Student Affairs
The first semester as an Interfaith Fellow has taught me a lot. I’ve learned more about religions other than my own, had the opportunity to participate in several religious services that were new to me, and met and worked with a diverse group of people. This semester has also taught me the importance of following …
One of the most disconcerting aspects of religion in the United States is the degree to which politics and religion overlap, although they are constitutionally intended to be separate. It has always been common to see politicians use religion as a bolster for their campaigns or agendas- even now we have a “chosen one” claiming …
I currently live in an apartment complex that used to be and still looks like a church from the outside, and is owned by the church next door. Every day at 8 am, I am woken up by church bells, and when I come home I am greeted by a picture of the Pope smiling …
“So powerful is the light of unity that it can illuminate the whole earth.” —Bahá’u’lláh One thing I’ve discovered in my interfaith fellowship is that I unconsciously and consciously hold a lot of assumptions and biases about other people’s faiths that are pretty inaccurate. I used to think that Hanukkah was a really important Jewish …
My tour group was about to embark on a voyage inside the Old City of Jerusalem, and I was on the verge of my greatest spiritual awakening. Before heading into the city, our group huddled outside the bus. One of the leaders of the trip began to outline a plan for our religion intensive day …
My time thus far as an Interfaith Fellow has been inextricably tied to my ever-developing experience of personal and collective identity in the past few months. The early weeks of the program coincided with the Jewish high holidays, and our group of Jewish fellows was spotlighted in order to invite non-Jewish participants to get a …
Most of the conversations I have previously had with friends and peers have been in homogenous settings. When I was growing up in Northern Wisconsin, my classmates were predominantly Caucasian. Despite moving to a much more urban environment after starting college, because of my active involvement in the South Asian community, I seldom interacted with …
In Fear and Trembling, philosopher Søren Kierkegaard inquires, “If at the foundation of all there lay only a wildly seething power which writhing with obscure passions produced everything that is great and everything that is insignificant, if a bottomless void never satiated lay hidden beneath all—what then would life be but despair?”. The first time …
“Why are you wearing that thing on your head?” is a question that I have become accustomed to hearing throughout the past decade of my life. From friends to classmates to even a few family members, this question has followed me since the day that I decided to wear the hijab. It was the first …
Holidays are always a joyful time for people to get together with family, eat good food and enjoy the company of friends. At one of our interfaith meetings the topic of discussion was important holidays in your religion. From my Catholic background the two most important religious holidays to our religion are Christmas and Easter. …