President Obama’s Interfaith and Community Service Challenge
In response to President Obama’s Interfaith and Community Service Campus Challenge, the Office for Religious Life and the Haas Center for Public Service—in collabration with campus departments, faculty, student organizations, and student leaders—are launching the Interfaith and Community Service Campus Challenge. The 2011–12 theme is Hospitality and Welcoming the Stranger: Immigration in the Bay Area Through the Lens of Hunger and Homelessness.
Through this program, students partner with community organizations that focus on the issues of hunger, homelessness, and immigration. Students will regularly convene to reflect on their practical service experiences and discuss complex civic and religious issues associated with immigration and welcoming the stranger. Throughout the year, students get the opportunity to grow and learn in their own personal beliefs within an interfaith community.
In addition to fostering a diverse community of students, faculty, and administrators, we believe the President’s Challenge will connect service-minded Stanford community members to opportunities that will encourage and empower immigrants. Our initiative will be led by students of diverse backgrounds. Our goal is to diminish the estrangement of the immigrants’ experience in the Bay Area and increase tolerance for different belief systems through respectful dialogue. By establishing the common ground of service to immigrants, we hope to enable participants to feel more comfortable discussing controversial religious issues, specifically how different faiths evaluate and address topics concerning immigration and hospitality.
Individuals from all backgrounds—religious and nonreligious—are invited to participate. To get more information and to join the challenge, click on the link below.
