Episode 43: Taking Your Faith to College

Episode 43: Taking Your Faith to College

• Episode 43 Transcript

  [00:00:06] BHA: Here at College Admissions Insider, we often mention the fact that college is much, much more than a beeline to professional success.

  [00:00:13] BT: It's also a time of personal discovery, marked by mental, social and, sometimes, spiritual growth. I'm Brooke Thames from Bucknell University. In this episode, we're exploring the role faith can play in a student's college journey.

  [00:00:25] BHA: I'm Becca Haupt Aldredge, also from Bucknell. Today, we'll discuss what a school's religious affiliation might mean for the student experience, what students of faith should look for in religious and spiritual resources and how parents can learn support.

  [00:00:39] BT: Joining us for this important conversation are three experts from Bucknell’s own Division of Religious and Spiritual Life. We have Muhammad Ali, who serves as the University's Muslim chaplain; Jessica Goldberg, who serves as the Jewish chaplain; and Kurt Nelson, who serves as Protestant chaplain and as the Director of Religious and Spiritual Life. Welcome to the podcast.

  [00:01:00] KN: Thanks for having us.

  [00:01:01] JG: Thank you.

  [00:01:02] MA: Happy to be here.

  [00:01:03] BHA: Let's start by hearing a bit more about what each of you do in your respective roles and some of the interactions you tend to have with prospective students.

  [00:01:10] MA: A lot of what I do for the small Muslim community on campus is help students in many ways navigate the adjustment to college life, especially in regard to their faith. So it's navigating faith on a personal level with one-on-one meeting and conversations. Then maybe more than that is navigating and facilitating community for students on campus, whether that’s through events planning, community prayer, interaction with groups of other faiths, and through that just help students feel included and a part of campus as Muslims.

  [00:01:48] KN: I have the great pleasure of working with my wonderful colleagues here to provide for the religious and spiritual well-being of our whole campus community. So as both my colleagues said, a good measure of that is pastoral care, individual care and small group work — support for our wide range of religious communities. I have the pleasure to serve the Rooke Chapel community, our ecumenical Christian worshiping community here at Bucknell on Sunday mornings. Lots of partnership for multifaith and interfaith engagement.

  Then we really want to make lots of broad entry points for just exploring questions of meaning and purpose for the whole community while we're here. So we meet a fair number of prospective students who know they want to be involved with religious life in a specific way and answer those types of questions. Then once the students arrive and see how wonderful, and broad, and vibrant our programs and communities are, then we meet a lot more folks who want to get involved and deepen and learn and grow along the way together.

  [00:02:49] JG:
  My job is sort of twofold. There's one part where the Jewish community on campus is served by an organization called Hillel. Hillel is found on college campuses around the world. I'm the director of the Bucknell chapter of Hillel, so helping to run student programming, and overseeing a student leadership board, and, in general, seeing activities and celebrations — making sure that those are the ones that are student-organized and the ones that are staff-organized or even faculty-organized, making sure those go well.

  Then the other piece of my job is as a chaplain, so I work with Kurt and Muhammad and a team of other chaplains and religious liaisons on campus as part of the multi-faith chaplaincy. So here for pastoral care, for learning, and for just being part of the greater religious and spiritual life and diversity and inclusion teams at Bucknell.

  For a lot of the students coming from a Jewish background, they just want to know that we have an active Jewish community, especially if they were involved in their synagogue or youth group or Jewish summer camp or something like that. At many universities, a big question that will be asked of the Jewish and Muslim chaplains is also about food. I think we'll touch on that a little bit later on in the podcast.

  [00:04:11] BT: Yes, we definitely will. Let's start, though, with talking about the fact that there are tons of colleges and universities with ties to a range of faith traditions. After all, some of the oldest and most prestigious universities in the U.S. were originally founded as religious institutions. Today, when prospective students come across colleges that declare a religious affiliation in the name, what might that communicate about the school and the experience there?

