SAS Summer Conference 2018

Empathy is often sidelined as a “soft skill.”  Dr. Borba will offer hard evidence that empathy is one of the most important skills that 21st Century student will need to thrive in a complex, global, digitally-driven world and why it must become an educational and societal priority.  Dr Borba will share ways that educators and counselors around the globe have weaved empathy-building practices into existing lessons and helped students to develop empathic mindsets in a test-driven culture.  What’s more she will share inspiring stories of counselors and educators who are instilling the nine competencies of empathy (such as emotional literacy, perspective taking, self-regulation, moral courage) into the daily schedule and producing students who are successful in classrooms but also more resilient, ethically strong, caring, and morally courageous.  She will provide practical ways to creative positive outcomes by cultivating empathy in your classroom, counseling center, school or district.  Educational psychologist and author, Michele Borba, shares her decade long journey to discover how to optimize human potential.  Surprisingly, it was children from Canada to Rwanda (and numerous places in between) who offered the three best ideas to cultivate empathy. The best news: if applying these simple strategies together we can revolutionize not only our schools and homes, but also society and build the best investment for our future: human capital. This talk is based on Borba’s award-winning new book, UnSelfie: Why Empathetic Kids Succeed in Our All About Me World.