President's Interfaith and Community Service Challenge
This year Hendricks Chapel will join 300 other university and college campuses across the nation in competing for a Presidential citation through the President’s Interfaith and Community Service Challenge. This initiative invites institutions of higher education to commit to a year of interfaith and community service programming on campus. The best examples of students coming together will be recognized by the White House in the spring.
Syracuse University will sponsor the following programs in conjunction with this challenge:
- Better Together : The Better Together campaign is a national initiative designed to mass mobilize students across campus in addressing significant social issues. Syracuse University joins colleges and universities across the country in this campaign sponsored by the Interfaith Youth Core.
This year the Syracuse University Interfaith Student Council has chosen to focus on the issue of hunger. For more information contact, Dean Steinwert at tsteinwe@syr.edu.
- The Wisdom Stories Project is a program designed to foster literacy, critical thinking, and moral and ethical leadership in children and youth by exploring wisdom stories from a wide variety of religious traditions. The curriculum is based on stories specially written or adapted for children by Ralph Singh. Told from the perspective of a child or an animal, each story teaches a particular value or reinforces a particular character trait. Students will read traditional wisdom stories and learn to write their own. For more information, contact the Office of Engagement Programs at smbyrd@syr.edu
- Rhythm and Roots (R&R) is a project of music educator, Nisha Purushotham, that uses African diaspora drumming to create community across difference, increase cultural competency and discuss the role of religion and spirituality in the arts. R&R is co-sponsored by Hendricks Chapel, The School of Education and the College of Visual and Performing arts. It will include an interdisciplinary course on the use of music as a means of fostering community and mediating conflict, a community course for high school students in communities of conflict (primarily the Somali-Bantu Muslim and African-American Christian communities), as well as an apprenticeship for students that will ensure this program continues at the university and in the community beyond the residency. For more information, contact the Office of Engagement Programs at smbyrd@syr.edu
- Contemplative Video is a project of artist, Anne Beffel, that employs videos as a means of interreligious dialogue. By creating contemplative videos, videos from a completely still and non-violent perspective students, are encouraged to slow their pace, appreciate the world around them and consider the perspectives of others. Through a dialogue of videos, students begin to talk about differences and similarities in perspective, faith, and values. University students will engage and be trained in this form of video dialogue and will facilitate workshops for diverse high school students. For more information contact, Dean Steinwert at tsteinwe@syr.edu.
- The Interfaith Student Council is a new initiative that brings together a select group of 10 to 20 students to lead interfaith initiatives on campus. This year we will pilot the group, create a sustainable structure, train student leaders and craft a plan for interfaith action on campus. Student participants are selected through an application process designed to identify students from diverse traditions who possess the passion, commitment and dedication to lead sustained interfaith initiatives. For more information contact, Dean Steinwert at tsteinwe@syr.edu.
- Religious Pluralism Trainings will be conducted in a number of different settings to foster awareness of religious pluralism among campus leaders. These sessions will highlight religious diversity on campus, provide basic information about multiple faith traditions, engage people in dialogue, and offer concrete skills for engaging others. These trainings will use storytelling, shared values and common interests as a foundation and framework. For more information contact, Dean Steinwert at tsteinwe@syr.edu.
- Lectures, Presentations and Special Events will be sponsored throughout the year to foster education and raise awareness about religious pluralism. Planned events include:
- September 11th Interfaith Service of Remembrance and Hope
- Ethics of Eating: a five week series that explores the spiritual, ethical, environmental and health aspects of our relationship with food.
- The Faith Fair
- Buglisi Dance Company will present their piece Table of Silence which is a dance of peace.
- Caravanserai: Music from Pakistan
- Aaron Kintu Moses is an educator and activist from Uganda who leads an interfaith school for 700 Muslim, Christian and Jewish students in Africa.
For more information, see our Special Events page.