  [00:04:37] KN: Yeah, it's an important and very geeky question. Thank you for that. It means you have to look a little bit deeper into what's going on to understand the full story. As you said, most, actually, private colleges and universities in the U.S. would have been founded by religious bodies. Some continue to have really deep ties to mission, some that's a historical relationship, and some it's somewhere in between. Some have moved completely into a nonsectarian — that is a not formally religious space — as the institution has evolved, and especially as it sought to support a diversity of religious and spiritual views and practices.

  At Bucknell, we were founded by local Baptists who wanted to train their clergy, not import them from overseas. That mission has continued to evolve and change and grow through the course of the history of the institution, and is now mostly part of the historical aspect of the University, with the exception of having such a robust chaplaincy, especially for a small school.

  [00:05:43] BHA: Since the experience, it sounds like, can vary broadly, how can students get a sense of what a school's religious affiliation means to that particular institution, and where should students look or who might they reach out to to get some of that information?

  [00:05:57] JG: Many colleges and universities have a historical affiliation that no longer means much in terms of how the university operates and even kind of the vibe on campus. But a school's website and mission statement are good places to look. I've noticed that a lot of Jesuit, other Catholic-affiliated schools, often have a section on their website that addresses the school's religiously inspired ideals, whereas many mainline-Protestant-affiliated institutions only mentioned this in the section of the website about the school's founding and history.

  The office of religious life, spiritual life — whatever it's called at any given school — can usually provide more information about that and also more information about what the vibe is on campus in terms of religion. Talking to current students is always a great idea, if you can manage to do that as well. Then there are some institutions that are nonsectarian that may still have a little bit of a religious vibe. I’m thinking particularly of my alma mater, which is a nonsectarian, Jewish-sponsored university, Brandeis. Although it is completely secular, we at Brandeis got all of the Jewish holidays off.

  In terms of how those religious affiliations or associations manifest on campus, it could be something as simple as we get more days off during the year or something like that. So, again, look at the calendars, look at the mission statement, get in touch with current students and the professionals in the department of religious life or spiritual life.

  [00:07:34] BT: Yeah. It's so interesting how faith can affect things like the academic calendar. I would have never thought that's a place where prospective students could look. So that's great.

  Now, at Bucknell, particularly, faith-based resources are somewhat centralized under the Division of Religious & Spiritual Life. But I imagine that's just one model of doing it at a college, right? So how can high schoolers figure out what faith-based communities, resources and support look like at the schools that they're applying to?

  [00:08:01] MA: I find that most universities have now a Department of Religious & Spiritual Life in some form or another. One way is to look at the diversity of chaplains on campus. There are many departments of religious life that may only have one Protestant chaplains. But there are also those who have a little bit more broader range of chaplains. Bucknell, for example, has, a Muslim Chaplain and a Jewish chaplain, other faith liaisons from Quaker faith, Zen Buddhism and so on. So asking about those resources available through their religious and spiritual life department will be a great way to find out what's available.

  [00:08:42] KN: At public institutions, the resources are usually going to be off campus, associated through nonprofit work or local faith communities as well. But mercifully, diversity and inclusion efforts have begun over the last decade or so to sort of recognize the importance and centrality of religious life. So usually, folks can answer those questions, but you can Google and call and see.
  Folks who work in religious activities are always happy to talk with prospective students. So feel free to call, email, message, social media — all of those kinds of things. Sometimes, it involves a little bit of legwork, but the religious life chaplain type folks are your friends in that endeavor. If you can't find them, try the diversity and inclusion folks.

  [00:09:22] BHA: Students of different faiths may have unique needs or considerations that relate directly to their faith practice. How might students navigate religious celebrations, services, or routines on a college campus?

  [00:09:33] KN: Yeah. A really important question, and a really hugely significant part of leaving home and turning this into your own tradition, your own faith, rather than just an inherited version thereof. So the goal is to encourage our students to make time for the things that matter, and we think that's possible — certainly here, and we think it's possible elsewhere as well.

  Holidays can be a really tricky navigation time the first time away from home. So almost every institution is going to have some sort of policy or practice for helping folks observe policy, but it will often take some measure of self-advocacy, right — that I need this time off, or I need this space off, or can I make up this work at another time or those kinds of things.

