Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Next Steps

The Renewing Hope conference will close on Sunday, March 2 with a panel entitled:

"Next Steps: Ways Forward"

This panel will include three of our own Yale Divinity School students: Matthew Riley, Joshua Ashton Hill, and Rachel Holmes. I'd like to take a few moments to introduce each of them to you and say a few words about their own work and ideas about the "way forward."

We'll begin with Matt Riley, our own Renewing Hope Student Volunteer Coordinator. Matt is a student in the MAR Ethics program at YDS, and he will be graduating from Yale this May. He has brought a lot of energy and enthusiasm to this event and has assembled an amazing team of students from across the university to organize the interfaith eco-service that will take place Sunday morning, as well as to offer general conference support.

Matt Riley has recently submitted his applications to various PhD programs in ethics and hopes to begin work on his doctoral degree this coming Fall. As a former middle school biology teacher and union organizer with the Teach for America program, Matt is interested in continuing to teach at the university level. With a background in science and education as well as a rich family history of religious involvement, Matt feels that the linkage between religion and ecology is the most important moral/spiritual issue of our time. He hopes, as many of us do, that our work here will inspire others to seriously reflect on - and engage with - a multitude of religious traditions. In addition to his work as the student coordinator for the Renewing Hope Conference, Matt is also actively involved with the Yale Earth Care Committee.

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