Interfaith America is a national nonprofit dedicated to fostering cooperation among people of different faiths and worldviews for the common good. Founded in 2002 as the Interfaith Youth Core, the organization equips leaders across higher education, civic life, and various professions with resources, training, and programs to unlock the potential of America’s religious diversity.

This work aligns with Interfaith America’s mission to integrate religious diversity into healthcare in order to strengthen public health outcomes. Through its Faith & Health Campus Grants, Interfaith America supports cross-disciplinary teams that embed interfaith competency across health-related curricula, build sustainable partnerships with community organizations and deepen public understanding of religion as a social determinant of health.

The ������Ƶ project team brings together expertise in public health, nursing, interreligious studies, and global religion. Molly Green (Public Health), focuses on how social environments shape health outcomes among Middle East/North African (MENA) populations. Jeanmarie Koonts (Nursing) has more than 35 years of experience in maternal-child nursing and is a founding faculty member of �����Dz�’s Nursing program. She led the creation of the Bridging Faith and Health certificate program in the School of Health Sciences. Helen Orr (Religious Studies), specializes in interreligious studies and religious conflict in the Balkans. She developed and hosts the online certificate course “Multifaith Literacy for Professional Environments” on the ������ƵNext platform. Brian Pennington, a historian of modern religion in India and a leading scholar in interreligious studies, directs �����Dz�’s Center for the Study of Religion, Culture, and Society. Orr, Koonts, and Pennington all served as 2024 Faith and Health Fellows with Interfaith America.

Together, the team will produce publicly accessible educational materials and will incorporate the simulations into a new Core Curriculum course, “The Spirit of Health: Exploring Faith, Culture, and Care.” They also plan to publish scholarly work and present at national conferences to share insights from developing and testing these innovative learning tools.

More than 50 immigrant and refugee students received recognition for their dedicated participation in weekly English classes supported by ������Ƶ students, faculty, and staff.

The graduation marks a milestone in an ongoing partnership between the Burlington Masjid and �����Dz�’s Multifaith Scholars Program, as well as �����Dz�’s Global Neighborhood. Throughout this academic year, ������Ƶ students and staff have volunteered at the Masjid, providing structured ESL instruction, tutoring and conversation support to a community made up primarily of newcomers from Afghanistan and Syria.

“This initiative is rooted in our commitment to global citizenship and local engagement,” said Sandy Marshall, faculty director of the Global Neighborhood and interim director of the Multifaith Scholars Program. “The Burlington Masjid plays a vital role in supporting newly arrived refugees, and this collaboration is a natural extension of our shared goals.”

Each Sunday morning throughout the academic year, approximately 50 students have gathered for lessons in listening, reading and writing in English. The program is tailored to meet the unique needs of learners adapting to life in a new country.

Multifaith Scholar Bethany Marzella ’24 and ������Ƶ College Fellow Rachel Curtis ’24 were among the early volunteers who helped launch the initiative with just a handful of students in 2023. As the number of refugee families in the Burlington area increased, so did interest from ������Ƶ volunteers, especially amid reductions in federal refugee resettlement support.

Alyssa Carney ’26, an international and global studies and history double major, and Owen Hayes ’26, a history major, began volunteering in fall 2024,  as part of their community engagement efforts with the MFS program. Recognizing the need for consistent, structured language support, they worked with Marshall and the Masjid to help expand the program.

“Seeing the class grow has been incredible,” said Dina Halayqa, volunteer coordinator for the ESL program at the Masjid. “This is more than just grammar and vocabulary. It’s a space where people are rewriting their stories in a new land.”

Greatly contributing to the growth of the program has been the dedicated support given by Nicole Galante, assistant director of National and International Fellowships, who joined as a volunteer in January. Like Halayqa, Galante agrees that the program is about more than language learning.

“Meaning-making is a communal process that transcends the boundaries of language,” said Galante. “I love helping students at the masjid learn English, but I really love coming together despite our differences to learn more about ourselves and the world.”

Additional volunteers who joined in the spring include Jesse White ’26, also a multifaith scholar, Tajallah Amirkhil ‘28, Huria Tahiry ‘26 and Jenna Abousaab ‘27. With increased capacity, the program offers two class sections: one for primarily Arabic-speaking students from Syria, and another for Dari and Pashto speakers from Afghanistan.

“As a Syrian American, it’s incredibly meaningful to have been a part of this experience,” said Abousaab, “which has not only allowed me to give back to the community but has helped me reconnect with my roots in a way I never expected.”

Yasmeen, a Syrian student in the program, shared what the class has meant to her: “I still have a lot of learning to do, but this class has taught me how to build relationships in my community and communicate with my neighbors.”