  Here, we have an explicit policy that goes out to all our staff and faculty. But we do ask students to advocate for themselves near the beginning of the semester. So we encourage folks to make themselves known, to use the resources that they can, and to really carve out that space to make things happen and make them your own as you think about how much, how serious, how present this practice is going to be for you in your college education. Where there are, of course, going to be many pressures on your time and attention, pulling you in many directions, we think making space for some quiet, some observance, some community and some marker for celebration is a really important piece of the puzzle.

  [00:10:49] BT: Yeah. Advocacy and agency is so important when it comes to something so personal. So how does that extend to food as well? Jessica mentioned that at the top of the episode. What are the considerations when it comes to dietary restrictions or cultural meal traditions at college?

  [00:11:05] JG: Definitely. So two places to look if you're a student who has religious dietary restrictions: One, look at the meal plans or the dining hall website and see if there is, for example, a kosher meal plan or if the dining hall mentions having kosher or halal meat. Many of them do, then in a number of cases, they may not. We don't have kosher meat at the dining hall here at Bucknell. But if you then go to Hillel, or whatever religious organization exists for your faith on that campus, they may be able to direct you toward other resources. For example, we have a kosher kitchen at the Hillel house. So for students who would like to cook at our kitchen and make a kosher meal for themselves or with friends, they're welcome to come and use the Hillel house for that. We provide kosher meat here.

  In terms of holiday meals and whatnot, that's something also you want to reach out to the chaplains or the directors of those religious organizations, Hillel, Muslim Student Association, whatever it may be, to find out what kinds of things go on on the holidays. So we do have kosher meals for Shabbat and holidays, but that is something you'd have to check the website or ask someone about. It would not be listed on like the Bucknell dining website, for example.

  [00:12:31] BHA: Say resources for students’ particular faith background are difficult to find on the website, how might they go about addressing their needs?

  [00:12:39] MA: I would say either one of two ways: You can contact a chaplain who works in the area of religious faith, whether it's their own faith. Generally, as chaplains, we try to be as informed as possible on different faiths so that we can support all students. There's also Student Services and Diversity & Inclusion, where you can call, email and ask about those resources available.

  [00:13:05] KN: We just celebrated the 20th anniversary of our Muslim Student Association at Bucknell, right? So that was a group of students who were here and made themselves known to the then University chaplain, who is a solo professional at that point in time and said, “Hey, we want to connect and get involved in this way,” and space was made in that space. Similarly, we had a member of the Sikh tradition who came forward during my tenure and said, “We need a little space for prayer, and gathering, and some connection points with local community members.” Actually, it turned out to be the vice president of our Library & IT was happy to connect and make some community connections on that front.

  Absolutely, religious life professionals are here to work with everyone, so make yourselves known. We can start clubs. We can help with spaces. We can build community connections, even in a small town like Lewisburg, Pa., and do that stuff. That's some of the really wonderful work — in addition to, of course, wanting folks to be involved in multifaith and interfaith stuff. We can't always have a chaplain or a specific organization for every tradition, nor would a student necessarily want that. But we do want students to be able to celebrate, share, explore, deepen their practice and share that with others as appropriate.

  [00:14:16] BHA: What I'm hearing is, as chaplains, you all are really the glue that often help connect students not only to one another but to resources. Even if it's not necessarily something that the University has offered before, it sounds like you're always open to working with the students to help them find their community when here.

  [00:14:34] KN: Absolutely. That, of course, goes for students who are not traditionally religious as well, right? That community and connection, and learning, and deepening and all that stuff are very human, and a really joyful part of our job is to build those connections and make those space. Here at Bucknell, and I'm sure many other institutions, all of our occasions and services and programs are open to everyone, regardless of their entry points. We want folks to think of this as learning and connection opportunities in addition to deepening your own practice.

  [00:15:02] BT: So let's switch gears to talking about parents for a second because they are a large portion of our listenership and, of course, may play a role in their child's faith journey. We know that sending your student off on their own for what might be the first time can be scary. So how can parents gain confidence that a school will welcome and support their child's faith-based identity, and how can parents themselves show care for their child's faith journey while in college?

