Interfaith Fellows
Interfaith Fellows are sophomore, junior, and senior students who serve as leaders around interfaith engagement on St. Olaf’s campus. Their work in the center involves personal reflection on their own religious or spiritual commitments, learning about other traditions, promoting the work of the Lutheran Center in student spaces, and leading projects that connect students across lines of religious difference. Learn more about our 2025-6 Interfaith Fellows here.
In Spring 2024, our 2023-2024 Interfaith Fellows reflected on their experiences as fellows, making video reflections on what they learned and how they understand interfaith engagement fitting into their vocational exploration. Watch those video reflections here.
Death Café
Death Café is an international movement to create spaces for people to speak about their views of death in order to make the most of their lives. In 2023, a group of Interfaith Fellows brought Death Café to St. Olaf and have led several in the past few years. While Death Café is not an explicitly religious space, it is common for people to talk about their deepest held beliefs. Read more about this program here.
Queer Interfaith Circle
The Queer Interfaith Circle (QIC) is a space where Oles can engage in dialogue about the intersection between queer and faith/religious identities. The Circle was conceived of and co-founded in the 2024-25 Academic Year by three interfaith fellows, who recognized that people who hold both identities might feel “too religious for their gay friends, yet too gay for their religious friends.” QIC meets once every two weeks, each week hosting a new guest speaker to engage in discussion with. Past speakers have included Rev. Peter C. Schattauer ‘08 (Interim Director of the Lutheran Center), Campus Pastors Matt Marohl and Katie Fick, Chaplain Fatima Basharat, Rav. Michaela Brown, and more. Students are invited to come as they are (whether they are religious, queer, both, or neither) and enjoy some meaningful conversations
Vocational Discernment
We provide information and training sessions for students about their vocation and how it is more than just a career. We provide sessions for St. Olaf Orientation to Academics and Resources (SOAR) Leaders, Wellness Center Peer Educators, and Taylor Center Connect for Success Scholars. We also have provided sessions for Resident Assistants (RAs) and we have been invited into classrooms to talk about vocation.
We have also provided sessions on research as vocation for students taking part in the Collaborative Undergraduate Research and Inquiry (CURI) program.
Through our Life on Purpose grant we have helped infuse vocation across the curriculum, including in SOAR, First-Year Experience, Academic Success and departmental programs.
Programs and Collaborations
We put on programming for the whole St. Olaf community, including students. We have led many All-Community Reads and we have hosted the Why Treaties Matter exhibit.
We also collaborate with other centers across campus, such as the Taylor Center and the Institute for Freedom and Community to put on programming around Strengthening Community – Engaging Across Difference.
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