Focusing on what matters most when it matters most: A guide to advanced care planning

Anne Mackay

"Conversations regarding end-of-life decisions are often avoided. They can be uncomfortable, scary, and tense. But, they can also be opportunities to connect, reflect, and preserve relationships down the road.

Let's learn together about how to complete advanced care directives, which ones are important to have for what reasons, other considerations to make that are included in the forms, and how to have the conversation with your loved ones about advanced care planning. "

From Confusion to Clarity: Communicating Complex Ideas at Work

Clark Fox

Universities are full of complex processes, specialized terminology, and long email threads that can make simple communication unnecessarily difficult. This workshop explores practical strategies for turning complicated ideas, policies, and workflows into clear, concise communication that helps colleagues understand what matters and what to do next. Participants will learn simple frameworks for organizing information, writing clearer emails and instructions, and explaining processes in ways that improve collaboration across departments. Through real-world examples and brief hands-on exercises, attendees will practice transforming unclear messages into communication that is easier to understand and act on.

AV Tech Session: Essential Tips for Connectivity

Brandon Bolander, Austin Scoresby, Travis Tasker

Join us to learn essential connectivity tips, shortcuts, and settings for use both on campus and at home. Gain the confidence to connect seamlessly and learn about the various resources available for your tech setup. Attendees will also receive physical resources to help in the AV environment.

Curious, Creative, and In Control: Building Action Plans for Work Challenges

Alisa Gioey

Join Gioey Alisa, a Gallup-Certified Global Strengths Coach, for an engaging and empowering group coaching session designed to cultivate curiosity, creativity, and meaningful connection while tackling those challenging work problems and tasks head-on! In this interactive experience, you'll have the opportunity to dive deep into a problem or challenge you identify as a barrier you're currently facing in your work, uncover its root cause through inquisitive questioning, and craft a creative, practical action plan to spark positive changes. Bring your laptop or a pen and notepad as we embark on this collaborative coaching session together. Through guided exercises and group discussions, we'll explore different strategies to analyze your challenge and chart a course toward a solution. You'll discover how to identify your key work tasks with fresh perspective, select the right methods and tools that fit your unique needs, establish procedures that work for you, and apply the insights you gain to enhance your work practices and pave the way for continuous improvement. Most importantly, you'll connect with colleagues facing similar challenges, building community and shared learning. Let's find a way to work smarter, conquer those challenges, and cultivate the curiosity and creativity within each of us!

Curious About Strength Training? 5 Simple Movements to Help You Start and Stay Consistent

Leslie Eyerly, Britton Harmon

Balancing work, family, and daily responsibilities can make it challenging to prioritize personal health”especially when starting something new like strength training. This session is designed for university staff who are curious about getting stronger but aren't sure where to begin. Participants will be introduced to five foundational movement patterns”squat, hinge, push, pull, and core”through clear demonstrations and simple instruction, helping them understand how their bodies move and how to adapt exercises for home or gym settings. With a focus on simplicity and sustainability, attendees will gain practical tools to build a time-efficient routine, fit strength training into a busy schedule, and feel more confident and capable starting their own program.

Connection by Design: How 30 Seconds Can Transform Trust, Morale, and Communication

Madeleine Strasburg

Most of us believe that building real connection requires more time — more meetings, longer conversations, more availability. This session challenges that directly. Drawing from research on psychological safety and employee engagement, and from real leadership experience across multiple teams, participants will learn a simple, repeatable system called the 3×3 Connection Practice: three people, three intentional micro-moments, starting today. Each micro-moment takes under 30 seconds and follows a three-step framework — Name, Notice, Value — that builds trust, improves morale, and strengthens communication across any role or department. The session also addresses how connection quietly breaks down through people-pleasing behaviors and unstructured, difficult conversations, and gives participants a practical way to stay connected even under pressure. Participants leave with one clear, actionable behavior they can use the same day.