For the ������Ƶ students involved, the experience has offered insight into community engagement, cross-cultural connection and mutual learning.

As the program looks to continue in the next academic year, organizers hope to further expand the curriculum, recruit more volunteers, and build on the deep relationships formed through language and learning.

After a highly selective application and interview process, students are awarded $5,000 annually to support research and study in global contexts connected with religious diversity and multi-religious societies. Students who show great potential as academically curious and socially engaged leaders committed to their own ongoing development and the enhancement of their local and global communities are selected each spring.

Sandy Marshall, associate professor of geography, serves as interim director of the Multifaith Scholars program this year while Professor Amy Allocco is on research leave in South India funded by the American Institute of Indian Studies.

“We had a very strong applicant pool, and I am excited about the diversity of backgrounds and research interests represented in this new cohort,” Marshall said. “Their topics span a range of time periods and regions, from the Middle East to here in North America. Likewise, their proposed research combines diverse interdisciplinary perspectives from history and politics, to economics and psychology. We are excited to work with these students and their mentors over the next two years to facilitate their scholarly development and personal growth.”

In addition to pursuing their faculty-mentored undergraduate research projects and undertaking academic coursework in religious studies and interreligious studies, the scholars will extend the program’s ongoing community partnership with the Burlington Masjid. Through the partnership, scholars participate in youth and social events with the local Muslim community, teach in the mosque’s English-language tutoring program, join community garden workdays, volunteer with the food pantry, and take part in potlucks and iftar meals during Ramadan.

Project Title: Navigating Modesty from a Modern Perspective: A Comparison of Adolescent Muslim Women in Palestine and North Carolina.
Major: Political Science
Minor: Interreligious Studies
Mentor: Amy Allocco

Kenzie Ross

Project Title: Economics and the Relationship between Religion and a Consumption-Based Economy
Majors: Economics Consulting, Marketing
Minor: Interreligious Studies
Mentor: Cora Wigger

Christina Skelly

Project Title: Rewriting the Script: Muslim Women, US Policy, and the Legacy of Orientalism
Majors: International and Global Studies, Religious Studies
Minors: Islamic Studies, Middle Eastern Studies, Political Science
Mentor: Sandy Marshall

Lizeth Torres-Tomas

Project Title: Faith, Law, and Migration: Analyzing the Sanctuary Movement and Faith-Based Responses to Anti-Immigrant Policies Surrounding Latinx and Muslim Communities
Majors: Political Science, Sociology
Minor: Interreligious Studies
Mentor: Michael Matthews

This year’s conference centered around the theme of “Transitions.” Student paper topics ranged from the comparison of Gen X and Gen Z views of religion to the evolution of sexual and Christian themes in vampire films. Their international research took them to elephant sanctuaries in Kenya and Tibetan Buddhist centers in India; their rigorous methods included ethnographic interviews and visual analyses of cinema; and their conclusions contributed to such psychological challenges as anger management and recovery from religious trauma.

The American Academy of Religion is the largest scholarly organization in the world dedicated to the professional study of religion. Roughly three hundred scholars working at colleges and universities in this region regularly participate in the annual meeting. The regional meeting also offers limited spots for undergraduate students to present their academic research and engage with professional scholars from across the region.

Four sessions were held to showcase undergraduate research, and ������Ƶ students garnered five of the 16 highly competitive undergraduate slots. Three of the five students were members of �����Dz�’s Multifaith Scholars program, led by Interim Director Sandy Marshall, who also attended the conference. Another student was a Lumen scholar, and one student took the initiative to craft their own credit-bearing undergraduate research project for ELR. All five students were closely mentored in their discipline by an ������Ƶ faculty member who helped to guide their research and prepare their presentations over the course of their junior and senior years. The papers will also be delivered before ������Ƶ audiences on SURF Day, Tuesday, April 29, 2025.

Support for travel was provided by the Center for the Study of Religion, Culture, and Society, the Department of Religious Studies and the Office of Undergraduate Research. The funding also supported a small student group of conference observers as well as group co-organizer Sheila Otieno, assistant professor of religious studies and distinguished emerging scholar of religious studies.

