Exploring Interfaith at the Ripple Conference
On a cold Friday morning in February, five students and Multifaith Program Manager, Olivia Rosenblum, loaded into a University of Richmond SUV. Their destination? Elon University and its annual student led interfaith Conference, Ripple. Over the course of the weekend, students joined with peers from across the country to explore the art of interfaith engagement. Among many topics, they considered: how different forms of artistic expression inspire interfaith collaboration and creativity; the unique creative perspectives that exist within faith traditions; and how people from different religious, spiritual, and secular backgrounds can come together to build community, foster understanding, and serve the common good.
The conference featured workshops on topics like spiritual storytelling and grounding, the art of religious traditions and the sacred through sound as well as identity-based affinity groups. Students attended prayer services across the Abrahamic traditions and learned directly from a variety of speakers. These sessions and gatherings provided space not only for learning but for personal reflection and curiosity.
One of the most impactful parts of the weekend was a service project where attendees assembled creativity kits to several immigrant families and partner organizations through the Church World Service and the North Carolina African Services Coalition. What began as a simple task quickly became a thoughtful experience in community-building and led to meaningful conversations that reflected the depth of their engagement during the conference.
This impact was palpable and illuminated a pattern for one student. Asa Mahn, ’28, shared in a written reflection that “in a weekend full of arts and laughter, there persisted the notion that each of us there, with our differing backgrounds and beliefs, was uniquely positioned to make some positive change in our worlds.”
Another student, Taylor Levy, ’27, shared “All in all, I think Ripple was a truly inspirational experience. In a world with such anger around these topics, the love for other people that I saw at the conference truly gave me so much hope for the future.”
As the group drove back to campus, there was a distinct energy and sense of hopefulness as they began to imagine new possibilities for multifaith work at the University of Richmond. Inspired by their experience, the students who attended Ripple are now helping to shape future multifaith programming—rooted in their voices, values, and lived experiences. They are eager to build opportunities