Tuesday, April 8, 2014 | TeehNews

 

Better Together Day returns to campus

Lynne Meyer
DIRECTOR OF THE OFFICE OF
SPIRITUAL LIFE & SERVICE LEARNING

People across the country will wear
blue on Better Together Day to raise awareness
about the importance of interfaith cooperation,
on April 10, 2014. People of different religious
and non—religious backgrounds will mobilize
their campuses, communities, and companies
to show the world we are better together, and
here at IIT, we will too.

The .Office of Spiritual Life and
Service Learning and IIT’s Better Together
student organization are hosting'a three-day
long Better Together Day celebration.

Better Together Day was created
in 2013 by the Interfaith Youth Core, a
Chicago-based organization that has, since
its incorporation in 2002, worked on five
continents and with over 200 college and
university campuses, trained thousands in the
principles of interfaith leadership, and reached
millions through the media. IFYC has worked
with partners including the Tony Blair Faith
Foundation, the White House, and the Oflice of
Her Majesty Queen Rania of Jordan. The IFYC’s
goal is both simple and profound; “To change
the public discourse about religion from one of
inevitable conflict to one of cooperation.”

IIT participated in that first Better
Together Day last year, and I am proud to
say that out of 235 campuses to take part, we
were one of only six schools to have more than
50 students, staff and faculty take the Better
Together pledge! Think about that — IIT had
more participation that at least 229 other schools
in the United States. You should all be extremely
proud. I know that I am. As someone whose life
and work are all about building bridges between
people of diverse beliefs, and about making
the world a better place through respectful
cooperation for the greater good, being part of
the IIT family is a dream come true. Clearly, our
diversity is something that we as a community
value.

Better Together Day is not really
just a day. It’s a way of looking at the world, of
choosing hope over despair. It’s the belief that

Shireen Gul
COPY EDITOR

IIT Student Center for Diversity
and Inclusion (SCDI) organized the final “The
Sharing Table” for this academic year last
Thursday.

The Sharing Table is held on the first
Thursday of every month during the academ-
ic term. It is a special program to help foster
personal interaction between undergraduates,
graduate students, and faculty.

You can engage yourself in spirited
conversation about hobbies, culture, sports, or
current events while dining at The Commons.

A small group of students are given
the chance to learn a great deal about their in-
structors in this type of social setting.

we as the human race can be enriched by our
differences, rather than destroyed by them. We
have a long way to go, but we’re getting there.
How do we begin to build these bridges of
understanding? By talking to each other. By
telling our stories, and respectfully listening to
the stories that others tell us.

According to Eboo Patel, founder and
executive director of the IFYC, in “Storytelling
and Social Change” published in Sojourners
“Stories are the way human beings understand
and communicate our deepest values.”
Storytelling is at the heart of IFYC’s approach
to building interfaith cooperation, and for good
reason. Stories have power. The narratives that
we tell about ourselves and each other can divide
us, or inspire and unite us.

And so, to explain why I am such
a strong supporter of Better Together Day, I
need to tell you a story. On July 4, 1976, the
200th birthday of the United States, a Laotian
family of Hmong refugees arrived in Chicago,
after a grueling 13 months in refugee camps
in Thailand. Mr. and Mrs. Xiong and their six
young daughters (who ranged in age from 2
to 12) were fleeing a devastating Civil War
and it’s even more devastating aftermath, one
which would end up claiming the lives of
approximately 25% of the Hmong population
in Laos. We were introduced to the weary and
homeless Xiongs by my mother’s aunt, my
Great—Aunt Esther, a Baptist missionary whose
work was dedicated to resettling and supporting
refugees from around the world. Through her
work, I would come to know people from India,
from China, and more. But I remember the
Xiongs because I met them first, and knew them
at the best.

“Your church’s parsonage is currently
vacant, correct?” Aunt Esther asked my mother
in a phone call out of the blue one day. My
Congregationalist Christian mother said yes,
and soon the Xiongs had a safe, if small and
simple, place to stay at the United Church of
Christ church that she attended. This began a
two—year-long relationship between my family,
the Xiongs, and my Aunt, during that time
my mother moved heaven and earth to help
in any way she could as they strove to make a

This time the event was made full
of joy and knowledge by our leaders from the
Pan-Africa Youth Leadership Program. There
were 24 high school students from eight Af-
rican countries: Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana,
Guinea, Mauritius, Nigeria, Tanzania, and
Uganda.

Illinois Institute of Technology is
a partner with World Chicago and FHI 360
(a Washington, DC. partner organization)
to host participants in the Pan—Africa Youth
Leadership Program under the auspices of the
State Department’s Office of Citizen Exchang-
es.

