It’s the early 1980s and Stephanie Rogers ’85 is at a public high school in Illinois. “I am a decent student and I’m a decent athlete,” she says, “but I just don’t feel I have found my place. So I hear about this school in Windsor, Connecticut, and I want to go there." 

She asks her parents, and they say no. “But I work hard to convince them, and I write a 10-page essay to my mom and dad begging them and showing them all the reasons why I want to go there,” she says. They relent. 

She arrives on campus in the fall. “I’m a transfer student, and I'm so excited. I’m going to find my place,” she says. “I get to the dorm, and everyone is hugging each other, and they all know each other. I realize I know no one.” 

The excitement turns to wondering if she has made a mistake. She left her friends and life back home. She’s feeling alone, cries herself to sleep. 

Then one day she is walking by the NEO. “Fall play auditions,” reads the sign. “No one knows what I can do, but no one knows what I can’t do, so I’m just going to go to the audition,” she says to herself.  

She gets a part in the play. She gets parts in other plays, even does some directing. “I started building a community,” she says, “and I realize I belong somewhere. That experience of that first play launched an entire career. It changed my life.” 

One thing led to another, just as a good story does. Stephanie is an actor, singer, and producer and creative director of Story Jam, a storytelling and music show. She also teaches storytelling and held a workshop for the entire freshman class on Thursday, May 1. The following day Stephanie did a storytelling workshop with some faculty and staff who work in public-facing offices. Her visit was made possible with the support of the Ralph M. Shulansky ’45 Lecture Fund. John Shulansky ’72 was at the event for the freshmen. 

The freshman workshop built toward a “60-second story slam,” where several students voluntarily told their stories to the whole class. They started in breakout groups, where students were asked to tell a story about themselves, whether it be freshman year or another time in their life. The faculty leader of each group helped the students through the process, and then the students partnered with someone they did not know to share their stories and get feedback. Eventually one of the students in each group was chosen to present in front of the whole class. As Stephanie said, a story should contain a conflict and a resolution, have an external plot and an internal struggle, and make people want to know what happens next. The main character (the storyteller) should experience a transformation, and the story should have a beginning, middle, and end.  

When each student got up on stage, cheers filled the auditorium. Some shared a life lesson, some shared overcoming a challenge. Not a voice was shaking.  

“You kind of love them a little more when they tell their story, don’t you?” Stephanie said at the end. “This is how we create connections. Thank you so much for letting me come and talk with you, and thank you for your bravery, everybody.”