Carnegie Mellon alumnae Justine Lee, right, and Tria Chang brought the structure of a typical Make America Dinner Again event to CMU’s Rangos Ballroom on Sunday, March 29, inviting students of differing beliefs to engage in “radical empathy” over dinner.
April 1, 2026
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The Carnegie Mellon University community gathered together for “Listening, Learning and Leading Across Difference(opens in new window),” a two-day event (March 29-30) centered on dinner and interpersonal connection and the final event in this year’s Deeper Conversations programming. Alumnae Tria Chang and Justine Lee returned to campus to discuss their project, Make America Dinner Again(opens in new window) (MADA), which seeks to bridge divides across politics and identity by inviting individuals to discuss their life experiences over meals.
Day one of the event began with a Sunday dinner in CMU’s Rangos Ballroom where Carnegie Mellon students were able to learn and take away lessons of leadership, peacemaking and facilitation, with the goal of incorporating them into their own daily interactions.
We are not here today to have the most polished responses about current events or to make an argument or win an argument. We’re here really encouraging you to see our time together as an opportunity to really connect with each other.
— Justine Lee
At the dinner, students were given the chance to respond to questions such as, “What do you think is working in our society? What do you think is not working in our society? What are issues you have made up your mind about? What are issues you have not made up your mind about?”
With these questions and responses in mind, attendees then took part in thoughtful discussions with assigned partners, who were selected based on a voluntarily indicated difference in identity or ideology.
The second day of the event, led by Provost Jim Garrett(opens in new window), featured a lecture with Chang and Lee for the wider CMU community and incorporated takeaways from the Sunday exercises to showcase the value of discourse and fundamental human connection.
“This event is an expression of Carnegie Mellon’s renewed focus on skill building, of our intentional commitment to offer experiences in the student journey that support holistic development.”
— Jim Garrett
“We felt very motivated to keep going, to build understanding, to build connection in an often lonely and ever more divided world.”
— Tria Chang
Monday’s lecture was followed by an on-stage discussion facilitated by Dean of Students and Vice President for Student Affairs Gina Casalegno(opens in new window). She was joined by Lee and Chang, along with dinner participants and current CMU students Stephen Sudia and Anna Sène, who recounted their one-on-one interactions from the previous evening.
“In my experience at CMU, some of the best conversations I’ve had have been with people that I didn’t really know that well, but who were willing to engage with me and hear me out … The underlying feeling and motivation for a lot of the changes we made came down to gratitude for a lot of people that we had encountered before.”
— Stephen Sudia
“Peacebuilding and peace work of having these discourses is not something that’s just important for people. It is for everyone. It is work that becomes possible when each one of us sees that we are an actor of peace in our lives, in our rooms, in our communities, in our families, and wherever we are.”
— Anna Sène
Chang and Lee’s visit served as a capstone to the 2025-26 Deeper Conversations schedule and brought their CMU story full circle. The two met and became friends as students at Carnegie Mellon. Chang graduated in 2007, while Lee graduated a year later.
Their work on MADA began after the 2016 presidential election, when they reunited with the goal of fostering civil discourse in the United States and beyond. Within five years, Chang and Lee had successfully facilitated more than 200 dinners across the United States, with 12 organizational chapters and individuals volunteering to host in 150 cities. The result was a self-sustaining project that continues to bring individuals of differing political views to engage respectfully and empathetically over meals.
Monday’s event also included table discussions designed to encourage perspective-taking, allowing audience members to internalize diverse experiences and affirm their shared humanity.
Richard Scheines(opens in new window), Bess Family Dean of Dietrich College, was instrumental in developing the Deeper Conversations program which he credits for providing a revolutionary space for students to speak openly and honestly. Scheines delivered the closing remarks for Monday’s event — the last in the series before he steps down at the end of this academic year(opens in new window) to return to the faculty.
“I would hope as educators … that we could lean into this and make this more of a regular part of our curriculum, so the students have the skills and have the conditions so they can learn from conversations.”
— Richard Scheines
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“Carnegie Mellon University is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The institution was originally established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical School. In 1912, it became the Carnegie Institute of Technology and began granting four-year degrees.”
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