February is Social Justice Month!

Jump to Comments

So I’m excited for this month. One of our student groups on campus, the Patrick Healy Fellows, have organized “25 Days of Service” where different student groups collaborate with each other (for example the Chinese Student Alliance and Women in Politics) to jointly do a service activity. Everyday, there will be some sort of service  happening either on campus or in DC. They were able to get a grant from the university to make this happen. I think it’s a great idea (and perhaps can be emulated elsewhere?) because it allows different student groups to work together when they may not usually do so. So, the Interfaith Council is getting all the faith groups together to do a sort of cook-off for a local homeless shelter. Groups will be diverse and will be responsible for one part of a meal–dessert, appetizer, main course, etc. We will all take over the kitchens of one of the dorms on campus and cook the meal and a few of us will also go over to the homeless shelter to serve the meal.

Another event we are hosting is a student-led panel on faith and social justice. Five different student leaders on campus from different religious groups will speak about their faith and its connection to social justice–and what that means for them personally. I’m excited, because we talked quite a bit about “telling your story” and I think this is a great example of doing so because they will be speaking from their own experiences.

Finally, another February-related social justice event that we’re organizing is a Social Justice and Faith Career Fair. Basically, we’re trying to get 15-20 different organizations, non-profits, charities, etc. that are faith-based (and trying to get groups from diverse faiths) to come in and set up booths about their work, and volunteer, internship and job opportunities.  It’s a great way to develop relationships with the amazing number of resources we have in the DC-area and also allow students to think outside of the traditional places to work or volunteer and think about how faith based organizations are working on issues relating to poverty alleviation and development. We’re working with Our Moment, a student international development organization on campus, on this mini-career fair.

It’s going to be a busy month but I’m really excited!

Leave a Comment

Filed under hafsakanjwal