Listening to the Wild: Discovering Utah's Animals Through Tracks, Signs, and Calls

Melissa Cavan

This relaxed, curiosity-driven session invites UVU employees to slow down and rediscover the joy of nature by learning to notice tracks, dens, feeding signs, and sounds of Utah's local wildlife revealing what's really going on in the landscape around them. Through short listening exercises with common Utah bird and mammal calls, paired with photos and simple ID tips for tracks, dens, and other trail signs, participants will practice piecing together multiple clues (like fresh tracks leading to a den or feeding area) to reconstruct the hidden stories of animal lives. Participants will also learn how to identify some of the commonly found Utah species including reptiles, amphibians, and mammals. We will explore how engaging our senses outdoors—watching for these subtle signs on the trail and pausing to listen to birdsong and other natural sounds—can reduce stress, restore focus, and deepen our sense of connection to place, to ourselves, and to the people we're outside with. Attendees will leave with a simple pocket guide and a short "sound walk" prompt they can use on lunch breaks or weekend hikes to help friends and family hear, see, and understand more of the wildlife stories around them.

The Mindful Kitchen- How Cooking Can Nourish the Soul

Amanda Kimball, Melissa Kimball Norris

Amanda and Melissa are known as the "Kimball Sisters" of UVU. But when not on campus, what do they have in common? A love of food. Growing up, they learned tricks of the kitchen from beloved family members. Keeping the tradition of good food alive, they believe in the power of the kitchen for both physical and mental health. Step into the kitchen with them to discover a new recipe, and information on how creating time to cook mindfully can assist in connecting, centering, calming, and inspiring the soul.

Underwater Basket Weaving with AI: A Masterclass in Learning Anything

Rachael Hutchings

What does underwater basket weaving have to do with professional development? Everything, it turns out. This hands-on session uses the world's most famously "useless" subject as a live demonstration of AI's most underrated capability: helping curious people learn anything, fast. Participants will watch ”and join in” as AI tools are used in real time to research, plan, troubleshoot, and create around a topic none of us know anything about. The basket weaving is the bit. The takeaway is real: when you use AI as a learning partner rather than just a task shortcut, your curiosity becomes a professional superpower.

Build the Sauna, Own the Benefits: Heat Therapy on Your Terms

Cory Cozzens

"Caution: Presentation may cause excessive sweating and sudden wellness.

This presentation will cover how to build your own backyard sauna on a budget and the health benefits thereof.

1. Construction and materials. Process for building a sauna.
2. Health benefits for using a sauna, including the social aspects by connecting to people in a device free environment.

Ergonomics in the workplace

Justin Hansen

We will discuss ergonomic hazards in the workplace and how they contribute to fatigue, pain, and workplace injury. We will focus on helping individuals identify ergonomic hazards in their own workspaces and find solutions to reduce the effects. We will provide information on ergonomic office set up and provide ways to help reduce overall workday fatigue.

Why Shared Experiences Matter: The Science of Collective Energy

Daniel Carter

This presentation will explore how shared experiences generate collective energy that strengthens connection, belonging, and engagement within communities (including UVU). Drawing on research about group interaction and synchronized activities, such as in music and other shared group experiences, the session highlights how collective moments can foster strong communal bonds. Participants will reflect on experiences that created a sense of connection and discuss how similar dynamics can be intentionally cultivated in workplace and university settings. The session will invite attendees to explore practical ways to nurture curiosity, creativity, and meaningful connection across the UVU community.

Make 6 Hours of Sleep feel like 8

Christopher Cardenas

We will talk about tactics and strategies for sleeping effectively. Do you want to fall asleep fast and sleep more deeply? Implement one of these strategies and you will.

