Ask Big Questions expands Fellowship to nineteen campuses

Nineteen campuses across North America will participate in the Ask Big Questions Fellowship program beginning the fall of 2012.

New campuses include Cornell University, Hofstra University, University of Guelph, University of Virginia, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and York University.

All thirteen campuses from 2011-2012 will return for a second year of the fellowship program.

Ask Big Questions is a national initiative that brings diverse groups of people together on college campuses for conversations about life’s big questions. Big Questions are defined as those concerned with the topics that matter to everyone, regardless of religious traditions, cultural heritage, race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and personal or political beliefs. The initiative is sponsored by Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life, in partnership with the Einhorn Family Charitable Trust, and involves and serves individuals of all backgrounds.

The Ask Big Questions Fellowship builds a cohort of students on an individual campus, who convene reflective conversations and build community. Fellows and their advisors are trained in dialogue facilitation, relationship-based engagement and the inner personal work of creating space for conversation.

Fellows facilitate at least five small group conversations throughout the academic year using a national question of the month (ex: What could we sacrifice to change the world? When do you conform? For whom are we responsible?), along with questions of their own creation, and work together to create campaigns and events that engage the entire university in conversation.

For further information, please contact: Sheila Katz, Associate Director of Ask Big Questions, at skatz@hillel.org.