Georgetown University students founded a group that aims to foster collaborative discussion across religious beliefs and hosted their first meeting Feb. 10.
Arun Sood (CAS ’26), Maya Belorusskiy (SFS ’28) and Jackson Smith (SFS ’28) founded Interreligious Dialogues for Engagement and Awareness (IDEA), the first co-ed and open-access student organization dedicated to encouraging interfaith dialogue. Supported by Campus Ministry, the group intends to provide space for students to grapple with questions of religion, spirituality and humanity at bi-weekly meetings.
Belorusskiy said her upbringing fostered an interest in connecting with peers across differences.
“I grew up in a culturally Ashkenazi Jewish household. Coming to Georgetown’s campus, I have enjoyed engaging in weekly Shabbat services with Jewish life,” Belorusskiy wrote to The Hoya. “I have had the pleasure of sharing about my faith in numerous interfaith contexts and would love to continue doing that.”
Sood, Belorusskiy and Smith, who come from three different religious backgrounds, had been active in Campus Ministry programming prior to forming the organization. IDEA joins other interfaith organizations supported by Campus Ministry, including the Black Interfaith Fellowship, a group dedicated to uplifting Black students of different faiths, and Women in Faith, a group for women to explore the intersection of gender and religion.
Michael Haycock, the associate director for interreligious programs and operations for Campus Ministry, said he felt excited when the students approached Campus Ministry about creating the organization.
“We were enthused to see organized student interest in fostering interreligious conversation and relationships, building both on grassroots engagement and, for some first-years, on their experience in the first cohort of Campus Ministry’s new interfaith pre-orientation program, Encounter,” Haycock wrote to The Hoya.
Belorusskiy said the leaders looked to Georgetown’s values when designing a space to share their passion for interfaith dialogue.
“A primary motivation was to support Georgetown’s existing tradition of supporting Ignatian values, specifically the campus commitment to interreligious understanding,” Belorusskiy said. “Growing closer with Jackson and Arun over the course of last semester, I was amazed at the communal spirit for dialogue and understanding that we cultivated.”
Sood, who also leads meditations at the John Main Center for Christian Contemplation, which facilitates guided meditations, said he was impressed by the respect participants showed each other during discussions at the group’s first meeting.
“So in my group there was a strong atheist in a group of religious students and I think it was great to see that interaction in that dialogue,” Sood told The Hoya. “It was tame, it was honest and it was contemplating, and I think that’s the purpose of IDEA: having the people from different faith groups able to interact and be honest about who they are and where they might be going.”
Haycock said he looks forward to seeing IDEA evolve to support religious diversity on campus.
“We have observed that desire for dialogue often increases in proportion with increases in conflict in broader society,” Haycock said. “No matter how difficult the times turn out to be, we hope that IDEA can model the Spirit of Georgetown value of community in diversity, equip students with tools and techniques for holding tensions and building relationships and provide a venue for students to form and deepen such relationships.”
Belorusskiy said she hopes to invite chaplains, residential ministers and other members of Campus Ministry to future meetings to share their spiritual journeys and their perspectives on interreligious dialogue.
“I am looking forward to hopefully bringing in more people, more faith backgrounds, more relationships with faith and spirituality and hopefully engaging in many more topics,” Belorusskiy said. “I am so, so impressed by the breadth of conversation that we had today, and I really do think this was a good idea.”