During the students’ 10-day visit to
Chicago, IIT has been instrumental in provid—
ing an entrepreneurial experience where they
learned to develop solutions to problems they

new home for themselves in a land with very
different customs, and a very different language.
I was just four years old when the saga began,
but I remember two things very clearly; my
mother never asked why she should help, and
she cared not one bit that the Xiongs weren’t
Christian. In her view, she and my Baptist aunt
were simply doing what human beings are called
to do, and that’s to help one another.

To describe the many things that my
mother and my aunt did in those years would
require far more time. I will simply say that as a
result of it, our families became extremely close,
and we stayed in touch even after the Xiongs
became financially independent and moved to
another state. The family prospered and the girls
went on, one by one, to graduate from college.

Twelve years after we had first
met, one of the Xiong girls got married, and
my mother and I were invited to attend the
wedding. It was a beautiful, traditional Laotian
ceremony, and not the least bit Christian. To
my recollection, we were the only non-Laotians
present, and we were humbled to have been
included.

My Aunt may not have lived to see
that day, but she was there in spirit. The Xiongs
remembered my aunt and my mother and their
kindness and sacrifices, and honored them as
they would a family member. For me, it was a
profound experience; my first true interfaith
encounter, it represented the culmination
of a lengthy collaboration of efforts between
two distinct cultures, and multiple spiritual
identities.

I don’t just believe that we’re Better
Together. I know it. And others do too.

Since IIT is a diverse community so
we asked them to tell us why they believe we are
Better Together: Rachael Affenit said, “when
we come together and discuss our differences
in values and beliefs, we can begin to accept
each other for our differences as well as our
similarities.”

Another student Christine Kwak said,
“like the ways of nature, evolution, and progress,
it is in difference, diversity, and change that
brings us to moving forward!”

Vanya Yorgova, who is a resident

face at home.

It is a program sponsored by the US.
Department of State, which aims to develop a
network ,of young adults with strong leader-
ship skills, an understanding of participatory
democracy, and a commitment to fostering
mutual understanding between different eth-
nic, religious, and national groups.

After their stay in DC. and Chicago,
their next stop is Portland. In Portland, the
students will stay with host families and meet
with local youth leaders, attend workshops on
entrepreneurship and civic engagement, and
participate in service projects.

As the group’s final stop, the Portland
program will focus on planning social impact
projects that the participants will implement in
their home communities.

The student participants were 15 to

advisor said, “peace can only be accomplished
if we accept each other and work together to
manage our disputes.”

Utsav Gandhi said, “there is always
something to learn from someone who’s
different than you.”

If you believe, like we do, that we’re
Better Together, come and tell us! Come over to
the MTCC Bridge between 12 pm. and 2 pm,
on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday of this
week and sign the #BeBlue pledge.

You can also enter to win free stuff
such as; two books autographed by Eboo Patel,
founder of the Interfaith Youth Core, Mirembe
Kawomera dark roast coffee from the Peace
Kawomera Cooperative, an interfaith coffee
co-op in Uganda, and three bars of Divine
Chocolate (one each of white chocolate with
strawberries, milk chocolate with toffee and sea
salt, and dark chocolate with raspberries.)

We’ll even include Better Together
swag, so you can strut your stuff and show the
world your support for interfaith cooperation.
How do you enter?

There are two ways to enter: come to
our table on the MTCC Bridge and take a picture
telling us why you believe that we’re Better
Together or anytime between now and 1 1:59pm
on Thursday, April 10, put your selfie skills to
work in the name of interfaith cooperation!

Take a photo of yourself WEARING
BLUE and show us how you’re “going blue” in
support of Better Together Day!

Share your photo on Facebook or
Twitter and include the hashtag #IITgoesBlue
so we can track your entry (yes, Facebook lets
you track hashtagsl).

There are some rules to enter this
swag: photos must be of, or include, yourself,
you must be wearing blue, and photos must be
interfaith—friendly and appropriate for public
viewing.

In other words, they cannot
include religiously offensive content, nudity,
intoxication, illegal activity or any activity
prohibited by IIT’s Code of Conduct. Lastly,
photos must be uploaded to either Facebook or
Twitter, using #IITgoesBlue no later than 11:59
pm. on Thursday, April 10, 2014.

  

17 years old, English-speaking, and selected by
38 US. embassies across sub-Saharan Africa.
In addition to the 20 high school students,
four adult mentors from Africa will be selected
to travel with and support the students. They
were very enthusiastic and happy to be a part
of this program.

They had wonderful projects which
they shared with the audience that show they
will bring a change in their country.

The main issues that they high-
lighted were: sanitation problems, problems in
educational systems, women’s rights, domestic
violence, and economic issues.

On behalf of IIT first of all I would
like to thank them for coming here and sharing
their wonderful ideas with us and wish them
best of luck for their future and hope that they
will achieve their dreams.