600 Individuals Do Interfaith Work in Pittsburgh

What can 600 people of different ages, faith traditions, and cultures achieve together? A whole lot! To kick off IFYC’s 2007 Days of Interfaith Youth Service (DIYS), Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) recruited 600 volunteers for their 10 DIYS projects in the Pittsburgh, PA area.  The event series, called 1,000PLUS was first dreamed up at IFYC’s 5^th National Conference by John Kroll, Coordinator of Student Development at CMU. 

The projects designed by the 1000PLUS Student Committee ranged from blood drives to city clean-up efforts to a letter writing campaign. Just finding enough work for 600 people proved to be the biggest challenge for the organizers, who solved the logistical problem by pairing with the Emerging Leaders Program at CMU. The event brought together people from many houses of worship, local school districts, and city-wide organizations. The projects lasted from 9am to 4pm with volunteers streaming in up to the last minute. The blood drive was so successful that it was held open for an additional hour and a half to accommodate eager participants.

Hundreds of miles away at the University of Illinois at Chicago, eight campus groups joined together to hold a student-planned and led DIYS called Building Awareness, Building Understanding – UIC Interfaith Discussion on School Violence. They held a “interfaith marketplace” with booths manned by student groups. Participants were asked to move around the room, in 15 minute blocks, to hear the different groups explain a bit about themselves, and their resources for non-violence.  They then broke into small interfaith discussion groups to address questions about violence on campus from each faith tradition’s perspective.  The event culminated in a candlelight vigil, in remembrance of the 23 Chicago Public School students killed this school year. Participants signed a petition requesting a commitment from Mayor Daley to help end violence in Chicago’s schools.

By the end of June, over 50 individuals and organizations will have held DIYS events all over the country. For each event there are at least a dozen stories of interfaith cooperation and kindness.  Tell us yours by emailing Amber Hacker, OET Assistant at amber@ifyc.org.

 

 

 

Fellows Alliance Brings Students Together

As the school year comes to an end, the first year of IFYC’s Fellows Alliance is also drawing to a close. Seventeen students, from all walks of life, from different campuses, with different dreams have spent the past year together learning the business of growing the interfaith movement. During the weekend of April 3-5, the Fellows descended on Chicago for the 2008 Spring Fellows Retreat.  

The retreat gave the Fellows time for reflection and celebration of their accomplishments. Nadeem Modan from Wesleyan University shared his reflections with us, “As a member of the Fellows Alliance, this past year was a very transformative experience. The Fellowship affected me in multiple ways. I not only gained valuable leadership skills and experience, but I also learned that leadership is ultimately about building and fostering the leader in others. Having been through the Fellowship and especially the year-end retreat, I took away a clearer vision on how interfaith work meshes with my future plans.” 

 

After the Fellows had a chance to reunite, the weekend officially began. Northwestern University played host to the group as they participated in workshops on asset-based community development, storytelling, and sustainability. Friday evening, April 4^th, the Fellows met up with the entire IFYC staff for a dinner and poetry performance.   “It was great to see these young people all together. Though the Fellowship is ending for them, I knew just by looking at them together that they had built lasting relationships,” staff member Katya Maslakowski noted.

On Saturday, the group spent much of the day with the youth council of the Chicago-based organization Inner-city Muslim Action Network (IMAN). They also walked to the Ethiopian Synagogue nearby and met with the Rabbi to learn the history of this religious community and its unique struggles to navigate identity questions as Ethiopian Jews. The Fellows then led youth from the synagogue and the IMAN Council in a dialogue about the shared value of service. 

That evening, the Fellows attended a banquet at the home of Sunil and Julia Garg.. Sunil is IFYC’s Board Chair and a Director at Exelon Corporation. At the banquet, the Fellows met with a number of members of IFYC’s Board of Directors. “The people on the Board of Directors came from very different places but were all excited about doing interfaith work. It was a great way to learn that there is not just one type of person that does interfaith work, but that people come at it from many different lifestyles,” Trinity College Fellow Anne Bouthilette told us.

As the last official meeting of the Fellows drew to a close, the sentiment was bittersweet. This past year, these young people have grown together in their efforts to spread pluralism. Nadeem said it best, “Without the year-end retreat and the opportunity to learn from my peers, I would be unable to describe my long-term commitment to the interfaith movement. All the Fellows came from different walks of life, and will probably end up in different corners of the world. Yet regardless of where we are, each one of us will consciously be working towards religious pluralism.”

The Fellows Alliance continues until the end of the school year, when many of the 2008 class will graduate. They have worked hard to pass on the lessons they have learned to others on their campuses, and as alumni they will play an integral part in the next Fellows Alliance. Though their fellowships will soon be over  IFYC is proud to have fostered the development of these emerging leaders in the interfaith youth movement