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Interfaith Leadership on Campus: The Interfaith Youth Core Fellows Alliance
By Megan Hughes
America is the most religiously diverse society in human history and the most
religiously devout society in the Western world in an era of global religious violence.
University campuses in the U.S. frequently serve as the backdrop for episodes of
religious conflict as Jewish and Muslim students face off over Israel/Palestine and
evangelical Christians battle with atheist students over Christmas decorations in the
student center. The global becomes local as violence abroad translates into accusatory
flyers posted in residence halls and protest signs waved in the quad.
It is individual student leaders who will guide their diverse campus communities
from conflict or apathy towards cooperation. Michael Walzer, American political
philosopher, writes that the challenge facing a diverse society is to embrace its diversity
while maintaining a common life together.1 An interfaith leader creates a culture of
religious pluralism on campus such that when violence erupts in Kashmir, the Muslim
and Hindu students do not spew hateful rhetoric at one another, but maintain their
commitment to living side-by-side in harmony.
Religious pluralism has three parts. The first is respect for religious identity. On a
campus level, this means that students of all religious and non-religious backgrounds
1
See Michael Walzer, What it Means to be an American (New York: Marsilio, 1996).
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have the same right to celebrate their festivals and holidays in public spaces, to wear a
yarmulke, a bindi, or a hijab to class, and to aspire to become student body president.
The second piece of religious pluralism is the existence of mutually inspiring
relationships between diverse communities. Jews and Buddhists and Agnostics and
Catholics share meals in the cafeteria, serve together on committees, and attend one
another’s events where they walk away with new insights about themselves and the
world. The third part of religious pluralism is a commitment to the common good. This is
when diverse religious and non-religious student groups partner together to make their
library more environmentally friendly, to lobby the administration to create a hate crime
response team, or to tutor children at the drop-in center near campus.
The Interfaith Youth Core launched the Fellows Alliance in Fall 2007 to give
young interfaith leaders the framework, knowledge base and skill set to advance
religious pluralism on campus and in the world around them. Every year, IFYC trains,
networks, and resources 20 undergraduate Fellows from diverse religious and
philosophical backgrounds on college and university campuses across the United
States. Fellows design interfaith service projects that unite diverse groups on campus
around their shared values; present a new way to think about religion through
presentations, workshops and articles in the campus newspaper; and mobilize their
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peers, faculty and administrators to campaign for an institutional shift in the way their
campus approaches religious diversity.
IFYC staff train the Fellows in the IFYC shared values methodology, best
practices, and advanced theory. Fellows receive formal and informal support as they
plan events and develop their own interfaith leadership skills. This includes a personal
stipend as well as funding to support program costs, a site visit by IFYC staff, media
and networking opportunities, professional development, and mentorship.
Each Fellow begins the year by completing a Campus Assessment using a tool
designed by IFYC to identify the assets and resources available on campus to support
interfaith work. Drawing from IFYC’s “Hallmarks of a Model Interfaith Campus,” the tool
allows Fellows to identify in what aspects their campus is embracing religious pluralism
and where their campus needs additional attention. Most importantly, it urges Fellows to
seek out and create a network of like-minded students and faculty at the outset of the
year who will serve as partners for their interfaith efforts.
The Fellows convene monthly via conference call to explore one theme related to
the field of interfaith work. Experts on religion in America, religious leaders, conflict
resolution professionals, and other relevant leaders join the conversations and share
their insight and wisdom with the Fellows. The calls include a conversation with the
guest speaker, time for Fellows to interview one another about their interfaith journey
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and inspiration, and time for the Fellows to share the latest successes and challenges to
their interfaith work on campus. IFYC Fellows are also tasked with writing one reflection
piece, persuasive essay, or op-ed style article every month addressing an aspect of
their campus organizing work and responding to the theme of that month’s conference
call and related readings. These assignments are in response to a specific prompt and
focus on story-telling, a core feature of IFYC’s methodology.
The Fellows are making a significant impact on their campuses and in their local
communities. Rachel and Nadeem, IFYC Fellows at Wesleyan University, organized
their student, faculty and community allies around an Interfaith Fast-a-thon during
Ramadan last fall. Over 25% of the Wesleyan student body gave up their meals for one
day in solidarity with Muslim students fasting during Ramadan and attended an evening
event celebrating the ritual of fasting in diverse religious traditions. The unused meal
points and other donations amounted to over $11,000, which was given to a local food
pantry. Another example of interfaith leadership on campus is the story of Moustafa,
IFYC Fellow at the University of Michigan. As a pre-med student doing an internship at
a local hospital in Ann Arbor, Moustafa noticed that surplus medical supplies were
routinely destroyed once new replacements were delivered. Instead of letting these
supplies go to waste, he and several Muslim, Jewish and Christian pre-med students
formed a campus organization called Children of Abraham in order to collect surplus
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supplies from hospitals around the city, sort them with the help of volunteers from
diverse faith congregations, and ship them to communities in need. Children of
Abraham has shipped hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of supplies around the
world.
Amidst very real theological and political tensions, interfaith leaders are
mobilizing religious groups on campus to partner with one another to build a better
world. These young leaders, and many like them, are creating a new identity for
themselves as “interfaith activists.” It is their leadership that will continue to catalyze and
sustain a movement of religious pluralism both on campus and beyond.
Megan Hughes is the Leadership Coordinator for the Interfaith Youth Core, currently
finishing up her graduate work at the Divinity School of the University of Chicago.
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