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Nervous about starting at Michigan State? Worried about your class schedule, living away from home, or where to even start? The Spartan Orientation Station (SOS) is a podcast hosted by New Student Orientation staff and was created by students for students. This podcast will launch twice a week throughout the summer, and each episode will feature a unique interview with campus departments discussing their services, common misconceptions, and fun Spartan engagement opportunities. When you need help at Michigan State, it is okay to signal SOS! Don’t worry – MSU is there for you.
Narrator 0:08
You’re listening to the Spartan Orientation Station on Impact 89 FM. The podcast by students, for students. Now this week’s episode.
Abigail 0:17
Hello everyone, welcome back to our podcast, The Spartan Orientation Station. Today we will discuss religious and spiritual life here at MSU. Specifically, we will be talking about the Religious Advisors Association, also known as RAA. This group is made up of a variety of religious professionals from many different faith traditions. My name is Abigal, I’m a rising senior here at Michigan State with a major in Social Work and a minor in Justice, Law, and Public Policy.
Ali 0:47
And my name is Ali, I am a recently graduated senior here, where I studied neuroscience with minors in Computational Math Science and Engineering and Pharmacology and Toxicology. And during my time here and still through the summer I have been a member of St. John’s Parrish and kind of loosely affiliated with the Catholic Spartans. Joining us today, we have Reverend Kurt Dwire and Bridget Sherwin. Reverend Dwire is president of RAA and lead pastor at Martin Luther Chapel and Bridget is an RAA member, where she serves as the liaison between the Religious Advisors Association and the Campus Interfaith Council and in addition, she is the student life coordinator at the Jewish Student Center. They are here to help us dive deeper into this association and to answer some questions new students may have. Welcome to the Spartan Orientation Station.
Reverend Dwyer 1:45
Thanks for inviting us, it’s good to be here.
Bridget 1:46
Thank you so much, happy to be here!
Abigail 1:48
And just to kinda begin, just introduce yourselves and explain what your role is within the RAA.
Reverend Dwyer 1:57
Sure, I’m Pastor Kurt Dwire I’m one of the pastors, the lead pastor at Martin Luther Chapel. It’s a congregation that is just two blocks from campus, just north of the Union, a congregation dedicated to serving the campus community, and the students here at Michigan State. Been there for about 10 years now and I’ve been a member of the RAA the whole time, president for the last three years or four years or something like that.
Bridget 2:24
Yeah and my name is Bridget Sherwin. I am currently a member of the RAA. Aside from that though, I am the Student Life Coordinator at the Jewish Student Center on campus, which is located on Charles Street. In addition to being an RAA member on campus, I also serve as the liaison between the RAA and Campus Interfaith Council, which this past year we focused on rebuilding that organization.
Ali 2:50
Perfect! Thank you so much for coming today. So could you talk a little bit more about what exactly RAA is?
Reverend Dwyer 2:29
RAA is an organization, you mentioned in the introduction, religious professionals in the East Lansing area but specifically people who are dedicated to serving students, serving the campus community. From all different faith traditions, from a multitude of different organizations but all focused-on campus, students. The RAA is an organization that was first started by the Dean of Students back in the 1940’s. And it sort of carried through a number of years, a number of different iterations and things. But is a way for religious professionals to interface with the university and to be able to support the university, have a good relationship with the university, uphold what the university is trying to do while we serve those students.
Abigail 3:47
Yeah, thank you. And then specifically what resources and services does the RAA provide for students?
Reverend Dwyer 3:56
So interesting question, because the RAA actually doesn’t provide resources to students itself.
Bridget 4:03
Yeah.
Reverend Dwyer 4:03
But it’s all the member organizations of the RAA are the ones that are dedicated to serving students. So ya know congregations, organizations are the ones that are directly doing the service to students.
Abigail 4:16
Yeah, that’s good to know.
Reverend Dwyer 4:18
The RAA just is the umbrella organization for all of us to belong to, that helps us interact with the university.
Bridget 4:26
And also, I feel like guiding students in finding a student organization that’s right for them. That way we can help them, maybe put them in contact with student leaders or coordinators that we know.
Reverend Dwyer 4:41
Yeah, that’s the biggest thing that students might see the RAA is, like Bridget said, we try to connect students to an organization that they’re interested in so that they can have that community while they’re here in East Lansing.
Ali 4:55
Yeah, I know I definitely used it to get connected and know where I could find community coming here. But to that end, could you talk a little bit more about, kind of, your membership and how it spans various religions and different fellowships and maybe give a couple examples of member organizations that students might feel particularly, you know, connected to?
Reverend Dwyer 5:21
Sure, the organization is open to any religious organization, any faith tradition. A few qualifications that we have worked out in cooperation with the university, just to make sure that we all have an appropriate level of education and promise to play nice together, and to play nice with the university. But it really is quite a variety of organizations. Traditional congregations, like the one that I serve is ya know, a local congregation, some other organizations like CREW, which is not so much a congregation, but just a larger student organization. We span the gamete of Christian denominations, we have two or three Jewish organizations, The Hilllel Center you work at Bridget.
Bridget 2:09
Yep, we have two.