Connection Lab: Meet New People at UVU

Laura Gonzalez

In our day-to-day work at UVU, we don't often get the chance to meet people outside of our own departments. This session is designed to change that by creating a relaxed, low-pressure space for employees to connect. I will facilitate the session by guiding attendees through a series of structured, rotating small-group conversations based on shared interests, fun prompts, and engaging topics. Unlike traditional networking, this format offers a more approachable and relaxed way to connect. It's designed so people can just show up, talk (or listen), and enjoy getting to know others across campus in a comfortable, fun way. By the end, attendees will have met a variety of colleagues and hopefully walked away with at least one new connection (and maybe even a new friend).

From Judgment to Curiosity: Discovering the Needs Behind Our Stories

Ben Bailey

What if every judgment we make points to something deeply human and meaningful? In this interactive session, participants will be introduced to the four components of Nonviolent Communication (NVC) and explore how shifting from evaluation to curiosity can transform connection. Through a hands-on “empathy poker” activity, attendees will practice identifying underlying needs and experience how empathy can open new possibilities in workplace relationships.

Curious About Your Files? Explore, Clean Up, and Connect with Smarter Storage

Brett McKeachnie

Ever wonder where all your files actually live—and why your storage quota keeps mysteriously shrinking? You're not alone, and no, you're not imagining it! Join us for a fun, hands-on session where we'll get curious together and explore UVU's SharePoint and OneDrive environment—no IT degree required. We'll dig into practical file cleanup strategies, uncover smarter ways to organize and share your work, and learn how to stay within your storage quotas before they sneak up on you. Whether you're drowning in duplicates or just looking to level up your file management game, come curious and leave organized!

Creating Connections on the Court

Sam Atoa

This is an opportunity to learn and play volleyball with your colleagues. A great way to create relationships and to make new connections playing volleyball.

Lessons for Life and Work: Eddie Van Halen Style

David McEntire

This fun, entertaining and informative presentation includes a life sketch of Eddie Van Halen - the unrivaled rock guitarist from the 1980s. The presentation discusses Van Halen's creativity in music and his ability to plan, prepare, adjust, adapt and improvise. The presentation then mentions several lessons we can learn and apply from this famous guitar virtuoso (e.g., being willing to take risks and innovate, seeking help from others, working with different personalities, smiling, finding balance in life, avoiding addiction, paying it forward, etc.). With some jokes, live music and coverage of several serious topics, this presentation will include laughter, energy, and an invitation to be your best!

What You Should Already Know About Money (But Probably Don't)

Jennifer Collard

All UVU employees and students have access to the survey software Qualtrics.

Come learn the fundamental financial principles that can help you take control of your future. In this class, we'll cover key topics like compound interest, rate of return, and different tax options, along with other essential strategies to help you build and protect your wealth. No matter your age or income, having a clear understanding of how money works is crucial to setting yourself up for long-term financial success.

Beyond the Instant: Reclaiming the Guts and Skill of Human Connection

Joseph Hellewell

In a world increasingly shaped by the "curse of instantaneousness"—where digital convenience can erode the guts and interpersonal skill required for meaningful interaction—this session invites you to reclaim the art of human synergy. We will explore how a life of instant results can leave us timid when faced with the possible risk and rejection of real-life human dynamics. To counter this digital erosion, we look to the physical world of partner dance, borrowing the core principles of frame, tension, compression and invitation from West Coast and Country Swing to build intentional connection. By understanding the non-verbal signals we send and receive, we discover how a stable frame and balanced resistance allow us to navigate workplace friction. This interactive, "no-dance" workshop demonstrates that while technology offers speed, only a skilled and intentional connection can achieve a result that is truly beautiful and uniquely human.

Leading From Self: Cultivating Curiosity, Creativity, and Connection at Work

Derek Larsen

Using principles from Internal Family Systems (IFS), a popular mental health therapy model, I will educate employees on some of the basic principles of IFS, lead them in a experiential, meditative activity to practice some of these principles, and provide resources for those that would like to learn more.

