Berkley Center

In 2011 the White House launched the President’s Interfaith and Community Service Campus Challenge, an invitation to institutions of higher education to commit to a year of interfaith and community service programming on campus. The best examples of students coming together to help those in need were recognized by the White House in spring 2012. Georgetown responded to the interfaith service challenge with a program on “Combating Domestic Poverty and Improving Educational Opportunity.” President John J. DeGioia also set up a Taskforce on Faith and Social Action at Georgetown, made up of faculty, students, and staff. This luncheon kicked off the challenge by bringing together faculty, students, and staff to learn about the program.

The taskforce managed oversight and implementation of the program’s main goals:

• To deepen connections between campus faith communities and begin new anti-poverty and educational initiatives with an interfaith component;  
• To further faculty-student-staff dialogue around interfaith and social justice issues through faculty-student exchanges and symposia; 
• To strengthen Georgetown University's ties with DC-based interfaith communities engaged around education and poverty issues.