Northwestern student groups met with their Evanston Township High School counterparts Thursday afternoon to discuss collaboration.

The symposium, hosted at the high school, 1600 Dodge Ave., brought nine NU student groups to talk to ETHS students and faculty involved in similar activities. Areas of interest included student government, theater, community service, the LGBT community and more.

About 35 people attended the symposium, which was planned by Associated Student Government’s community relations committee, ETHS faculty and ETHS senior MD Shelton, who is involved in ETHS Student Senate.

Each club sat with its NU counterpart and had a guide of suggested icebreakers and discussion questions. Student leaders also exchanged contact information for future collaboration.

Shelton, who also is part of the ETHS Model United Nations, said the event helped his club gain valuable connections. For the first time, ETHS students in the club will be able to attend NU’s Model U.N. conference, he said. He also said potential visits to NU classes are in the works.

“They can get real life experiences at a high school age,” Shelton said, “which is very, very beneficial.”

Communication junior Talia Weingarten and Communication senior Sam Garrott visited as representatives for Arts Alliance, an NU student arts and theater group, and talked to a representative from ETHS’s art program.

Arts Alliance has wanted to meet with ETHS students for a while now, Weingarten said. ETHS students have been cast in NU productions in the past for younger roles, including the Dolphin Show productions “Shrek” and “Titanic,” but Garrott said Arts Alliance hopes to have a continuing relationship rather than a few isolated collaborations.

The group has agreed to set up a series of meetings for dialogue with the ETHS fine arts department. Potential ideas include joint events, graphic design, set production and summer workshops.

Garrott said he hopes NU’s theater community can also encourage interested high school students in pursuing the arts.

“When you’re a 16-year-old kid interested in art, inevitably you’re going to have people tell you that’s foolish,” Garrott said. “We’re interested in telling people that we heard people tell us that and we ignored it and pursued it.”

ASG’s community relations committee has been working on expanding its definition of community for some time, vice president of community relations Kevin Harris said. The Weinberg junior said the idea was formed late Fall Quarter and has been in the works for a few months.

Each group would decide its future collaboration, Harris said. He said the symposium event would simply spark the initial connection. Students would meet to brainstorm and get to know each other. ASG hopes to add more symposia between ETHS and NU in the future, he said.

“We’ll see how it goes from today and get feedback,” Harris said. “The point is to make relationships sustainable from outside (ASG) organization.”

Harris said an ASG survey last year showed student groups were interested in working more with local schools. ETHS felt likewise — last spring, ASG went to a presentation at the high school campus, listening to ETHS student group presidents talk about potential partnerships with NU groups.

“We all live in Evanston. We’re all neighbors, and only a couple of years separated in age,” Harris said. “We’re not worlds apart.”

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