Swipe Right on Journaling

Red Miller

I would like to introduce the UVU community to different journaling modalities using a speed dating format. Participants will be able to learn about 4-5 different journaling modalities (junk/art journaling/scrapbooking, stream of consciousness, prompt based, documentation) and be given the time and materials needed to try each style during the workshop. By the end of the workshop the audience will learn the benefits of journaling (which include increased curiosity, creativity, and connection to themselves and those around them), how to reframe the practice from a lens of perfectionism to a lens of creative play, which modality might work best for them, and get a chance to ask questions from someone who has journaled for 21 years.

Finding Joy in Creating: Getting Started in the Woodshop

Rebecca Patty

Many people are curious about starting a creative hobby but face barriers including perfectionism, lack of self-confidence, and knowing how to get started. This presentation will focus on developing a personal creative philosophy, an intro to the basics of woodworking (on a small budget), and some simple project ideas to get started. [No tools will be used during the presentation and notes/resources on safety will be included.]

Event Planning Made Easy: Simple Strategies for Meaningful Experiences

Christa Lee Durrant

"Great events don't just happen, they are intentionally designed. This session is for university employees who want to plan events more efficiently while also creating meaningful, engaging experiences for their audiences.

With over 25 years of corporate and university event planning experience, this session focuses on simple, practical techniques that make event planning easier—while also showing how small, intentional details can transform an event into a memorable experience.

Participants will learn how to streamline the planning process, avoid common pitfalls, and incorporate easy, high-impact touches that enhance connection, engagement, and overall event success. Through a fun, hands-on activity, attendees will practice simple napkin folds and create a quick floral piece—demonstrating how thoughtful design elements can elevate any event without adding complexity or cost."

D&D for Teams: Engaging Groups Through Storytelling

Taylor Calhoun

In our day-to-day work at UVU, we don't often get the chance to meet people outside of our own departments. This session is designed to change that by creating a relaxed, low-pressure space for employees to connect. I will facilitate the session by guiding attendees through a series of structured, rotating small-group conversations based on shared interests, fun prompts, and engaging topics. Unlike traditional networking, this format offers a more approachable and relaxed way to connect. It's designed so people can just show up, talk (or listen), and enjoy getting to know others across campus in a comfortable, fun way. By the end, attendees will have met a variety of colleagues and hopefully walked away with at least one new connection (and maybe even a new friend).

Excel-lent Skillz!

Amy Moeller

Learn skills that will make you Excel! Get ready for some hands on tips and tricks that will make your spreadsheet Excel-ent!

Create & Connect: A Hands-On Craft Workshop

Emmy Bell, Jody Birch

This interactive workshop invites participants to step away from their day-to-day responsibilities and get a little creative in a fun, low-pressure environment. Attendees will create a simple, take-home craft such as a bookmark, keychain or bag charm, mosaic-style coaster, or watercolor greeting card (final craft selection determined in collaboration with the Summer University committee). No artistic experience is required; this session is designed for all skill levels and focuses on the joy of making something with your hands. Along the way, participants will have the opportunity to connect with others, try something new, and leave with both a finished piece and a fresh reminder that creativity doesn't have to be complicated to be meaningful.

Burned Out Isn't Broken: Reframing Burnout, Boundaries, and Belonging at UVU

Amber McGuire

Burned Out Isn't Broken: Reframing Burnout, Boundaries, and Belonging at UVU invites UVU staff to move beyond individual “self‑care” narratives and instead explore burnout as a meaningful signal about our roles, systems, and expectations. Grounded in trauma‑informed practice and real campus experiences, this session encourages curiosity about what burnout is (and isn't), creativity in how we set boundaries that sustain both care and connection, and shared responsibility for building a culture where belonging can thrive without exhaustion. Participants will leave with practical language, reflective insights, and boundary‑based practices they can apply immediately to protect their energy while staying connected to the purpose of their work.

