The Cal Poly leadership and service department brought Paul Wesselmann, better known as “The Ripples Guy” or “Cal Pauly,” to Cal Poly for a presentation on resilience on Tuesday open to all Cal Poly faculty, staff and students in Chumash Auditorium.
“With so many different initiatives on the horizon for Cal Poly, it felt like a wonderful time for the topic focusing on resilience during times of change,” Senior Director of Leadership and Service Jason Mockford said.
Wesselmann comes to Cal Poly every year for Big Fall Welcome and said in an introductory video shared on the Cal Poly Now event page that he was excited to come to Cal Poly again for Tuesday’s presentation.
“I will often tell people when they ask me where I’m from, I say ‘My body lives in Ohio, my soul lives in the Colorado Rockies, my heart lives in a little town called SLO,’” Wesselmann told Mustang News.
Wesselmann began his presentation with a reading of the poem “Blessing of the precious mess” by Anna Blaedel before walking the audience through a breathing exercise to center themselves in the moment.
“Take a deep breath and notice that you’re alive,” he said.
According to Wesselmann, there are three phases people go through in response to change, which he defined as “surviving, reviving and thriving.” In his presentation, he described what people should focus on in each phase to achieve what he characterized as the four tenets of being resilient in the face of change: a curious mind, open heart, calm spirit and healthy body.
“A talk like this is really designed to meet people where they’re at and then to hopefully show them that there are other places they can go when they’re ready and that there is hope,” Wesselmann told Mustang News.
There were about 90 people in attendance and “people seemed to really resonate with the topic,” Mockford said.
Theatre arts freshman Andy Woodford, who subscribed to Wesselmann’s email list after hearing his speech at Big Fall Welcome, said he started tearing up at the end of the presentation. Woodford was one of the several attendees that went up to Wesselmann afterward to take a selfie and share a hug.
For Nicki Fowler, the Financial and Building Coordinator in the Orfalea College of Business, the loving kindness meditation exercise Wesselmann presented was her biggest takeaway.
Mockford said he hopes to be able to offer more events like this in the future and that the leadership and service department has ongoing leadership workshops all year.
More information about the leadership and service department and their programs can be found on their website.
