Panel discussion on campus tackles spirituality and schooling

Panelists during a "Spiritual Wellness" event sit before an audience in Mendenhall Student Center.

The subject matter of spirituality and schooling merged in an insightful panel discussion held on East Carolina’s campus Thursday evening.

With world views of the religious and nonreligious being addressed throughout the entirety of the presentation, “Spiritual Wellness” was an event that made the effort of representing how spirituality impacts a student’s life on a day-to-day basis.

“Spirituality gives students a positive idea on what they want to do,” said panelist and senior Maurice Carter, a university studies major. “It’s about an individual sense of peace and fulfillment, which is so important.”

Touching base on a wavelength of topics such as relaxation strategies and the stigmas associated with a religious lifestyle, the discussion provided others with an understanding on some controversies surrounding religion, while allowing an open forum for the audience as an attempt to embrace differences in a free, yet respectful manner.

To relieve the tension of a room filled with uncertainty and unfamiliar faces, the event started with an icebreaker. Students turned to strangers and got to clear the air by asking others what their names were, how each of them were doing, and what their favorite quote was.

Following that was an exercise called “Where Are My People?” where both the panelists and people in the audience asked a question about something they liked in search of others who liked the same thing. Hands raised in the air and laughter was shared as people expressed their favor of things like Netflix, chocolate and wanting to go home to rest after a long day.

“Being open to new people is important, especially when discussing controversy,” said freshman Jourdan Carr, a communication major. “I think that was a really nice touch to a start off a really healthy discussion.”

A main focus in the event was the impact of religious stereotypes in modern society. Multitudes of faith and the falsehoods associated with them were discussed, which brought about disapproval of each of them and the reality that some people had to live with those stereotypes every day.

“Wearing my hijab makes me a target, but I’m as much American as anyone else in this room,” said panelist Nadine Rammouni during the discussion. “We should consider everyone around us, no matter the religion or belief or difference.”

While splitting into small groups, each of the panelists took a few minutes to get personal with a select few of students by discussing breakout questions to get to dive into each student’s personal path with spirituality and relaxation.

Before departing, the students split into small groups and also got a chance to voice out topics that they wanted to touch on during the discussion. Each shared thoughts on how they wanted to hear more about how family impacted religion and the meaning of each of the panelists’ beliefs, with all agreeing that embracing their differences created a form of unity, no matter the belief or lack thereof.