  {"id":11690,"date":"2025-03-05T17:45:54","date_gmt":"2025-03-05T17:45:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/news\/?p=11690"},"modified":"2025-03-06T22:03:51","modified_gmt":"2025-03-06T22:03:51","slug":"augsburg-students-chosen-for-national-interfaith-fellowship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/news\/2025\/03\/05\/augsburg-students-chosen-for-national-interfaith-fellowship\/","title":{"rendered":"Augsburg Students Chosen for National Interfaith Fellowship"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2025\/03\/75052d80-a7ca-4ee0-813e-16cf56d85409.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-11691\" src=\"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2025\/03\/75052d80-a7ca-4ee0-813e-16cf56d85409-1024x685.jpeg\" alt=\"A group of students and mentors are gathered together and smiling in front of the entrance to a building with white pillars and a white front door. \" width=\"495\" height=\"331\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2025\/03\/75052d80-a7ca-4ee0-813e-16cf56d85409-1024x685.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2025\/03\/75052d80-a7ca-4ee0-813e-16cf56d85409-300x201.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2025\/03\/75052d80-a7ca-4ee0-813e-16cf56d85409-768x514.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2025\/03\/75052d80-a7ca-4ee0-813e-16cf56d85409-1536x1027.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2025\/03\/75052d80-a7ca-4ee0-813e-16cf56d85409.jpeg 1600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 495px) 100vw, 495px\" \/><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Augsburg students Theo Coval and Augusta Nepor Sowa traveled to Utah for the first annual gathering of the Interfaith BRAID (Bridgebuilders Relating Across Interfaith Differences) Fellowship at the end of February.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.interfaithamerica.org\/grants\/braid\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">BRAID Fellowship<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is an Interfaith America initiative designed in response to increasing prejudice and polarization. This program equips student fellows with skills, training, education, and experiences to collaborate effectively with communities close to home and across the country.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8220;It is so meaningful to have the opportunity to work with Interfaith America and meet so many passionate campus leaders,\u201d said Coval. \u201cIt was a genuine honor to be included amongst the peers I met in Salt Lake City, and I am very excited to be working on a campus project as part of the fellowship.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Coval and Sowa were selected from a national pool of applicants. The program is designed to help students become interfaith bridgebuilders on their campuses and in their communities. Najeeba Syeed, El-Hibri Endowed chair and executive director of the Interfaith Institute, serves as a BRAID Fellowship mentor and works closely with these students as well.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cBeing part of this opportunity means stepping beyond conversation and into connection, where diversity isn&#8217;t just acknowledged but engaged with, where differences aren&#8217;t just tolerated but honored,\u201d said Sowa. \u201cIt\u2019s about choosing pluralism, embracing the richness of perspectives, and discovering unity in diversity. In a world where everyone wants to be heard, this experience has taught me the true power of listening with an open heart.\u201d<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Learn more about the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/interfaith\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Interfaith Institute<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> at Augsburg University. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Augsburg students Theo Coval and Augusta Nepor Sowa traveled to Utah for the first annual gathering of the Interfaith BRAID (Bridgebuilders Relating Across Interfaith Differences) Fellowship at the end of February.\u00a0 The BRAID Fellowship is an Interfaith America initiative designed in response to increasing prejudice and polarization. This program equips student fellows with skills, training, &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":569,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,3228,8],"tags":[3955,3409,4026,4028],"class_list":["post-11690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faculty","category-kudos","category-students","tag-fellowship","tag-interfaith","tag-interfaith-at-augsburg","tag-najeeba-syeed"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/569"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11690"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11690\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11700,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11690\/revisions\/11700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}