  [00:15:29] KN: A great question and, of course, a really abiding concern for many parents. So first, in an anxious moment as you prepare to send your scholar off, especially in that first summer, that first fall, we want to encourage parents to trust the connections that they've made and the work that they've done. That the deepening that they have encouraged in their children's spiritual life and religious development will continue to do work, even if it looks a little uneven sometimes. Second, you can always help your students be aware of resources that are available. Help show up at the activities fairs or the admissions events where you can meet people, and learn, and explore, and get on mailing lists and all of that sort of stuff. Third, to be aware that this is a time when students need to make their faith, make their practice their own. Sometimes, that involves a period of separation or even push back against the traditions.

  I personally came to college very, very frustrated with the denomination I grew up with, and I attended precisely three religious occasions during my education at a faith-based institution. Yet here I am, doing this as my job. So it's a long journey toward maturity of faith and practice.

  If you want to be involved, if you're concerned about your scholar, the question I always encourage parents — and my campus colleagues and student leaders as well to ask — is, “Are you feeling connected?” If the answer to that question is, “No,” then that can often open up a conversation about past connection points and where there might be an opportunity to show up to a dinner, or a service, or a service project, or a discussion, or a musical offering or whatever it might be and see where those connections lead.

  [00:17:07] MA: Yeah. I'd like to remind parents to feel confident in everything that they put into their child up until that point and just trust that they have those ideas, and that they've instilled in them throughout the course of their 18 years. And that they will find them, they will find connection, and they will, as Kurt said, make their faith their own.

  [00:17:28] BHA: We've talked a lot about those who have strong ties to faith already. But what about those who don't? Do students need to be religious when they apply or attend a college with a religious affiliation?

  [00:17:39] JG: I would imagine that a non-religious student's level of comfort on a campus with a religious affiliation depends largely on how that religious affiliation manifests on that campus. So for example, a place like Boston College or Georgetown, which are religiously affiliated, will attract students of all different faith and non-faith identities because they already have a very diverse student body. They have really high name recognition outside of the Catholic faith. So in that case, probably, the affiliation doesn't make a huge impact on how comfortable people are applying or attending.

  But there are plenty of other colleges, Christian colleges perhaps, where a secular or a non-Christian student would probably not feel as comfortable. Basically, you want to do your research. Look at the website, see how much the faith aspect is mentioned, talk to current students and browse college message boards. I imagine those are still a thing; they were a big thing when I was looking at colleges. So those are a good place to just kind of ask your questions without any fear of judgment like, “Will I be comfortable coming to the school if I don't really believe in the tradition that the school is affiliated with?”

  [00:19:01] BT: On those campuses where there is religious representation, whether that's through an affiliation or chaplains like yourselves, is a religious life office or division open to those who aren't necessarily religious, or who may be spiritual, or may be searching?

  [00:19:19] MA: Short answer is absolutely. My colleagues and I, we often mentioned one of our favorite parts about our work is multifaith efforts, where we get to meet and talk with students or even facilitate conversation between students about their different journeys — where they are in different spaces. We have students who start out religious and become more spiritual, or students who start out more spiritual to become more religious. Being a part of that journey and supporting students through that journey is really the loved part of my work, and I hear the same from many of my colleagues as well.

  [00:19:55] KN: Absolutely. A huge number of the most important participants in some of our multifaith and interfaith endeavors tend to be nontraditionally religious students, folks from mixed religious backgrounds, folks who are exploring and wondering. We want to be a vessel to ask the really big important questions in life, and we want to make space for our array of religious traditions in that question asking, and we want to make a multiplicity of spaces then where people can deepen that practice, that belief, that connection to God and spirit and all of those sorts of things. But, yeah, as a starting point, we are open to everyone all of the time through the midst of all of our events on campus — as connection points, as learning points and as deepening points as well.

  [00:20:37] BHA: As we wrap up this conversation, I want to take a step back and chat a little bit about why all of this matters. Why is religion and spirituality an important piece of life on a college campus? And how does it add to the dynamic and expansive experiences that students will have in college, no matter where are they decided to enroll?

