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This article was written by Peter Dziedzic, a sophomore at DePaul, who is pursuing a double major in Religious Studies and English. Peter is the co-President of DePaul Interfaith and member of the Executive Committee of the Better Together Campaign at DePaul University. Follow Peter on Twitter.

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Greetings of Peace to all. My name is Peter Dziedzic, a sophomore working for a double major in Religious Studies and English, and I will be a regular guest blogger as we progress through our Better Together campaign work here at DePaul University.

The Better Together campaign, which has come to DePaul University as an effort initiated by the Interfaith Youth Core’s DePaul campus Fellow, Nicolas Cable, is an effort for us to build bridges between our campus communities and find that, when we reflect deeply, we all can benefit greatly from promoting interfaith understanding and recognizing the value inherent in all religious traditions and believers. Our work for the Better Together campaign this year will be to promote social action and social justice initiatives here on campus, mainly, by working with the Living Wage Campaign and the DePaul Committee for Social Justice (DCSJ) to promote events that recognize our common and shared desire for human dignity and human rights.Our working slogan for the Better Together campaign is, “What If…” This slogan recognizes the potentiality for what could happen if we, people of diverse religious traditions, came together to work for a common goal. We will employ this on campus by asking, “What if we put aside our religious difference and came together to work for social justice?” I recognize that, at DePaul, there is a surging amount of energy among the student population – a soaring creativity, a burning passion to make a difference in our communities. I believe that, with the Better Together campaign, we will work to harness this valueless energy and work to build a better community and, ultimately, a better world.

I really appreciate DePaul’s approach to interfaith dialogue and peace building and I really reflect on this as a cornerstone of my excitement in coming to DePaul. We are entering our inaugural year of DePaul Interfaith, and I really look forward to how DePaul Interfaith, in conjunction with the Interfaith Scholars, UMIN, the Better Together campaign, Student Religious Organizations (SROs) and a passionate student body can work together to build upon an already open-minded, diverse and welcoming campus community.

I invite you not only to discover more about interfaith peace building, but to also become involved with both the Better Together Campaign and DePaul Interfaith. These are wonderful opportunities to get involved with our creative and driven student body, and the more people who actively take a stance in our mission to build bridges and come together to achieve common goals; the more our actions and efforts will make a difference.