Take a moment to recollect the memories of being tucked into bed, given milk to sip through a straw and being told a soothing story to help fall asleep. Instead of an app, there’s a class for that.

Communications professor Bill Huddleston is conducting a Storytelling Seminar, COM 480/580, during the May 13- 31 interim term that students can take for a three-hour course credit. The class will inform students on how to tell a story, how to differentiate types of stories and how to use a variety of techniques within storytelling.

“Students will learn how to share information in a way that tells their story,” Huddleston said.

He said to think of storytelling as an attic.

“Reliving the people we’ve encountered, places we’ve seen and problems we’ve experienced is like going through the attic of your mind, and where the three intersect, that is where the story is,” Huddleston said.

UNA graduate and professional writing major Linely Mobely said it would have been interesting to take the class prior to graduation.

“When a person writes a story, they get into their own groove, and it is hard to change that, but if you are in a roomful of people telling a number of different stories, you become encouraged and challenged to try new things,” she said.

“Artists of every kind create a strong community, and it is through community that you come to better yourself.”

Partnering with the class, students will be attending and working the UNA Front Porch Storytelling Festival May 16-18.

The seminar is a three-day internship where students will be working with audio, assisting patrons to different events, directing parking and helping with registration.

The third annual Front Porch Storytelling Festival will be featuring many nationally and locally acclaimed storytellers such as Rick Bragg, Donald Davis, Diane Ferlatte, Delores Hydock, Bill Lepp and Barbara McBride-Smith.

McBride-Smith, a storyteller, school librarian and seminary professor, said she is more than excited to visit Florence for the first time to participate in the Storytelling Festival.

“Most of us, or from my personal experience, don’t think we really understand who we are until we understand the people who came before us,” she said. “By looking back at the uniqueness of the town I grew up in, the high school I went to and the kids I grew up with, I am able to tell stories from these things that shaped me into the person I am today.”

McBride-Smith said the main importance of storytelling is that “the audience can associate at least one character in the story to someone they know. When the characters are relatable to family, friends, etc., you learn something you didn’t already know about them.”

The UNA Front Porch Storytelling Festival will be held May 16-18 in the GUC Performance Center and will feature various storytellers, workshops, and meet and greet sessions. For ticket pricing and a list of scheduled events, visit www.una.edu/storytelling.