Over the past month, the Interfaith Exploration Program gave University of Michigan students the chance to visit various places of worship across the city of Ann Arbor. This student-run initiative aimed to foster better understanding between religions among students of all faiths and backgrounds.
The IEP planned five total visits each Saturday from March 9 to April 6, starting with the Ann Arbor Seventh Day Adventist Church and concluding at the Islamic Center of Ann Arbor. Over the course of the program, students also visited the Ann Arbor Zen Buddhist Temple, the Beth Israel Congregation and the Jewel Heart Tibetan Buddhist Center.
In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Business freshman Aleena Malik spoke on how the program came about. As part of PSYCH 223: Entrepreneurial Creativity, LSA senior Iman Kadwani, Business sophomore Maya Lindsley, and Business freshman Aleena Malik were asked to pitch a product or event to devote their semester-long class to creating. In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Malik said after an initial round of rejected proposals, the idea for the IEP was created and accepted.
According to Kelly Dunlop, associate director for the Center for Campus Involvement and Interfaith Lead for Student Life, awareness of the importance of religious identity to students has grown over time. Dunlop has worked on initiatives to increase awareness and opportunities for students whose faith identities are important to them and their individual college experience, which she says have gained traction over the years. The University has since included faith and interfaith-related goals as part of the DEI 2.0 Strategic Plan.
“Starting off, I felt like … a lot of people just didn’t realize how important religious identity is for some of our students,” Dunlop said. “To go from that and feeling like we weren’t prioritizing it, or that it was low down in terms of opportunities for students to engage across that type of difference, to now it being an institutional priority feels like a huge step forward.”
In middle school Malik participated in Religious Diversity Journeys, a program where students from various schools in Metro Detroit came together to visit different houses of worship. Hoping to provide a similar experience here at the University, Malik said the goal of the initiative extends past just academic incentives, especially in light of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.
“I’m Muslim, so naturally with everything going on in the world I really want to promote empathy and understanding, not just among Jews and Muslims, but anyone who is interested and curious about religious backgrounds,” Malik said.
Malik said the team designed IEP to include those who wanted to learn more about the histories between religions in addition to their beliefs and practices.
“There is a very deep-rooted history as to why these things happen,” Malik said. “ It doesn’t just happen all of a sudden.”
The IEP was made possible in part by the LSA Barger Leadership Institute Grant. Malik and her team applied for and received a $500 grant from the institute in order to fund costs such as program advertising, meals for attendees and Uber transportation to and from the event for those without a car.
According to Malik, their professor advised the students that they would have to focus on promotion for the project. Despite this, Malik said that organizing 20 college students each weekend proved to be more difficult than she and her team expected.
“As we’re seeing now, it’s really hard to get kids to come out on a Saturday morning at 10 a.m.,” Malik said.
Malik said that the leaders they worked with in developing the IEP were excited about being included in the project.
“All the leaders have been really welcoming,” Malik said. “They told me that if we want to come again, if this continues on, definitely reach out to them. Even the members who weren’t really involved in our visit came up to me and were like, ‘Thank you for coming. We really appreciate you guys coming inside and praying with us.”’
In an interview with The Daily, Business junior Giana Anguiano, who attended the IEP’s second session, said she was surprised when visiting the Ann Arbor Zen Buddhist Temple. Though she was excited to learn about a religion different from her own, she faced apprehension when asked to take part in the house of worship’s practices.
“At first I was hesitant because personally I am Christian and I really love learning about other religions,” Anguiano said. “So as soon as we walked in there I was like, ‘OK, we’re going to be learning about this,’ but they actually had us practicing what they do. That was a little like, ‘Oh whoa, should I be doing this? Should I not be doing this? Or if I do do this, am I doing it right? Or is there a wrong way to do it?’”
Anguiano said she valued the opportunity to experience something new and learn about the history of Zen Buddhism.
“I really appreciated how welcoming they were at the temple and also how responsive they were to questions,” Anguiano said.
Anguiano said she wishes there were more discussions promoting interfaith community on campus.
“As a freshman, you’re overwhelmed with all of these religious organizations,” Anguiano said. “I wish there were more discussions between them — or if they do exist, I don’t know about them.”
Malik shared a memory from her trip to the Beth Israel Congregation with the IEP in which the Rabbi invited one of the visiting students to say a prayer with the congregation at the front of the synagogue.
“That was a super unifying experience,” Malik said. “It was a really cool moment because I could stand and express … our oneness as humanity.”
Daily News Contributor Juliana Tanner can be reached at jntanner@umich.edu.