University Interfaith Leaders

Last night Amy and I met with the Interfaith Scholars at DePaul University, a group of incredible students committed to interfaith action and dialogue on their campus.  We heard about the interfaith cafes they hold every other week and the work they are doing to promote intentional interfaith interaction at DePaul.  It was especially encouraging to hear about their interest in potentially collaborating with us on interfaith programming targeting the issues of global poverty and malaria eradication.

In our first month as Faiths Act Fellows, it has been meetings like this that have kept us going. Building a movement is no easy task, and it can sometimes be discouraging to feel like you keep putting yourself out there and people are just too busy or distracted to notice. Seeing the great interfaith work that’s already happening at DePaul is re-energizing, reminding us that when people from different backgrounds come together and commit themselves to common concerns, broad-scale social change is entirely possible.  

At the end of the Interfaith Scholars meeting each week, they go around the room and do final check-outs, each person saying what they’ve learned from the meeting or how they’re feeling at the time. One of the student leaders mentioned that in the past hour he’d learned more about malaria than ever before, and he was excited to work with us to bring the Faiths Act campaign to his interfaith work at DePaul.

When it was my time to speak, I reflected on how inspired I was to be in a room with such dedicated and enthusiastic leaders.  The Interfaith Scholars at DePaul are a model program for interfaith work on a collage campus, and I look forward to working with them to move interfaith action and dialogue forward in Chicago.

Rebecca Oyen