So You Watched K-Pop Demon Hunters… Now What? A Beginner’s Guide to Getting Into K-Pop

Kate Gallacher, Abby MacDonald

This presentation is a lighthearted introduction to the world of K-Pop for anyone whose curiosity was sparked after watching KPop Demon Hunters or encountering the genre for the first time. Through a fun slide deck, video clips, and interactive discussion, attendees will learn the basics of K-Pop culture including common fandom terms, how to pick a group to follow, what a “comeback” actually means, and why fans care so much about biases, choreography, and music videos. The presentation will also showcase real K-Pop memorabilia and albums, giving participants a hands-on look at the unique physical media and collectibles that are part of the fan experience. The goal is to demystify K-Pop and give beginners a playful roadmap for exploring the genre.

Slowness as a Tool for Productivity

Natalie Hawes

In professional spaces that glorify speed and constant output, “slowness” is often framed as a negative. However, slowing down can produce powerful outcomes, including productivity, sustainability, and resilience. Through the personal narrative of the presenter’s chronic illness and a study of science-backed research, this session explores how modern work culture and definitions of success can mask deeper, problematic issues, such as social comparison, burnout, anxiety, and poor work-life balance. Attendees will learn about practical strategies, grounded in psychology and neuroscience, to help them slow down and regulate their nervous systems, build resilience and long-term productivity, and develop mindful practices that ultimately promote both their wellbeing and the wellbeing of their workplaces.

Curiosity Creates Connection: Practical Skills for Meaningful Relationships

McKade Christensen

Curiosity is more than a personality trait. It is a learnable skill that shapes how we relate to others and how connected we feel in our work. At UVU, where collaboration and student-centered service are central to our culture, curiosity plays a key role in building trust, belonging, and effective relationships across roles and departments. In this interactive session, participants will reflect on their current levels of curiosity, explore whether curiosity can be intentionally developed, and examine common barriers that limit it in busy workplace environments. Participants will then connect curiosity to three practical skills that naturally create connection: using people’s names with intention, asking thoughtful questions, and listening with presence and purpose. Attendees will leave with concrete strategies they can immediately apply to strengthen collaboration, workplace culture, and interactions with colleagues and students.

What Movie, TV, and Comic Book Characters Can Teach Us About Being the "Heart and Soul" of the Team

Nick Gledhill

Blockbuster movies, binge-able TV shows, and page-turning comic books are sources of entertainment of fun. But they can also be sources of knowledge and empowerment! Stories of teamwork, perseverance, and selflessness can be abstracted into your work life. This presentation will teach you how the Ninja Turtles can keep you positive despite difficult circumstances, how a martian can keep you emotionally intelligent, and how the Fantastic Four keeps the universe safe with loyalty.

Falling Back in Love with Reading: Stories That Connect Us

Victoria Cruz

This interactive workshop invites participants to explore how we can fall back in love with reading by choosing books that help us feel seen, spark curiosity, or challenge us to consider new perspectives. Drawing on my own journey of rediscovering reading, I’ll guide participants through reflection and conversation about the role books can play in our lives. Together, we’ll explore common barriers to reading and reframe it as a meaningful way to connect with ourselves, with others, and with new ideas. Through reflection, small-group discussion, and a community book swap, participants will leave with a more personal, approachable way to engage with reading and a deeper appreciation for how stories can build empathy, creativity, and connection.

Chocolate Dipping & Decorating

Tracy Warner

Topics covered

• Chocolate Dipping & Decorating
• Overview of chocolate types and melting techniques
• Hands-on dipping of items such as:
  
  • Fruit dipping
  • Pretzels
  • Marshmallows
• Decorating with drizzle, toppings, or edible accents
• Proper handling, cooling, and packaging tips

Campus Sustainability Tour

Sarah Bateman

UVU Sustainability invites you to go on a behind-the-scenes walking tour to learn more about environmental sustainability efforts in campus operations – campus gardens, water and energy efficiency efforts, waste and recycling, composting, air quality, etc. This 50-minute tour visits 6 sites in central campus (map available) where we will meet the operations professionals working on making UVU an even greener university.