Winstead's: A New KCIYA Tradition?

One of the best parts of this internship, besides exploring the city and its many offbeat coffee shops, has been working with the youth.  And one of the best parts of working with the youth, besides exploring the city and its many delicious ice cream shops, has been hearing their ideas for the future of KCIYA.

There is certainly something to be said about the impact of sharing a meal with others, especially when that meal happens to take place at Winstead's, the go-to place for a true KC experience.

The other weekend, we got together with some of KCIYA's most involved youth at a Kansas City classic (Winstead's, of course) to discuss what they want to get out of the organization and its mission.  Teresa and I had been brainstorming, and we came up with this new (awesome) motto: Lead - Serve - Grow.  The youth seemed pretty excited about the idea of developing these three pillars.  In fact, as Teresa and I were hesitant about adding in a third meeting each month devoted to the social aspect of KCIYA, they were thrilled.  Apparently, they felt that, with only two meetings per month (leadership council and service project), missing one meeting was missing a lot.

Taking the initiative to tweak KCIYA and how it is organized is a big step toward their taking ownership of the group.  I remember how, when I joined KCIYA, it was in its formative stages, so we basically had free rein over what we wanted to group to look like, what we wanted to focus on, what service projects we wanted to do.  I even remember when we made the logo ...good times.  I really want the youth now to have that same experience.  KCIYA isn't supposed to be limiting, or a burden.  Although taking on such a large leadership role can be overwhelming at first, if they find a way to make it their own, they'll be more excited about what they're doing.

This is a skyscraper.  But I have no idea who these children are.

Back to the meeting....  Over two skyscraper shakes (there were 7 of us - so don't judge), we discussed what this third "growth" meeting each month might look like.  It was settled that it would be much more relaxed, perhaps throwing in some board games, movies, food, other-festivities-we-have-yet-to-brainstorm; and we would aim to have more of the interfaith dialogue that we always intended to include in our council meetings, but never seemed to take place.

I, for one, am pumped for these social gatherings, even though I won't really be here during the school year when they are all taking place.  However, it's definitely a good thing that us interns will be gone, giving the youth a chance to really take the lead.  Honestly, I'm curious to see how KCIYA transforms during the year.

An Overdue Recap

So obviously I'm not the best at blogging.  In my defense, it has been a whirlwind these past two weeks, and blogging hasn't really been at the top of my priority list.  Anyhow, I thought now might be a good time for a recap and reflection.

As an intern this summer, one of my main jobs is to contact different faith organizations, youth groups, and individuals in order to expand KCIYA and promote our pluralistic message.  However, such a task is not quite as easy as it might seem.  Here are some of my recent discoveries:
1. I need to work on my phone skills.
2. Bombarding people with emails and calls is not always sure to get their attention.  But it's a good start.
3. I work a lot better in the library than in my bed.
4. Google sites is really annoying.
5. I absolutely love this job. (I had a feeling I would, but now it's official.)

Over the past two weeks, I have also spent some time thinking about the interfaith movement in relation to my first year of college.  In fact, at one of our early morning coffee-braindump sessions, Jon, Amalia, Avanthi, and I had a great discussion about what we've seen concerning faith in college.  It started out as a review of Eboo Patel's book Acts of Faith.  However, it quickly turned into a comparison of Eboo's college years to our own.  Eboo found that he ended up falling into the activist crowd during college.  However, activist was an ironic title because mostly they sat around coffee tables talking about everything that needed to be changed without ever doing anything in the least to change them.  However, Eboo also held strong to his belief in the power of service.

Eboo Patel's book depicting his encounters with other faith traditions and the formation of the Interfaith Youth Core of Chicago.  His story was (and continues to be) the inspiration for KCIYA.

One particular aspect of Eboo's journey that struck me most was his reaction to, and eventual infatuation with the Catholic Worker Movement.  At Saint Louis University, I am involved in a new Campus Ministry organization called Contemplatives in Action.  It consists of several small groups of about three or four students each.  Each group has a service site which it frequents weekly.  The service site assigned to my group happened to be Karen House, a Catholic Worker House a few minutes away from the Saint Louis University campus.  Simply going to a Catholic Worker House is an experience in and of itself.  Life operates differently there.  There's somewhat of an anarchist, doing-things-our-own-way edge to the atmosphere that I haven't found anywhere else.  I can see how Eboo would have immediately felt at home there.

Karen House - St. Louis

There is a vibe about Karen House that seems to encourage everyone to be themselves, leaving an open floor for discussion of any topic.  In fact, each month Karen House publishes a newsletter which focuses on a certain subject, pertinent to community members.  Some examples include the war in Afghanistan, immigration, parenting, Occupy Wall Street, food, and homosexuality.  The newsletter includes articles looking at all aspects of the chosen matter, and serves to promote further discussion among readers.  A listing of all Roundtable issues (dating back to the first one in 1978) can be found on their website.

I can draw an enormous number of parallels between the Catholic Worker mission and KCIYA's mission.  Hospitality and welcoming the "other" are core aspects of both of our movements, and storytelling ranks high on our priority lists.  Right now, for me, it can be easy to lose sight of this underlying purpose, as I frustrate myself with the details of website design and email lists.  However, the more I reflect on my experiences with KCIYA and Karen House, the more I want to help others see our vision and embrace our mission.  And I know that I am on the right track.

The Beginning

A 6:30 meeting with Jon Willis at a coffee garage near Crown Center the morning of my 19th birthday, and thus started my summer internship with Kansas City Interfaith Youth Alliance.  I had been looking forward to that day ever since Jon mentioned the possibility of having college interns last December.  And it has finally come ...and gone.  I am now in the midst of my third day on the job, and despite the immensity of work ahead of me, I couldn't be more excited.

When my friends, including the three other summer interns (Amalia, Teresa, and Avanthi), first began communicating with Jon about founding KCIYA during our sophomore year of high school, I was vaguely intrigued with the idea of interfaith dialogue.  It was more a "my-friends-think-this-is-an-important-issue-so-maybe-I-should-learn-more" type of feeling at that point in time than anything else.  Slowly, the movement sucked me in, and here I am, three years later, devoting the majority of my free time to a mission I had never even heard of before high school.

To me, pluralism should be more than a once in a while whirlwind of discussion and the occasional theology project.  I honestly believe that the world would be a better place, perhaps more peaceful, more understanding, if people made a true effort to learn about the lives of those around them.  No matter how many people try to deny it, religion plays an enormous role in how we go about our lives.  It influences our worldviews, our politics, our family life, our goals.  Even those who don't consider themselves religious still hold a set of beliefs which fundamentally guide their decision-making.

I am Catholic.  I come from a Catholic family and have been Catholic my entire life.  I went to a Catholic grade school, a Catholic high school, and now I go to a Catholic (Jesuit) university.  But I don't live in a Catholic world.  Everywhere I go, I encounter people from vastly different backgrounds.  This diversity makes life both more interesting and more complicated.  As a part of the interfaith movement, I take upon myself the responsibility to make sure that the complications don't turn into misunderstandings, stereotypes, or disputes.

After three days, I haven't made much headway.  But all movements start small.  This is only the beginning of a lifelong journey.