by Rebecca Kural, ’25

My Interfaith internship at the CFV has been one of the highlights of my semester. This is my first internship experience, and I feel so lucky to have had the unwavering support and encouragement of Daniel Meyers and Marguerite Stanciu.

My role as the interfaith community engagement intern is very flexible and unconfined, so I was a little intimidated at first. While I have continued with previously established interfaith engagement activities such as Cookies and Questions, and helped with Refresh & Reconnect, my role calls for interfaith “passion projects”. And while I did not have much experience or expertise, I certainly have passion.

In fact, my passion for music led to my curiosity of Voices of Deliverance-the once thriving gospel choir that took a hard hit during the pandemic. I started asking questions and researching how it fell from great success, realizing that while the pandemic and retirement of the faculty advisor was unavoidable, that the choir was missing a faith group to draw from.

While all Butler faith groups on campus strive for diversity and inclusion, as I talked to my black peers, they expressed the sentiment that there was not a faith group that seemed meant for them. Not only was this extremely important to hear in general, I couldn’t help but draw connections back to VOD. Gospel has strong roots in the black church, so it would be much easier to support VOD if there was a faith group connected to it.

I found myself in a position I certainly did not expect- I have no personal ties to the church, and I’m not black. However, these two facts challenged me to listen harder and decenter my own ideas when helping with the creation of a new faith group. Now, Black Christian Faith Group is set to begin meetings next semester, led by Raeghan Jefferson and an incredible executive board. They have done so much work to make it happen, and it is exciting to have played a small part in the group’s facilitation. VOD is still in the works, but many students are interested in being part of its revival.

In the past, I saw my leadership strengths as motivating and generating good ideas. However, my experiences thus far as an intern have made me appreciate my ability to be extremely invested and excited about projects that do not even directly involve or benefit me. Having an internship that prioritizes interfaith work has opened my eyes to that feeling- that work outside of my own personal interests can still be passion projects.