Two students and a faculty member from Elon University's Better Together group attended an intensive three-day interfaith leadership training institute at Georgetown University's Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs July 25-28.
Sophomores Immanuel Bryant and Mason Sklut traveled to Washington, D.C., with Anthony Hatcher, an Elon communications professor and adviser of Better Together. The three joined students and faculty from across the country at the institute, sponsored by the Chicago-based Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC).
Better Together is one of IFYC’s inititatives. The purpose of the institute is to give student leaders and their campus advisors, known as allies, the vision, knowledge and skills necessary to improve interfaith cooperation on campus. Better Together campus chapters encourage interfaith involvement in causes such as homelessness and hunger. Elon’s Better Together group was created by Zach Jordan ’11 and formally chartered during the 2010-2011 academic year.
The Interfaith Youth Core was founded in 1998 by author and journalist Eboo Patel, who was one of five panelists at Elon’s Convocation for Honors on April 7, 2011. When Patel was on campus last spring, he met with Elon’s Better Together members and offered advice on staying focused and creating worthwhile service oriented projects.
President Barack Obama recently issued a nationwide challenge to colleges and universities to engage in a year of interfaith service. For more information, please visit http://www.ifyc.org/presidents-challenge.