyship to share the beauty of restoration in the wake of trauma.
“[The Imago Dei Experience is] a time that we are really going to reach into the community, for them to partner with us [in] this conversation, in person,” said Jalyn Poynter, senior nursing major and Imago Dei video host.
The Experience is supporting the engagement on campus in addressing various forms of suffering as a community. Brandon Akiona, senior elementary education major and Imago Dei video host, believes the movement welcomes all people eager to “dig into [hard topics] so we can heal together.”
The event is not presented in a typical lecture style but is instead divided into different rooms based on topics and themes. There will be approximately five student volunteers per room, with direction from a student leader and a sponsor or faculty leader. Grief, sexual assault, microaggressions and vulnerability are just a few of the topics being discussed in these designated rooms.
“Different groups would move into these rooms and have immersive experiences where they would either have conversations or listen to presentations about the different topics, and from that would hopefully gain the ability to go out and kind of have conversations about this,” said Akiona.
Akiona said each room is designed and organized by students who have specific ideas for the event.
“We want this to be an individualized experience by room because these topics are weighty enough that they deserve to be diverse,” said Akiona.
According to Poynter, the “student facilitated discussion” is guiding the experience and supports the theme of healing and growth. Poynter believes dialogue over key issues within the Imago Dei Experience will provide “the healing and the growth counterpart to it.”
The Imago Dei team is leading the presentation planning, as well as the initiative for discussing hard topics of suffering and empathizing with those experiences.
“The heart behind pursuing a healing and growth theme for this event was [to] talk about these [hard topics] in a controlled environment, with resources where people can expose these things, but then we have a restorative conversation about what to do with them,” said Akiona.
Imago Dei’s goal is to acknowledge the necessity of conversations on campus and how the Lee community is engaging with these topics.
“But so much of this is about what conversations we are having on campus,” said Akiona. “How can we facilitate places for students specifically to have these conversations about things that directly affect some, and may not directly affect others? I think through having those conversations we build better allyship to our brothers and sisters, that's such a big part of this.”
Poynter wants the event to reach beyond just the student body, and to also include faculty support within the specific rooms. These faculty members will serve as a “room ally” to assist in processing the topics or the emotional care of students.
Many of these faculty members involved in the event or serving as faculty support are from the Office of Student Engagement, the Student Development Office, the Counseling Center and the Racial and Ethnic Relations Office.
“I am serving as the staff leader for the Microaggression/Microintervention Room,” said Sarah Sajja, secretary to the director of Student Development. “This event used to be called Tunnel of Oppression when I was a student, and it was impactful for me, specifically as a student of color. Students are always looking for hope and I am thankful that Imago Dei has opened up the space for conversations to remind students that hope can be found in the midst of the daily tension we all feel.”
Imago Dei Event Coordinators Megan Rogers, senior Spanish and TESOL major, and Jaani Ricketts, senior health science Pre PA major, are conducting the event preparation alongside each room‘s content creators. Poynter views their roles as a sharing of “logistical things, so that we can still prioritize what our ‘why’ is.”
“The Imago Dei Experience has been smooth-flowing,” said Ricketts. “Our sponsors, Dhuranique and Kat, never leave us out to do anything on our own because they are so very heavily involved and we love it. This gives us the opportunity to hear of the ways in which we can better plan and execute things for events, and even leave a trace behind for those that come after us. Everyone has had a different role to play which has made the planning efficient.”
Akiona hopes the conversations at the Imago Dei Experience will go beyond the event and into “spaces that are not stamped with Imago Dei’s two faces.” Akiona believes “you do not have to be part of a specific, marginalized community, or you do not have to have a certain experience to empathize and to sit through things with people. It is our God-given responsibility to enter into people’s hurt and suffering with them.”
Poynter hopes the event uplifts individuals to share in learning and suffering as a community.
“I hope that people on campus feel empowered in multiple ways,” said Poynter. “I hope the content creators feel empowered in the Lord's authority to use their gifts and minds to uplift image-bearers. I hope people feel empowered to be empowered, to be empathic and be with people sitting in these tensions. I hope someone dealing with these difficult areas has the power to speak their truth, to kind of process through things. I just really want everyone to recognize that we are made in the image of God, and it’s a testament to God’s radical love for us.”
To learn more information on the Imago Dei Experience, visit their Instagram.
