During second block on Tuesday, Jan. 31, Wayland Cares presented a seminar about communication. The seminar mainly focused on how people interpret directions and influence others.

Wayland Cares is a town organization that offers youth development and leadership services, mental health services and substance abuse prevention. Wayland Cares director Jason Verhoosky led the seminar and often goes to the schools in Wayland to discuss what Wayland Cares does.

“Our overarching mission is to create the healthiest community possible and provide services for families and help,” Verhoosky said.

During the seminar, Verhoosky split the room into four sections, with each group having a designated leader. The green team was led by senior Jake Zocco, the blue team was led by junior Missy Prince, the purple team was led by senior Jasmine Hassan and the red team was led by freshman Albin Valdez. After the groups were assigned, Verhoosky called the leaders up and handed each of them a blank sheet of paper.

The first interactive task was to make a paper airplane. Each team was instructed to make the airplane in six to seven minutes without the other teams seeing it. As soon as the time was up, Verhoosky asked the crowd to clarify what he had asked them to do.

“Build a paper airplane,” the audience said in unison.

Verhoosky went through all the instructions that he gave, from picking groups and selecting team colors, to selecting the leaders themselves. However, when he asked the audience what the very first thing he instructed the group to do was, there was no response.

“I asked you to take everything I say today literally,” Verhoosky repeated.

Then, he introduced the next task, which was to build another paper airplane with another blank sheet of paper. However, this time, Verhoosky held up a second piece of paper. He explained that after making the paper airplanes, each leader would write the directions step-by-step and hand it back to him.

After each student finished their airplane and directions, Verhoosky handed out the directions to different groups around the room. Each group had to construct their airplane using the other team’s directions, but everything had to be taken literally.

When attempting to construct an airplane using another group’s directions, students’ airplanes turned out completely different than the original ones.

Verhoosky even made his own paper airplane following the instructions from the blue team. His paper airplane ended up looking like a regular piece of paper with a hole ripped out in the middle.

This seminar’s purpose was to demonstrate the importance of clear directions and communication. During the seminar, students learned how important communication is in order to receive expected outcomes.