Southern California Multifaith Conference for Students at USC

WHAT: The Student Multifaith Leadership Conference is believed to be the first regional conference for multifaith student leaders. The day-long event will bring together student and faculty leaders from several university campuses across Southern California, including Claremont School of Theology, Occidental College, Loyola Marymount University, University of the West, University of California, Irvine, University of La Verne, Whittier College and Chapman College for a day of dialogue.

“This year, more than 200 colleges and universities participated in the White House Interfaith Community Service Campus Challenge, highlighting the importance of interfaith engagement for university students,” said Varun Soni, the USC Dean of Religious Life. “Here in Southern California, one of the most religiously diverse regions in the world, we have the extraordinary opportunity to convene and support interfaith student leaders who are thinking deeply about how their faith traditions can be part of a solution to the world’s great crises.”

The emphasis of the conference will be on interfaith cooperation, fostering dialogue between faith and secular groups on college campuses, and how universities can better embrace community activism from a faith perspective.

“Interfaith activism by lay people of faith is a new phenomenon,” said  Nathaniel Gonzalez, a member of the USC Student Interfaith Council with a triple-major in sociology, psychology and philosophy. “It is incredibly important to foster this new trend and to have it, hopefully, become part of what it means to be religious in America.”

Sponsored by the USC Interfaith Council and the USC Office of Religious Life in conjunction with the President’s Interfaith and Community Service Campus Challenge Initiative.

WHERE: USC Office of Religious Life and United University Church, USC University Park Campus.

WHEN: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. April 20.

10 a.m. — Keynote presentation – Keeping Faith on Campus: A Conversation between the Right Rev. Frederick Houk Borsch and USC Dean of Religious Life Varun Soni.

The Right Rev. Frederick Houk Borsch. Former interim dean of the Berkeley Divinity School at Yale University, Dean of the Chapel at Princeton University and Chair of Anglican Studies at The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia, Borsch has developed Spanish-speaking congregations, founded the Episcopal Urban Intern Program, championed environmental stewardship and advocated a living wage for laborers.

His latest book, Keeping Faith at Princeton: A Brief History of Religious Pluralism at Princeton and Other Universities, was published in February.

USC Dean of Religious Life Varun Soni. Soni is the first Hindu in American history to be the chief spiritual or religious leader at a college or university. A University Fellow at USC Annenberg’s Center on Public Diplomacy, Soni is also a member of the State Bar of California.

11 a.m. — Workshops on religion and music, interfaith advocacy, multifaith worship, diversity engagement, and spirituality and sexuality.

Noon — Southern California’s response to The President’s Interfaith and Community Service Campus Challenge. Last year the White House launched the President’s Interfaith and Community Service Campus Challenge, an initiative inviting institutions of higher education to commit to a year of interfaith and community service programming on campus.

For Muslim students, Friday prayers will be observed.

2:30 p.m. — Workshops on religion and music, interfaith advocacy, multifaith worship, diversity engagement, and spirituality and sexuality.

4 p.m. — Opportunities in the wider world for students interested in multifaith work.

PARKING: RSVP for more information.

Contact: Eddie North-Hager at (213) 740-0335 or edwardnh@usc.edu