Kindness Week: Creating a Sun Devil community full of empathy and care

2 minutes

Sometimes a small, kind gesture can go a long way and make a difference in someone’s day.

This year Changemaker Central and Devils 4 Devils collaborated for the Random Acts of Kindness Week this spring to bring a combination of in-person and online events for students.

President of Devils 4 Devils Emily Hinsberger, 21, a junior studying psychology, said the groups wanted to communicate to the community that there are so many ways to be kind.

Student in a mask sitting in front of a laptop outside on ASU's Tempe campus

Photo by Asa Culver

“This gives us the opportunity to see the gratitude that we have in people’s kindness and can inspire us to be more kind to others and to ourselves,” Hinsberger said.

Kindness Week took place from Feb. 15–19, with Changemaker taking charge of the on-campus events and Devils 4 Devils leading the Zoom events. Students had the opportunity to log on to the Community Circles and learn about how kindness could be created through mindfulness, culture and creativity.

Nithara Murthy, 20, global health and psychology major, led the Kindness through Mindfulness & Creativity Zoom, where she taught a belly dancing class and some yoga. Afterward, there was an open discussion about how we can be kind to ourselves and others.

“Part of what this week was about was to show how acts of kindness can be done in multiple ways. During this time of COVID, taking time for ourselves has been difficult, but just being able to do something creative and fun is showing kindness to yourself,” Murthy said.

Both Hinsberger and Murthy said there was a great turnout but that high number of attendance was not the goal. The goal was to have an impact on the ASU community, to create a sense of empathy throughout.

“Even if it is not helping 70 people, if it helped one person, that is enough. If we made one person feel welcomed and part of our community, we did our job,” Murthy said.

To learn more about how to get involved with Devils 4 Devils and receive empathy, community and connection training, visit their website. Get engaged with community service through Changemaker Central.