{"id":77309,"date":"2026-03-18T08:39:45","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T15:39:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/?p=77309"},"modified":"2026-03-18T08:39:45","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T15:39:45","slug":"fredliness-fridays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/fredliness-fridays\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s a beautiful day in the neighborhood"},"content":{"rendered":"

Once a month, a small group gathers for a conversation that is both simple\u00a0and\u00a0yet\u00a0surprisingly serious: what it means to live by the lessons of Fred Rogers.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Angie Hansen<\/span><\/b>, chair of the Department of English, and English professor\u00a0<\/span>Jesse Egbert<\/span><\/b>\u00a0started the\u00a0Fredliness\u00a0Group, which meets\u00a0on the first Friday of the month,\u00a0to share\u00a0their love\u00a0of\u00a0Mister\u00a0Rogers\u2019\u00a0philosophies\u00a0with others.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt all started because Angie and I both love Fred Rogers,\u201d Egbert said. \u201cWe would share quotes through email to try to brighten each other\u2019s\u00a0day,\u00a0and we got talking about how more people could\u00a0benefit\u00a0from\u00a0his\u00a0philosophy. We decided to start a group where we could get together and talk about his teachings and about feeling\u00a0good but\u00a0also taking his philosophy on life and relationships seriously.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The group, which\u00a0has been meeting since last year,\u00a0includes undergraduate and graduate students,\u00a0faculty\u00a0and administrators from\u00a0a variety of\u00a0departments.\u00a0The meetings are\u00a0open to anyone\u00a0in the community\u00a0who\u00a0shares\u00a0the\u00a0group\u2019s\u00a0interest in the ideas popularized by Rogers\u2014kindness, emotional honesty,\u00a0patience\u00a0and the belief that every person deserves to be treated with dignity.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe were thinking about students’ mental health and how we all need to\u00a0give\u00a0more time and attention to values and not only content,\u201d Hansen said. \u201cWe started thinking about how we can take Fred Rogers\u2019 lens and apply it to the content that we teach.\u00a0It has been very grassroots.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Discussion often begins with a quote or a clip from Rogers,\u00a0and from there, the conversation expands.\u00a0They\u00a0talk about how\u00a0Rogers\u2019\u00a0values apply to\u00a0everyday life,\u00a0how to\u00a0respond\u00a0to\u00a0conflict, how to listen without\u00a0judgment\u00a0and how small acts of care and kindness can\u00a0keep\u00a0communities\u00a0knitted together.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of Fred Rogers’ philosophy focuses on how we see ourselves and, by extension, how we treat each other,\u201d Egbert said. \u201cHe\u00a0rarely\u00a0talks\u00a0about how we should be behaving toward\u00a0one another but focuses\u00a0instead\u00a0on how we should value ourselves and that is sort of the foundation of everything.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Egbert said\u00a0that although some participants are quiet when they\u00a0first\u00a0come, they\u00a0share\u00a0their\u00a0personal\u00a0experiences\u00a0once they feel more comfortable.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no pressure to participate,\u201d he said. \u201cSome people\u00a0come\u00a0because they loved Fred Rogers\u2019 show growing up. Others\u00a0have never heard of him\u00a0and\u00a0go\u00a0because they were invited or are curious. However, the number of people who keep coming back is a good sign for us.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For Hansen, the hour a month the group spends together serves as a reminder of the importance of slowing down and being present.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe are going from class to class, to midterms to other duties,\u201d Hansen said. “This hour we spend together has no agenda or expectations and that might be uncomfortable for a minute, but I think that is why people like it and come back. We\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0have to get something done, we just think about who we are and what we value in each other and in ourselves, our shared humanity.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

To Hansen,\u00a0Egbert\u00a0and other attendees, these meetings are more than a\u00a0nostalgic reflection\u00a0on\u00a0a familiar figure in a cardigan.\u00a0They\u2019re\u00a0a\u00a0chance to promote emotional validation, empathy, kindness,\u00a0self-worth\u00a0and\u00a0acceptance\u00a0in\u00a0a world\u00a0full of bitter division.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The\u00a0<\/span>Fredliness Group<\/span><\/a>\u00a0gets\u00a0together\u00a0the first Friday of every month at 10 a.m. in the Liberal Arts\u00a0building\u00a0(Bldg.\u00a018), room 110.\u00a0Everyone is welcome.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Northern<\/a>Mariana Laas | NAU Communications
\n(928) 523-5050 | mariana.laas@nau.edu<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Once a month, a small group gathers for a conversation that is both simple\u00a0and\u00a0yet\u00a0surprisingly serious: what it means to live by the lessons of Fred Rogers.\u00a0 Angie Hansen, chair of the Department of English, and English professor\u00a0Jesse Egbert\u00a0started the\u00a0Fredliness\u00a0Group, which meets\u00a0on the first Friday of the month,\u00a0to share\u00a0their love\u00a0of\u00a0Mister\u00a0Rogers\u2019\u00a0philosophies\u00a0with others.\u00a0 \u201cIt all started because Angie…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":100,"featured_media":77311,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faculty-staff"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/100"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77309\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}