Last week, College junior Maria Bellantoni was appointed chairwoman of Programs in Religion, Interfaith and Spirituality Matters — Penn’s interfaith student group.
Bellantoni sat down with The Daily Pennsylvanian to discuss her goals for the organization and the role PRISM plays in Penn’s community.
The Daily Pennsylvanian: What motivated you to run?
Maria Bellantoni: I’ve always been very impressed with PRISM’s ability to really bring people together of very diverse backgrounds, which has been very difficult, especially on Penn’s campus where religion isn’t at the forefront. PRISM has made strides in that respect to really make religion a cool topic and I’ve always admired that.
DP: Does PRISM appeal to groups or also to individuals?
MB: Definitely both. We really want religious life at Penn to be a part of Penn life. We don’t want it to be in the shadows. It’s very important for us to attract religious organizations and bring us all together. But we’re really interested in also bringing in individuals who are interested in religion … or not even religious at all. That’s going to be an important dynamic for us going forward.
DP: What are your goals for this year?
MB: I think PRISM is definitely at a crossroads. In the past, we’ve been known as the interfaith organization and we’ve focused a lot on interfaith programming. However, as defined by our constitution, our goal is twofold … [to lead] interfaith programming and to be an advocacy group for religious students. I think it’s time for us … to fill that second role a little bit better. It’s really to be the student body, the student government … for religious groups on campus.
DP: How do you hope to implement these goals?
MB: Right now, we have five groups that are represented: Newman Catholic group, Hillel, the Hindu student association, the Muslim student association and the World Peace Buddhists … so an obvious first step is to start contacting the leaders and members of other religious groups.
In order for us to really lead religious students on campus and to be that umbrella organization that we want to be, we’re going to have to … pool our resources and our strength with the Office of the Chaplain and work more closely with them.
With that, we’ll probably start promoting the Faith Fund a whole lot more. [It] was created this semester … to fund religiously oriented events programming on campus.
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