  [00:20:55] MA: I think religion, by whatever name and spirituality we might use, is really about human beings finding meaning and purpose in their life. That is really what college is all about, in addition to finding a career and a field of work or expertise that would earn one a living. It's about the whole person and how they can become who they would like to be. So the exploration of purpose and of meaning, as well as relationships that come out of finding shared purpose and meaning with other students, is an enriching part of college life.

  [00:21:37] JG: I think Hillel and Jewish life are an important piece of the college experience for Jewish students, mostly because it serves as a home base. Even more than the religiosity part of it, it’s about connection and traditions. I don't know a whole lot of Jewish students who come to college and come to Hillel, looking forward to spending three hours praying on a Saturday morning. But I do find a lot of students come over here and are just hoping for a nice warm bowl of matzo ball soup.

  Or they're looking for just people, especially at a place at Bucknell, where it's only about seven percent Jewish, which is actually pretty high. But that could mean you’re the only Jewish person in your class or the only Jewish person in your dorm, whatever. They're looking for places to connect with people who speak some of the same cultural language and remind them of family and of their communities back home. So I think there's that connection piece and that feeling of, “This is different. This is something I've never experienced before, and I want a piece of home in my life to go to once a week or even once a month or just on holidays.”

  I think also, the work that we do in Religious & Spiritual Life really set students up to gain an appreciation for the diversity of beliefs and practice that are out there in the world that they're entering. Most of them are coming from their specific contexts. Many of them have only lived in one place, only experienced life in one way. When you get out there and meet other people, both within your own religious tradition and of other religious traditions, there's just so much to be learned about others and really about yourself as well. So I encourage everyone to attend a religious event, attend the multifaith event, just to see what that brings up in them and what you learn about life. If it's not for you, that's fine. But I think that there's value in it for everyone.

  [00:23:43] KN: One of my mentors in the field used to say that she often felt as if students got the impression that, really, they were just brains on a stick through the college experience, and that they're being poured into mentally. But that we have the privilege of sort of asserting again and again that we believe the whole person matters, right? Heart and soul questions and convictions, that that matters. The spiritual connection is a big piece of things.

  So if somebody comes in knowing they want to deepen their religious practice, knowing they want to deepen their spirituality, we welcome that and recognize it as a wonderful thing and a joy to work with such folks. We also know that this is a component of well-being. A perhaps underutilized component of mental health and well-being is to sort of develop a practice of gratitude, of prayer, of meditation. As both my colleagues said, the connection piece is just so essential that the human piece, the eating meals together, being in community together, knowing that there's a group of people who care about you. Religious communities do that really well.

  And religious life matters because religion matters in the world civically, right? We think this is a tremendous learning opportunity. We have wonderful colleagues in religious studies, and we think there's nothing quite like having a friend of a different tradition to sort of change your worldview, right? To sort of say, “I know and I love somebody who practices and believes differently than I do,” is something that we can help cultivate, and that we think is a really special and civically important aspect of a residential education, such as the kind we offer here. It’s a tremendous opportunity we think.

  We recognize that there is some baggage with religious stuff. We recognize that not everybody speaks the language. But it's a tremendous, tremendous opportunity to learn, to connect, to be supported and to do some of that deepening work to figure out who we are and what we're meant to do with our life.

  [00:25:34] BT: Yeah, I love that. It's really all about that holistic learning and growth. Well, I think that's a really awesome note to close this episode of College Admissions Insider. Thanks again to Jessica, Muhammad and Kurt for lending their insight into this nuanced and important piece of the college experience.

  [00:25:52] JG: Thanks so much for having us.

  [00:25:52] KN: Such a pleasure. Thanks for having us.

  [00:25:53] MA: Thanks for having us.

  [00:25:54] BHA: Thanks to everybody out there listening. If you're a fan of the podcast, please take a moment to rate, subscribe, and share this episode with students and families in your life.

  [00:26:02] BT: We’ll be back with another episode in just two weeks. In the meantime, send your questions, comments, and episode ideas to podcast@bucknell.edu.

  [00:26:12] BHA: Finally, you're invited to follow Bucknell on your favorite social media apps. Just look for @bucknellu on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and now TikTok. You can also follow our student-run Instagram account, which is @iamraybucknell.

  [00:26:27] BT: Until next time, keep on reaching for your dreams and your dream school.