Student Programs
The Berkley Center engages Georgetown's vibrant multifaith student body and contributes to intellectual life beyond the classroom. The Center interacts with students through the following programs:
Advancing Interreligious Understanding Essay Contest, 2008
Georgetown undergraduates answered the question: "What can and should a university and its students do to advance interreligious understanding?" Read the winning essay, and the honorable mentions, below.
Winning essay: Advancing Interreligious Dialogue at Georgetown University: Three Proposals, by Bruno Cruchant
Honorable Mention Essays:
Diana Park and Farah El-Sharif's essay
Jeffrey Pan's essay
Eric Wind's essay
Dmitriy Zakharov's essay
-- Undergraduate Fellows Program. Each year a group of student fellows explore a particular topic at the intersection of religion, peace, and world affairs. The project involves interviews with stakeholders and the formulation of policy recommendations. The topic for 2007 is "Religious Lobbies: A Force in US Politics?" The topic for 2006 was "Religious and Secular Approaches to Development: A Common Ground?" Learn more here.
-- Junior Year Abroad Network. Students write several "letters from abroad" dealing with questions of religion, culture, and politics in a different part of the world. Read the 2007-2008 letters and learn about the participants here. Upon returning, students share their knowledge and experience with the broader Georgetown community.
-- Events. The Berkley Center cosponsors events with student groups that relate to key Center themes. One or more student groups can request funding assistance for lectures, seminars, and conferences.
-- Undergraduate Learning and Interreligious Understanding. The Berkley Center has begun a four-year longitudinal study to deepen our knowledge about connections between undergraduate learning and interreligious understanding—knowledge that will help faculty and administrators design curricula and structure student life more effectively. Read about the Undergraduate Learning and Interreligious Understanding project and survey.
-- Religion Across the Curriculum. This semester, the Berkley Center convened the program Religion Across the Curriculum, with faculty seminars on Religion and Culture and Religion and Conflict, designed to explore teaching approaches about religion across the disciplines.
Featured Program
Junior Year Abroad Network 2007-08
The Berkley Center Junior Year Abroad Network links up Georgetown students now immersed in a variety of different cultures. On this site they share reflections on religion, politics, and society in their host countries with one another and the
Featured Program
Undergraduate Fellows Program
The Berkley Center's Undergraduate Fellows Program gives a select group of Georgetown students the resources to conduct interviews, organize events, and formulate policy recommendations around a salient theme related to religion and world affairs. The students begin work in the spring semester and finish up the following fall. The 2007 program topic was "Religious Lobbies: A Force in US Politics?" The 2008 program topic is “Two Shall Become as One? Interreligious Marriage in America”.
Around the University
Student Organizations
The multifaith Office of Campus Ministry collaborates with a range of student organizations on interreligious activities.
The Catholic Students Association, the Jewish Students Association, the Muslim Student Association, and among the most active student religious groups on campus.
"Christianity in Politics" is one of a number of other student organizations that sponsor events that address links between religion, peace, and world affairs.
The Forum on Faith and Policy, a student organization at the Georgetown Public Policy Institute, provides a setting for the open exchange of perspectives on issues where faith and policy intersect.