While the Ohio University webpage lists more than 30 different options in the Athens area for religious worship, there is only one organization that utilizes interfaith values to create a team that’s “Better Together.”
OU’s Better Together program, which has been active since 2011, encourages students of all or no faiths to make an impact on their environment, specifically on water quality and poverty issues. The organization beat out 100 other campuses to receive the “Best Campus Impact” award for 2012 in the nationwide campaign.
“We see (religious divides) every day in the news,” said Melissa Wales, executive director for United Campus Ministries. “(Interfaith education) allows for students to be able to transcend those barriers … we don’t have to start with what makes us different, but rather focus on our shared values.”
United Campus Ministries and the OU Office of Diversity and Inclusion teamed up to promote the belief by sending two students to the Interfaith Leadership Institute in January. The duo is now amongst the leaders of OU’s Better Together campaign.
Olivia Simkins Bullock, a sophomore studying geography and East Asian studies, and Phillip Morehead, a junior studying health administration services, traveled to Atlanta, where they received an interfaith education to manage the Better Together program.
Morehead, who identifies as Jewish, said that “interfaith is the way to move forward” and that he learned how to handle conflicts in values.
“(My favorite part was learning to deal with) difficult conversations,” Morehead said. “It was a good how-to guide on how to unite people of different faiths or no faith.”
Bullock, who practices Buddhism, said she learned a lot about other religions, as well as how to spread information about the campaign and how to brand it effectively.
“Other schools are really good examples on how they use the name ‘Better Together’ in their event titles,” Bullock said. “Like there was a deodorant drive at another school and they called it ‘Smell Better Together.’ It’s kind of a funny thing, but it gets people thinking.”
Morehead said that the topic of interfaith beliefs is incredibly relevant to college-age people and working with United Campus Ministries helped him rediscover his own faith.
“Our generation as a whole is more open than our parents’,” Morehead said. “It’s something all people, especially our age group, talk about. I learned so many different things about different traditions and faith, and that helps you deal with conflicts.”
eb104010@ohiou.edu