Undergraduate Research Presentations

Sandoh Ahmadu (MFS), “Bridging East and West: An Alternative for Emotional Self-Regulation” (Pamela D. Winfield, mentor)

Kiara Cronin (MFS), “Traditional Faith, Contemporary Doubts: Is Christianity Adapting to Generation Z?” (Sandra Reid, mentor)

Drew Fetterolf, “The Elephant in the Room: Being Maasai, Tourism, and Conversation” (Sheila Otieno, mentor)

Olivia Lancashire (Lumen Scholar ), “A New Intervention: High Control Religion, Hell, and Healing” (Lynn Huber, mentor)

Kaelyn Rosenburg (Multi-Faith Scholar), “Unholy Desires: The Evolution of Christianity and Sexuality in Vampire Film” (Nicole Triche, mentor)

������Ƶ Faculty Presentations

Pamela D. Winfield, “Materiality as Method: How to Do Things with Zen”

Andrew Monteith, “Queering and Dwelling: Applying Religious Studies to a 1930s Sexual Autobiography”

The program was produced under a grant from the Chicago non-profit Interfaith America as part of its national “Faith and Health” initiative to provide professional development in university and clinical settings and promote compassionate, client-centered care that respects patients’ beliefs.

�����Dz�’s unfolded over three sessions. Each session explored a different aspect of faith-informed care:

• Why Faith Matters & the Role of Spirituality in Patient Care
• Faith-Informed Care & Supporting Patients’ Religious Need
• Guiding Hands & Insights from Religious Leaders

The final session featured a panel discussion among three of �����Dz�’s chaplains, Rev. Kirstin Boswell, Rabbi Maor Greene and Imam Shane Atkinson. The three religious professionals shared stories of the communities they serve navigating various healthcare systems in the United States.

Thirty-three students completed all three sessions in October and received a digital badge and certificate, and the accomplishment was noted on their ������Ƶ Experiences transcript. In addition, all 57 attendees earned a symbolic “Bridging Faith & Health” pin, highlighting their dedication to inclusive, faith-conscious healthcare.

“Bridging Faith and Health” was hosted by the Student Health Services Student Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee.

Assistant Professor of Nursing Jeanmarie Koonts, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies Helen Orr, and Brian Pennington, professor of religious studies and director of the Center for the Study of Religion, Culture, and Society, have created a program that enhances intercultural competence for the students in the School of Health Sciences.

The Bridging Faith and Health Micro-Credential Badge certifies that students in the School of Health Sciences at ������Ƶ have received training in religious literacy and faith consciousness for healthcare settings.

“The program is important because it builds on the foundational knowledge that pre-health students receive about social determinants of health, and it challenges them to expand that view in light of current evidence-based research,” said Koonts.

The certificate program aims to provide pre-health students with knowledge about religious communities and to expand their comfort in engaging patients in dialogue about their comprehensive health needs.

“In a religiously and culturally diverse world multifaith literacy is an essential skill,” said Orr.

Koonts notes that such literacy is central to the mission of the School of Health Sciences: “Educating clinicians who can provide individualized, safe, appropriate, compassionate client-centered care is the benchmark we are striving to achieve through this and all our educational endeavors,” she said.

Students completing the certificate will attend sessions on the relationship of patients’ faith to healthcare decision-making, healthcare outcomes and healthcare equity. Students who attend all three sessions and complete a post-test and reflection will earn the badge, and their certification will appear on their ������Ƶ Experiences transcript.

Interfaith America, a Chicago-based non-profit that promotes US pluralism, selected Koonts, Pennington and Orr as part of the 2024-25 Faith and Health Fellows cohort to develop this certification course centered on holistic client-centered care. Interfaith America supports fellows in conceiving and implementing academic initiatives that advance awareness and understanding of the impact of religious identity and practice in healthcare settings.

Three information sessions will be held on Oct. 15, 22 and 29 from 12 to 1 p.m. in the Francis Center (Room 178).

The initiative arose from �����Dz�’s Multifaith Strategic Plan, which called on the university to develop “opportunities for employees, alumni, adult, and professional learners to develop religious literacy competencies.” When CSRCS Director Brian Pennington went to look at how other DEI and bias training programs might have developed effective ways of offering those opportunities, he discovered that “few, it seems, had thought of religious diversity in the workplace as a professional or human resources issue worthy of attention in its own right.”

When he took that discovery to Jack Rodenfels, director of professional and continuing studies at ������Ƶ, they agreed that ������Ƶ was well-positioned to fill that gap. This fall, ������ƵNext released , an online training course addressing the need and importance of understanding and respecting diverse faith perspectives in today’s workplace.

According to Pennington, the real talent behind the course, however, was Helen Orr, assistant professor of religious studies, who wrote the scripts for the course and developed the supporting materials and activities. Orr is the online course instructor, leading the trainee through modules on dress and diet in the workplace, the workplace calendar, conflict in the workplace and stereotypes. Video Producer Andrew Bacon and Instructional Technologist Becky Kloepfer provided technical support and guidance.

Thanks to their work, professionals around the country will now have an opportunity to gain valuable insights and skills that enhance their understanding of cultural and spiritual diversity, preparing them to engage confidently with religious diversity in their work environments.