When students entered the lecture hall on Tuesday morning to see the Wayland Cares presentation, they may not have been expecting to be the ones presenting. Nevertheless, Wayland Youth and Family Services Director J Verhoosky exceeded these expectations by asking students to participate in this Winter Week event, which was held during period six on Jan. 28.

Verhoosky began the presentation by asking the audience if there were any volunteers who wanted to share a fun fact, prompting a few hands to rise across the room. After listening to these anecdotes, Verhoosky instructed the audience to get into groups of four, giving every group member two full minutes to answer just two questions: “Who am I?” and “Why am I here?”

The lecture hall erupted into sound for the first couple of minutes, but began to fizzle out by the two minute mark. Verhoosky addressed this by asking the audience to reflect on their experience sharing out, and how comfortable they felt talking solely about themselves for two minutes straight, acknowledging that this can be a very new experience for some students.

“We’re not often asked to be given a platform to ramble,” Verhoosky said.

Following this brief reflection, Verhoosky had the groups finish the activity, making sure every student had their chance to share for multiple minutes. Then, they instructed the audience to remain in the same groups and answer these questions again, but required them to not repeat anything they had said in the previous discussions.

Verhoosky explained this twist was added to remove the safety net of small talk and force students to share deeper and potentially uncomfortable facts about their perspectives and life experiences.

“By taking away the ability to continuously share the same information that the audience was comfortable with, they dig deeper and become more vulnerable,” Verhoosky said. “They share more personal information that maybe they wouldn’t normally share.”

The students turned back to their groups and began chatting again, this time avoiding any topics they had discussed prior.

Verhoosky presented twice on Tuesday, also speaking in the lecture hall the prior block, period four. Aware that some students would be brought to the lecture hall by their teachers for both blocks, Verhoosky designed two different presentations. In both, they emphasized the same topic of decision making. The event earlier in the day included a candy jar and equally involved audience participation. The audience was required to guess how much candy was in the jar without talking to anyone, and then gradually got more freedom on who they’d be able to talk to.

“We talk about how we source our information, and then people have to guess how many pieces of candy are in a jar,” Verhoosky said. “Basically, we talk a lot about decision making.”

Verhoosky tied these messages back into the second presentation by opening up a conversation about decision making and the role it plays in everyday life. They acknowledged that there are some things we can’t control, like where we are born, but we can control how we approach our comfort zone and what we bring into conversations. Verhoosky emphasized the idea that by choosing to take risks and be vulnerable in conversations, we create a more accepting environment for the people around us, potentially igniting a domino effect and inspiring others to step out of their comfort zone as well.

“You don’t know what the response [of your conversation partner] will be, but the more you share, the more potentially comfortable you can make someone else feel,” Verhoosky said.

The presentation was designed to make the audience more comfortable with vulnerability by building conversational skills and promoting reflections that are beneficial to student’s futures. Verhoosky touched upon how high school can be a transformative time, and the exposure students are getting now will carry over into how they interact with the world as an adult. By approaching the questions, “Who am I?” and “Why am I here?” with vulnerability and honesty, students are forced to choose how they want to be perceived in the world.

“I’m not saying that’s a core defining factor for your entire life, but a lot of decisions that you make when you’re in high school are ones that transition into the rest of your life and kind of how it falls out,” Verhoosky said. “I think it’s really important to really look at yourself and be like ‘Hey what do I really want?’”

Verhoosky has visited WHS several times before, and not just during Winter Week. Verhoosky works closely with the wellness department, frequenting wellness classes as a guest speaker. Verhoosky’s job and life experience gives them expertise that relates to almost every grade’s respective wellness curriculum. Wellness teachers John Berry, Jennifer Reed and Amanda Rukstalis all brought their wellness classes. While Verhoosky’s Winter Weeks presentations were much more open-ended as they did not relate to a curriculum, Berry said he noticed them promoting similar lessons as taught in wellness classes.

“It’s exactly what I do in class, [emphasizing] that it is really important to be uncomfortable because the more uncomfortable you are, the more open you are to making connections, and the more connections you make with people, the happier you are,” Berry said. “So I think absolutely what J Verhoosky was talking about is relevant to student success.”

While some students may not have been expecting to share so much about themselves, they were still able to learn how to try to become more vulnerable. By taking a step back and answering deep questions as vulnerable and honest as possible, students can allow themselves to step out of their comfort zone and learn how their open communication supports stronger relationships.

“[My biggest take away was] make yourself available for other people and share things you might not share with other people to make them feel like they’re in a safe environment,” junior Addison Voight said.