The Weekly Fellows’ Post

Training with the Interfaith Youth Core – Katherine O’Brien

Last June, the incoming fellows for the Center for Religion and Global Citizenry were offered the opportunity to go the Interfaith Leadership Institute (ILI) in Chicago. The ILI is a conference hosted by the Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC), a non-profit with the goal of “making interfaith cooperation a social norm.” Students, educators, and IFYC staff gathered to learn how to participate in and guide interfaith dialogue and activism.

For the few weeks between agreeing to go and arriving in Chicago, I wondered what an event like this would look like. I had read Acts of Faith by Eboo Patel, the founder of IFYC, as a freshman. I connected with it because Patel discusses the raw anger and frustration he felt during his undergraduate years, as he learned more and more about the injustices and massive disparities in the world. Many of us can relate to this. For me, the more I learn, the more issues I care about… and, often, the more powerless I feel. It is overwhelming and distressing how much I want to do and how little I can do. For this reason, Eboo’s book was inspiring. It tells his story of channeling his anger and passion into a sustainable, community-based solution to a specific issue.

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