Council members create interfaith room

The Interfaith Council traveled to Blaine, Minnesota, on Jan. 19-21 to visit cultural and religious sites in Minneapolis and help students of Augustana’s Doctor of Physical Therapy program create an interfaith room.

The council, a part of the Augustana Office of Faith and Spiritual Life, focuses on creating space on campus for students to practice their religions and promote spiritual discussions. 

Senior Nasteho Abdi, a member of the Interfaith Council, said they added prayer mats, religious texts, meditation mats and a sign to the DPT program’s new interfaith room. 

“​​We got to also interact and talk to the DPT students there and engage with them,” Abdi said. 

Augustana’s DPT program uses a hybrid model for learning both online and in labs at the National Sports Training Center in Blaine, Minnesota. The sports center offers skating rinks and turf fields, and it hosts a variety of sports camps and tournaments. 

Campus Pastor Rev. Ann Rosendale said Keiba Shaw, the program director of DPT Student Affairs, contacted Rosendale about a year ago, wondering how she could help meet the spiritual needs of her students, faculty and staff. 

“We talked about establishing some space at the site so that those students that had needs to pray, to meditate, just for some quiet space, would have that,” Rosendale said. 

Shortly after their conversation, the Interfaith Council became involved in the project and began having Zoom meetings with Shaw to plan when they could drive to Blaine to create the space. 

“They weren’t sure exactly what to bring in, how to create it, so that’s kind of where the job of the Interfaith Council came in: to create that space,” junior Isha Hooda, Interfaith Council president, said.  

Hooda said the DPT students were happy to have the space created for them, and she’s excited to see what they do with it. 

“We came in, and we set this up for them, but this is really like the first layer of bricks that we’ve set,” Hooda said. “Now they have to build on [it], and so now it’s kind of on them.” 

Hooda said the DPT students did not set up the room with the Interfaith Council, but they shared with the council what they wanted in the space during their planning meetings. 

“[The DPT students] were very active about it and very interested in helping out and progressing off of what we had started,” Hooda said. 

Senior Michael Schmidt, a member of the Interfaith Council, said because the DPT program rents the space, students can only have the interfaith items in the locker room when they are using that particular space; however, they were given two lockers to store their items in when the room is being used as a locker room. 

Along with visiting the DPT program, Interfaith Chaplain Jennifer Dreiske said the Interfaith Council also traveled to the Minneapolis Institute of Art and ate at the Midtown Global Market. 

“We were able to have food from around the world,” Dreiske said. “They have sushi, Korean, Seoul, Mediterranean, Italian and African food.” 

The Interfaith Council also went to the Karmel Mall, which is both the largest and the first Somali shopping center in the United States. Schmidt said the mall reminded him of a market. 

“It’s like a place where you can haggle down the price,” Schmidt said. “There’s constantly noise, and everyone’s got a small booth.” 

On their final day in Minneapolis, the council visited a Bahá’í temple and a ​​gurdwara — a Sikh temple. Many members of the Interfaith Council said visiting the gurdwara was their favorite part of the weekend. 

“We were just overwhelmed by hospitality,” Rosendale said. “I mean, we ate two meals within two hours and they just wanted us to stay for more and were so warm and so welcoming.” 

Dreiske said she enjoyed being in community with the Sikhs and how the experience flooded her senses. 

“So you come in and… you have the sounds, you have the smell of the food cooking, you have the kids singing in prayer, the sight of the sanctuary, the listening to the teachers as the people were talking to us and answering our questions, eating the meals together,” Dreiske said. “Yeah, it was a great, great opportunity.” 

Hooda said another favorite moment from the trip was the time the Interfaith Council got to spend with each other, away from the stresses of school and life. She said the council spent time in her room watching Hindi movies and talking at night.

“It was a good bonding experience for the Interfaith Council because, before this, I felt like we all knew who we were, but there wasn’t time that we had to spend with each other,” Hooda said. 

Besides developing stronger friendships, Abdi said the council members also learned they can make a positive difference in the Augustana community, even as students. 

“I think [creating an interfaith room] kind of shows how much of a change we’re trying to make with Augustana,” Abdi said. 

Dreiske said the council hopes to do more interfaith field trips around Sioux Falls so students can explore different religious traditions. 

“We don’t have to go to Minneapolis for spiritual adventures,” Dreiske said. “We can do that right here in our backyard.”