Reverend Dwyer 6:10
And then the Chabad House. And really, we try to expand our membership to any other organization that would want to help serve the students and community.
Abigail 6:22
Awesome! And I guess kinda going along with that, do you support the RSO’s that are related to the various religions?
Reverend Dwyer 6:32
Yeah so, the RAA, as you’re a member of the RAA you are able to be an advisor for some of the registered student organizations. So many, maybe not all, but many of our members also serve as the advisor for a student organization on campus. As an example, we have a Lutheran student organization on campus that my associate pastor serves as the advisor to. I know there is a Jewish student organization.
Bridget 7:03
Yep, MSU Hillel which is what I, where I work at and serve as the Jewish Student Coordinator. Also, like I mentioned earlier, this past year I helped restart the Campus Interface Council with a student who was really interested in restarting that organization back up. So, this past semester we got accepted to be an official RSO and have four board members now that are super edger to meet new incoming students in the fall at Sparticipation, at Faith Fair and just really get people involved. Even if they can’t really resonate with a specific organization that is one that has only one faith targeted. Where as this way students can express maybe the faith’s that they are in between or one that they are really passionate about but like wanna learn about others. So yeah hopefully in the upcoming fall and years there will be really great events and also many incoming members as well.
Ali 8:06
Yeah, awesome! So kind of going along with getting engaged in various opportunities on campus, how can students reach out or get engaged with those various religious life or opportunities either on campus or just in the East Lansing area generally?
Bridget 8:25
Yeah, great question. I know last fall we had a Faith Fair which had a lot of the faith-based organizations that Kurt had mentioned. So, this way, it allows incoming students and also just older students that are just maybe interested in a faith-based organization to go around to different tables, to meet different boards, meet students that are currently active. And of course, there is Sparticipation too where students can also see those faith-based and religious organizations on campus, including other organizations that may not be faith-based.
Reverend Dwyer 9:01
And we have a website I know, during the orientation process, there is a video from the RAA put together and there is a link at the end of that to a webform that students could fill out indicating what interests they have, if they have particular religious background or if they are just simply interested in a number of organizations. That sends an email to me actually, and then I take some time to send that out to whatever they indicated interest in. So that then, those organizations, those RAA members could follow up with those students. The website, if you wanna go directly to the website, search for religiouslifeatmsu.org, and there is a follow up link to get connected, I think it says something like that.
Bridget 9:53
Yeah, and like you said it's at the end of that video, they can find that link and it goes right to you.
Abigail 10:00
And so, going along with supporting students, for example let's say you need to support students that need maybe religious accommodations for class or on campus living or dining, what does that look like for you guys? Is that something that you do?
Reverend Dwyer 10:13
We’ve helped, for a few years now, we have helped the university come up with a list of religious holidays that then the university shares with faculty and staff so that if a student's says “I need accommodation for a particular holiday”, it gives the faculty a reference to say okay yeah they are not making something up, this is a real thing. And we certainly can act as advocates on behalf of students of faith who need some help navigating the university. We can speak on their behalf and help the university understand what this student’s needs are. So yeah!
Ali 11:02
Yeah, so other than kind of going to that website and filling out that form, if students know they wanna join an organization right now, is there anything that they should do?
Reverend Dwyer 11:13
We need to know who they are. Go to the website, find the organization and we will get back in touch with them and we will get information about as many organizations as they wish, whatever faith traditions they are interested in … we will get that information to the appropriate people and get in touch with them as soon as we can. We are all here to help students find that community, find the support they need, so that they can be successful in school. Its whatever we can do to connect them with that community, with that organization, I am all about that!
Ali 11:49
Perfect, thank you!
Abigail 11:51
And yeah, like you kind of mentioned, finding that sense of community and connections, I think it's so important that us being Spartans plays into that, and so this is one of my favorite questions, what is your favorite part about working with some of the students here and being a spartan and being a part of the spartan family?
Bridget 12:13
I could go ahead and start, so I would say, my favorite part is like working with students is hearing out their ideas and their goals, while also supporting them throughout the process in order for their ideas to happen and to create really their own mark on campus and making sure that they really feel part of the spartan community and spartan family as a whole and making sure that they maybe find that closer family that is on campus too.
Reverend Dwyer 12:41
I really do enjoy working with students, seeing how as individuals they grow and develop over, you know, first week of September somebody will come to church and our congregation it will be, you will see him walking in, this is a brand-new freshman and away from home, they don’t know where they are or what they are doing. And then four years from now, they will be a totally different person and to be able to walk with them and help them to think about their world and integrate the subjects that they are studying with their faith. Think about all that, and grow as an individual, grow as a leader, and when they graduate in four years, we cry every May as they leave but know that they are gonna go out and be blessing the world and to be able to watch that develop over four years, its really fun and really exciting!
Ali 13:37
Yeah, can’t think of a better statement to end on, again thank you so much for being here with us and if you are listening make sure to tune into our next episode!
Reverend Dwyer 13:50
Thank you for having us!
Bridget 13:53
Thank you!
Narrator 13:55
Thank you for listening to this episode of the Spartan Orientation Station om Impact 89 FM. Let us know what you think by connecting with us on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram @msu_nso!