The next generation of bridge-builders
By Lucy Berbeo | September 29, 2025
Through the Dialogue across Difference internship program, student interns and volunteers have helped facilitate the Compassionate Conversations series, making these events welcoming for the UCLA community and the public. As they look toward the future, three of these undergraduate ambassadors share how they hope to see this work carried forward.
Shreya Sundar
Shreya Sundar, a public health major and member of the class of 2026, felt empowered by working to bridge the divide between faculty and students in UCLA’s dialogue community. She was particularly moved by the event last fall featuring Yasmeen Abu Fraiha, a Palestinian citizen of Israel and a physician who served as a first responder on Oct. 7.
“Many situations feel bleak, and social media only magnifies that to a point where it can feel easier to check out,” Sundar says. “But hearing from people like Dr. Yasmeen Abu Fraiha reminds you that giving up isn’t a privilege everyone has, and that across issues, we have to keep engaging, with nuance and care. Engaging with someone at the crux of such a divisive conflict — witnessing her resilience, hearing her insights and experiencing her determined outlook — was a privilege. It didn’t feel like false optimism, given the complex circumstances she has navigated firsthand, and that was a powerful thing.”
Sundar also supports the Bedari Kindness Institute’s work and has participated in Speaking Across Conflict workshops for students. Inspired by Ferdman’s leadership as a facilitator, Sundar is hoping to one day lead similar workshops herself.
“People are very, very passionate on this campus, and what I’ve learned is that you cannot ‘out-teach’ someone out of their lived experience,” she says. “It’s very important to recognize where people are coming from, no matter how strongly you disagree with them.”
Celie Fischer
Celie Fischer, who graduated in June with a double major in history and Arabic, participated in the Initiative to Study Hate’s research efforts on Islamophobia and antisemitism. Passionate about work on Israel and Palestine, she was especially grateful for the Compassionate Conversations event with members of the Parents Circle-Families Forum, a joint Israeli-Palestinian organization made up of more than 800 bereaved families.
“It can be difficult on campus to talk about both Israeli and Palestinian dignity without being labeled as either being on one side, or as engaging in normalization,” Fischer says. “But in the Dialogue across Difference space, although people certainly have strong opinions — and I do too — I always feel as if I am understood as taking a moral stance but also holding complexity.”
Now beginning doctoral studies in religion at Columbia University, Fischer stresses that dialogue will ultimately comprise the fruit of her scholarly work — the kind of meaningful, informed discourse that can create change in the world — while acknowledging that dialogue in and of itself is not an end-point.
“People in Dialogue across Difference do a good job of asking: ‘What is our impact? Are we choosing to do dialogue at the expense of action?’ And we, as interns, were allowed and encouraged to ask those questions,” she says. “Through belonging to this initiative, I felt as if my opinions were heard and respected, and that maybe I did have a voice — and I felt more connected to the university than I think I would have otherwise.”
Stephany Cartney
Stephany Cartney, who earned a bachelor’s degree in political science last June, began her UCLA journey on the pre-med track but switched majors after interning with Dialogue across Difference. In fall 2024, as part of the First-Year Experience team, which helps new students transition successfully into UCLA, Cartney supported the Compassionate Conversations event with Jamil Zaki, author of the Common Experience at UCLA book “The War for Kindness” and director of the Stanford Social Neuroscience Lab. The reactions from fellow students, she says, spoke to the vital need for more such events on campus.
“I think everyone wants a kinder, more compassionate community — we just don’t know how to attain that. And I think that’s one of the missions of higher education, which introduces you to people you would never see in your regular walk of life. Just through shared interaction, we learn how to become more empathetic,” Cartney says. “I think UCLA does have a huge goal to create more empathy and kindness, but by building programs and initiatives where we can learn how to connect with each other, we can help foster that.”
As one of the first recipients of a grant from the Bruin Bridge Builders Fund, Cartney created her own dialogue event for resident assistants on the Hill. After graduation, as she heads into the working world and then to law school, she plans to make bridge-building work an ongoing part of her life.
“Dialogue has been a huge part of my college experience, and honestly, I don’t remember who I was before,” she says. “I didn’t intend for it to carry so much weight in my life, but it’s shown up in every space that I’ve ever been in. It speaks to the important work that is the Bedari Kindness Institute and Dialogue across Difference.”
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