Kascha Sanor graduated from Aquinas College in May of 2017 with a German, International Studies, and Community Leadership triple major. She is endlessly grateful for the intergenerational and interfaith relationships that sustain our communities. She looks forward to making a dent in her summer reading list and her upcoming year of service in Los Angeles, California.
Emma Wonsil is a recent graduate of Aquinas College with a double major in biology and psychology. She identifies as gay, Catholic, and an avid dog-lover. She will be spending the next year working in Missoula, Montana, as a part of Jesuit Volunteer Corps Northwest.
SOME THOUGHTS ABOUT MY INTERVIEW WITH KASCHA SANOR and EMMA WONSIL by Cindy Kamp:
Talking with these recent college graduates, I was struck not only by their clear sense of their personal values, but also by the way that they used values as a bridge to discussing controversial issues on their college campus. One of the values that they identified as particularly meaningful for them is the ‘ethic of accompaniment,’ which they put into practice during their turbulent senior year. During our discussion they used the term “perfect storm” a number of times to describe this year as they related experiences involving racism, white privilege, feminism, LGBT rights, and interfaith work.
The ‘ethic of accompaniment’ was discussed by Rev. Jennifer Bailey, American Methodist Evangelical Church, when she spoke in Grand Rapids in 2016. It involves supporting those who are experiencing ‘otherness’ or marginalization by walking side by side with them. This doesn’t mean speaking for others or acting on their behalf, but rather trying to understand their experience.
Emma and Kascha saw their involvement with interfaith work at Aquinas take on new meaning during the presidential campaign as anti-Islamic rhetoric repeatedly made national news. This gave them an opportunity to better understand how religion can serve as a bridge – as well as a wall — and provide common ground for tackling social justice issues. They also noted that despite the overtly religious label of ‘interfaith,’ they had participants who were agnostic and atheist, yet they were all able to gather together under the umbrella of social justice and community.
In January Kascha and Emma attended the Women’s March in Washington and brought this focus on women’s issues onto the Aquinas Campus in the months that followed. They worked with fellow students, faculty, and administration to champion the message that feminism and Catholicism are not mutually exclusive. Their work met with support from the Dominican Sisters who founded Aquinas College, and the Sisters attended an on-campus women’s march and gave it their blessing.
Emma and Kascha, along with other Aquinas students, also supported Black Lives Matter, albeit as white middle class women on a Catholic campus. It was here that they were able to put into practice the ethic of accompaniment, supporting African American students and community members in the greater Grand Rapids area and sharing the concern for racial justice.
Finally, they worked to highlight LGBT issues at Aquinas. The interplay of sexuality and spirituality is one that is often downplayed in the Catholic Church. As college seniors they were drawn into a particularly delicate interaction with administration and faculty, as they encountered both resistance and support.
When asked how they felt about graduating after such a turbulent year, they replied that they found a great deal of support on their campus, particularly from faculty and staff who hadn’t spoken out about these issues in the past. Knowing who their advocates were helped them engage more broadly with issues involving religion,race, politics, and sexuality. With understatement Kascha summed up their work: “We just made noise, but we found a lot of gratitude and appreciation.”
DATE RECORDED: 06/09/17
MUSIC: Thingamajig by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/…)
Artist: http://audionautix.com/
Cindy Kamp is the host and creator of Your True North radio show and podcast.
Sean O’Melia is currently the producer of Your True North.