Interfaith America is proud to announce the recipients of the 2025-2026 Civic Pluralism in the Core Curriculum grants, which honor campuses reimagining higher education by fostering pluralism in their foundational required courses, such as general education or core courses and first-year seminars.
At the beginning of 2025, we invited higher education institutions interested in advancing civic pluralism on their campuses to apply for $10,000 grants to make significant curricular changes at their institutions that prioritize civic pluralism as a cornerstone of education. By focusing on the core curriculum, these grants enable teams to engage students early in their academic journeys, creating a ripple effect that has the potential to shape campus culture and prepare students to navigate and lead in a religiously and ideologically diverse, increasingly polarized society.
As a result of this grant, core curriculum and first-year experience courses are being designed by the grantees to explore civic pluralism, bridgebuilding, constructive dialogue skills, and other tools tailored to foster connection and cooperation across deep difference. Each team will integrate resources from Interfaith America’s Learning and Action Bridge (LAB) to strengthen course content—drawing from materials such as the Bridgebuilder Basics curricula, Story Circles activity, Pluralism Texts Bibliography, and more.
We are proud to award funding to thirteen outstanding teams from institutions nationwide to develop or revise core courses that equip students to engage constructively across meaningful lines of difference. Here are the recipients of the 2025-2026 Civic Pluralism in the Core Curriculum grants:
- Baldwin Wallace University
- Cornell University
- Drew University
- Gonzaga University
- Greensboro College
- Hunter College (CUNY)
- Longwood University
- Loras College
- Mary Baldwin University
- Molloy University
- Seattle University
- Southern Methodist University
- University of Denver
These institutions represent a shared vision for the future of higher education, where students are taught from the very beginning of their educational careers to engage in meaningful, difficult conversations, collaborate across significant differences, and contribute to a society with pluralism as its core value.
The collective impact from imbedding this work into general education and core curriculum courses will help imbue campus communities with students engaging in mutual respect and meaningful cooperation toward common positive goals.
Stay tuned to Interfaith America for spotlights on these grantees and their transformative work.
This grant is made possible through generous funding from the Templeton Religion Trust.
