Facilitator Corner: Charlie Warner

"Every FIUTS excursion brings a different activity and different combination of international students, and each is an opportunity for a new kind of experience."

FIUTS Facilitators are student leaders from all over the world who welcome new international visitors, help to organize events, and lead activities for hundreds of students each quarter. Read on to find out more about the FIUTS facilitator experience from Charlie!

Name: Charles Warner
Country: USA
Major: Linguistics, emphasis in Deaf Studies & Speech Hearing Sciences
Class: Senior
FIUTS Facilitator Since: August 2012

About Charlie:

Raised on a dairy farm in Snohomish County before moving to attend community college, he culminated his active involvement with student activities leading international programs for music, language, and culture, and moved away to vagabond Europe. Following his return to attend the University of Washington, he’s employing his self-learned knowledge of languages towards a degree in Linguistics, while spending the little time when he’s not involved in FIUTS out active in the Deaf community. Currently, he is doing Independent Research abroad on the systems, practices, and sign languages of the Deaf across China, India, and Taiwan.

What does it mean to be a FIUTS facilitator?

Charlie and FIUTS intern Atsuko at CulturalFest 2013

I am a facilitator because I know these lessons, experiences, and connections that I share and receive are far more valuable to my goal of real, deep, and tangible lessons for life.

The international connections and perspectives within the students I’m helping connect with here, they’re the ones who can challenge me to stretch our influence on all the issues that reach further than our finite grasp within our finite community. It also allows me to focus and share an impact of the views and values that I hold that come from a stance different from many others in the world.

Favorite FIUTS anecdote as a facilitator:

Every FIUTS excursion brings a different activity and different combination of international students, and each is a new opportunity for a new kind of experience. I remember my first event, FIUTS camp, where I really got to break out with the entire array of unforgettable experiences and leading a cabin group. But the strongest that comes to mind, I think, is the Global Getaways. I got to guide our own “FIUTS bike tour gang” like a fool on my first tandem bicycle in Vancouver B.C. Or Portland was where I got to really begin to forge more intimate relationships with these very facilitators and students who would become dearer and dearer friends to me.

Tips/comments for peer facilitators:

Tandem biking in Canada on a FIUTS Spring Break trip

Throw yourself into this. The best facilitators are the ones who give up themselves, and I think that often within America or in the West, we tend to know and assert our expectations, but when interacting with something so variable as a FIUTS international activity, you gotta take all the potential you see and temper how you meld your vision with tolerance for what the rest of the group feels and envisions. The students come before you, and they’re the whole reason you’re here. They are the ones with the gold, as much as they consider you worthwhile for them. Everything you could want to learn; everything you want to gain; the ones you’re trying to serve. It’s all there in the students.

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Learn more about the FIUTS Facilitator program here!