Spiritual Life hosted an Interfaith Thanksgiving event for students to participate in gratitude activities.
“We just want to increase visibility for our spiritual life organization and also to show folks on this campus that spirituality isn’t just limited to religion,” said Mike Park, the assistant director of Student Care and Belonging. “I think a lot of the times when we talk about spirituality, the first thing their minds go to is religion.”
“Especially, I think in a state like Utah, where there’s a predominant religion. It can be sort of perceived in a certain way, but we kind of want to break that preconception and let folks know that spirituality can mean a bunch of different things.”
The Interfaith Thanksgiving was an opportunity for different faith groups on campus to be represented including the LDS Institute, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, and Chabad.
“I think spirituality is an important part of anyone’s life,” said Matthew Zito, an LDS Institute coordinator. “So it’s great if we can help people feel hope and feel belonging. We’re kind of living in a world that feels like we don’t gather together as much, and maybe people feel lonely.”
The International Student Association and the Purple Basket were also present at this event.
“I was asked to be here today because it’s part of showing gratitude,” said Director of Student Care and Special Projects, Chanté Jiménez. “Part of that gratitude is either knowing how resources come to us, but also raising awareness for students who might be wanting to donate [to the Purple Basket]. So we have had quite a few people stop by asking where they can donate in order to express their thanks.”
The International Student Association on campus represents many students that come from different cultural and faith backgrounds around the world.
“I believe that different countries celebrate in different ways and show [their culture] in different ways,” said Larissa Silveira, vice president of the International Student Association and computer science student from Brazil. “I think just being aware of this helps [international students] adapt to different cultures.”
Arielle Del Valle, a junior biology major and co-leader of the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship at Westminster said she recognizes it is hard for students to try something new like joining their weekly Bible studies.
“I would say [the faith community] on campus is definitely small, especially with the nature of our campus,” Del Valle said. “It’s there, but it just needs fostering.”
Spiritual Life hopes to continue hosting events like these to encourage open dialogue and help students feel represented regardless of their beliefs and backgrounds.
“I understand that maybe it’s not super comfortable to talk about how you practice your faith outside of your specific environment or your places of worship,” said Park, assistant director of Student Care and Belonging. “We want to make small steps towards normalizing conversations with people from different faith backgrounds or different cultural backgrounds and talk about these issues that might seem a little difficult.”
“I think in that sort of effort of talking about it more and more, it becomes easier and it becomes a normal part of this community to have conversations across faiths or across backgrounds.”
