These College Kids are Turning to Religion
BY GABRIEL ZAKAIB
APRIL 2024
FOR COMM-320
America is lonely. Here’s how some youth are fighting back.​
Students gather outside Kay Spiritual Life Center at American University in Washington, D.C. Photo by Gabriel Zakaib
These college kids have gathered outside their school’s spiritual life center. There’s one thing that binds them together.
Faith.
In a time of pervasive loneliness in America, and at one of the country’s most liberal schools, these students are turning to spirituality for community.
American University student Malia Hawthorne-Klingler found her community through interfaith events on campus.
“It’s really nice to have a place where you go regularly where people know you and care about you,” Klingler said.
Klingler has been present in Mennonite church communities her whole life. Back home, she says, she knew everyone in the congregation and everyone cared about her.
A broad sense of community is often lacking in higher education, especially in smaller schools that do not center their collective identities around sports. The race for friends in a sea of strangers presented a challenge for Klingler and others.
Approximately half of U.S. adults report experiencing loneliness, with some of the highest rates among young adults, according to a U.S. Surgeon General Advisory. The advisory identified an “Epidemic of Loneliness” as a top health concern for the country. Youth in times of social dislocation, like moving to college, are especially vulnerable. Lack of social connection can increase the risk of premature death by nearly 30 percent. It can also increase the risk of developing depression and anxiety, which are the two biggest mental health issues reported among college students.
“I’m so surprised at the amount of people showing up looking for a solution to isolation, lack of meaning, hopelessness,” said Clare Jayawickrama, who volunteers with AUCatholic, an organization that fosters Catholic community at the university.
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Jayawickrama, originally from Oregon, has raised money from her home community to finance her work with AUCatholic at American University. The recent Oregon State University graduate mentors students one-on-one and helps lead faith events aimed at fostering community. AUCatholic has about 80 active student members, Jayawickrama said.
Students attend Food for Thought, a weekly interfaith dinner hosted by Kay Spiritual Life Center at American University in Washington, D.C. Photo by Gabriel Zakaib
Religious life is on the rise at universities across the country. It’s more active on campuses now than it has been in the last 100 years, according to University of California at Berkeley sociology professors Damon Maryl and Freeden Oeur. Over 70 percent of college students hold a religious affiliation, and 57 percent find strength in their religious beliefs.
Commonly stereotyped as antagonistic to religion, some college students are instead turning to faith in the absence of a campus-wide community.
“There’s a level of effort people put in that you don’t really see in other communities,” Daniel Emmanuel said. The AU senior joined Chi Alpha, a Christian youth group at AU, his freshman year after not finding deeper connections in other, non-religious clubs.
“People aren’t interested in deeper friendships anymore. I think there’s a stigma around finding real friends. With social media, things are so surface level,” Emmanuel said. The other clubs he joined were clicky, which made finding friends that went past surface level hard.
Chi Alpha provided a space where Emmanuel could form deeper relationships. While religion is not the only place people can find community, Emmanuel said, having shared values makes finding that necessary community easier.
“Behavior that is seen as overly friendly in other groups is not seen as that in Chi Alpha,” Emmanuel said.
Chi Alpha brings members together several times per week over food, discussion, and prayer. The independently funded organization operates on campuses throughout the country. Although the AU chapter is only 12-strong, it provided Emmanuel and others with a novel source of community absent from the rest of their college experience.
Kay Spiritual Life Center hosts over 18 external community partners like Chi Alpha. Group denominations range from Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, Pagan, and even Secular Humanists.
“Kay provides a space where you can try to figure out where your people are,” University Chaplain Bryant Oskvig said. Shared stories, cultures, and identities in faith cut across all the other spaces we live in, Oskvig said. Faith is a powerful social tool that transcends traditional societal barriers of proximity, like the connections we might form with roommates or at work.
Some college students argue faith could polarize communities instead of bringing them together. Claudia Flynn of the Michigan Daily worries that participation in traditional organized religion can polarize school environments by creating a lack of empathy for those with different beliefs.
As for Klingler, though, faith is a tool to connect those of different belief backgrounds into one community. Klingler and a peer started the AU Interfaith Club, which encourages a diversity of people to come together in discussion about their personal experiences.
Students around the country are using their faith, whether it be the one they were raised in or newly acquired, to combat loneliness and find community. Often, academic circles are expected, or eager, to discuss faith in a negative light. The power of faith, however, has proved critical in a generation yearning for connection.