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Why are you, the founders, starting the group?
The purpose of Interfaith@MIT is to catalyze relationships between religious groups on campus and to invite the MIT community to take notice and take part in activities that reach across cultural, intellectual and religious bounds. Specifically, Interfaith strives towards the following goals:
- Interfaith Catalyst
*: To bring religious or belief groups on campus together, two at a time, to deepen understanding and cultivate respect at both the religious and personal level; to involve the MIT community in interfaith activities on campus; to promote interfaith and faith-specific events on campus and encourage attendance from all belief groups.
- Common Action
*: To organize interfaith cooperation through projects such as service-learning and social action that will influence both personal attitudes and the bonds of a community through a common goal and a positive collective experience.
- Faith Focus
*: To celebrate the diverse and remarkable people on campus, showcasing one belief group at a time through a brief cultural or intellectual presentation to foster understanding between peoples.
How is this group unique? Could the ASA find similarities with other groups? If so, why should this group obtain recognition? What are the differences?
This group is very unique. There is no other interfaith-focused group on campus. The one program that the ASA might see as similar to Interfaith@MIT is the "Addir Fellows Program" organized through the Division of Student Life and run by Ora Gladstone. Throughout the application and starting-up process, Interfaith has worked very closely with Ora for insight and advice, and not only has she agreed that our methodology of fostering interfaith understanding and relationships is fundamentally different, but she has been the biggest advocate of us founding this group so far.
The main difference between the well-established Addir and what Interfaith hopes to accomplish is that Addir fosters deeper intellectual understanding between individuals of different faiths through small group discussions, where Interfaith hopes to bring the established religious groups on campus together through community service and collaborative informative events.
Why does the group need ASA recognition? What resources do you expect to use?
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