John Carroll University has been awarded a $10,000 grant from Interfaith America to launch a new Bridgebuilding Fellowship for Campus Leaders program, designed to train student leaders in constructive dialogue and interreligious understanding. The grant, which supports John Carroll’s "Bridging the Gap" initiative, will run from October 17, 2025, to June 15, 2026.
Administered through the Tuohy Center for Interreligious Understanding in partnership with the Center for Student Belonging, the Fellowship will become a signature effort to strengthen campus dialogue, enhance student leadership, and build community across lines of religious, cultural, and political difference. At a time when college campuses across the country are navigating rising division and polarization, JCU’s Bridgebuilding Fellowship reflects the institution’s commitment to fostering meaningful dialogue across differences.
“John Carroll University was an easy choice for the Bridging the Gap grant,” said Tina Grace, Program Manager for Interfaith America. “Uplifting a group of fellows and equipping them with the tools to engage across differences is what we stand for, but JCU took it an extra mile by engaging other students through a unique lens of creating games that elevated the level of creativity and provides an authentic way for students to lean into bridgebuilding.”
Interfaith America (IA), originally founded as Interfaith Youth Core in 2002, is one of the nation’s premier pluralism organizations. Its mission is grounded in the belief that religious difference can serve as a source of cooperation, not division, and its research-based approach now reaches college campuses, corporations, and civic institutions nationwide.
Fostering Dialogue through Innovative, Game-Based Learning
Through the Bridgebuilding Fellowship, a cohort of six undergraduate students will learn to serve as proactive bridgebuilders who can both initiate constructive dialogue and respond effectively in times of conflict and tension. Fellows will receive specialized training in Interfaith America’s Bridging the Gap curriculum, led by Dr. Semiha Topal, Program Manager for the Tuohy Center for Interreligious Understanding, as well as instruction in game-based pedagogy from Dr. Debby Rosenthal, Professor of English at JCU. Together, these approaches empower students to use creativity and play as tools for conversation, understanding, and conflict resolution.
The 2025-2026 Bridgebuilding Fellows include:
- Arthus Azais de Vergeron ’28, Economics major
- Rasmia Alnadi ’27, Clinical & Counseling Psychology and Theology & Religious Studies major
- Faith Berner ’26, Political Science major
- Robert Cooper Eberly ’27, Philosophy and English major
- Lea Kanbar ’28, Biology major
- Olivia Ziccardi ’28, Political Science major
“The "Bridging the Gap" grant empowers our students to become agents of interreligious understanding. The Tuohy Center provides the training, mentorship, and support, but the students take the lead--using their own creativity to guide their peers in constructive, mutually illuminating conversation.”
For the Fellows themselves, the program represents an opportunity to respond to a rapidly changing and divisive world.
“Over the last year, I have noticed a disturbing rise in division and violence over political, cultural, and religious differences. Conversation is the single most important tool to avoiding violence, without it, I believe society will fail,” said Faith Berner ’26. “This fellowship has given me the chance to challenge myself and others to engage deeply with those we may misunderstand or disagree with, to foster true understanding through intentional dialogue. I am honored to be a part of this fellowship, to build a campus culture where people can feel empowered to express their beliefs openly and respectfully.”
