Process over Content
“The core of what we do is not offering the content; it is the interaction and experience that is really the added value of our program.”
Casper van der Heijden is the Founder and Managing Director of the Sharing Perspectives Foundation. I had the opportunity to interview Casper in the summer of 2021 while taking a class titled “Connecting Across a Disrupted World”. Beginning his virtual exchange career through the Soliya Connect program in 2007, van der Heijden went on to be a coach and facilitator for Soliya as well as a lecturer in Peace and Conflict Studies. Through his work, van der Heijden realized the divide between the Western world and the MENA region is but one of many divides that exist in the world and began developing programming to address other needs.
“The core of our program is offering inspiring content, facilitating those two-hour dialogue sessions, and offering interactive and reflective assignments to students to really deepen the experience.”
Like Soliya, The Sharing Perspectives Foundation offers a facilitated program and uses dialogue as a methodology. Van der Heijden emphasized the distinction between project-based learning and dialogue-based learning, citing that sometimes, project-based learning is not as deep with personal reflection and cultural sensitivity. He also cautioned against just putting people together and assuming connection and learning will happen. He said, “I think it’s a mistake…I would even argue that you can do harm if you’re not intentionally designing it well and facilitating the process in a constructive way.”
One of the best parts of this interview was when Casper told me that the organization uses psychometric assessments to determine if they are making an impact on participants. This counters what I found when exploring the literature, and I am so happy to hear of an organization that is intentionally measuring socioemotional development in participants. When asked about a recent success, Casper gave an example of a student whose parent called him to thank him for facilitating the program because that was the first time they were able to engage in difficult conversations with their child.
His advice to a new professional is to practice, keep dialogue at the heart of the exchange, use intentional design, and prioritize process over content. I will share one final quote that reverberated for me.
“Even though the exchange takes place online, the conversations and the emotions are real and have an impact.”
