A single spotlight lit the Miller Black Box Theater. In the center of the room stood a rug, a music stand, and a microphone. A small group of friends, teachers, and families sat in a semicircle. In the quiet of that dark space, it was easy to conjure the image of a campfire. The scene was set with intention, focusing on 11 students, who, one by one, read stories of triumph and perseverance that they had crafted over six weeks of introspection, writing, and peer review.

“The oral tradition has been hardwired in us since the dawn of time,” says Rob Lewis, who helped facilitate the program last spring as the executive artistic director. “When we get adolescents to write a story, to publish it somewhere, a certain group will read it and connect with it. When you tell that story in front of an audience, the stakes are higher. There is a step up in owning your experience.”

“Hear and Now: Stories Told Live” was the result of the pilot program, which brought together the high school students with a Pasadena storytelling organization called Words2Action (W2A). Over time, each student developed a personal story that touched on transformation—big or small.

Heather Heimerl Brunold and Bryan Kett of W2A led the students through the program, beginning with trust building (most of the students were not close friends with each other, and several identify as introverts), as well as identity development exercises and brainstorming sessions to pinpoint a transformative moment. The students workshopped their drafts and read their work to a partner, leaving the final telling for the whole group to hear at the dress rehearsal.

“We wrote down parts of our identity and continued to remove facets until we found our core,” Sadie Goodman ’26 says. “You don’t think about what is most important until you have to think about what you might take away.”

In addition to learning more about themselves, the students also discovered aspects of their own voice. Elias Geller ’25 told a story about the importance of civil discourse and observed, “I learned that I write how I talk. There’s comfort in your own voice. [W2A] tells you that your story at its core has to have a thread of humanity, so you should pick something you care about.”

Hiwot Fasika ’25 discovered that the process “reveals who you are if you bring your honest self to the table,” as she developed a story about celebrating her birthday on a global studies trip last summer.

Ninth grader Jude Turrey says, “The experience pushed me. I felt accepted, heard, and I was a part of something that would be appreciated and accepted by my peers. You don’t need to come from a background in writing, but you have to be willing to explore yourself. That’s a process in and of itself.”

The Neurological-Storytelling Connection

Storytelling cultivates listening and curiosity on the part of an audience, creating what W2A President and CEO Heather Heimerl Brunold calls “radical empathy.” What’s happening neurologically when we listen to a story is complex. The listener’s mirror neurons light up, syncing with the brainwaves of the storyteller and significantly impacting learning and empathy, according to Dr. Uri Hasson of the Department of Psychology and the Neuroscience Institute at Princeton. What’s more, neuroscientists believe this sense of understanding deepens over time as we continue to think about the story, making it easier for us to recall what we’ve learned—further widening our perspective.