As hubs for innovative research and scholarship and with fertile ground for encountering and engaging across deep difference, college campuses have been powerful incubators for social change throughout American history. Colleges are uniquely positioned to equip and inspire young people to become bridgebuilders on campus and, after graduation, in their workplaces, communities, and congregations.

To leverage this power and promise of U.S. higher education, IA equips students, educators, and administrators on campuses across the country with the skills, resources, and networks to cooperate across difference and advance the full potential of our diverse democracy. IA provides capacity-building grants and other funding, learning tools and curricula, and trainings that bolster relationship-building and leadership development, as well as on-campus visits and consultations to provide individualized and context-specific support. Through engagement with IA programming, campus leaders are helping to establish a climate in which students are comfortable expressing their beliefs and an environment in which respect grows and relationships are formed across lines of difference.

In 2023, IA conducted convenings such as the Interfaith Leadership Summit for students and faculty; the Institute on Teaching and Learning for Campus-wide Interfaith Excellence, in partnership with the American Association of Colleges and Universities, for senior administrators, faculty, and staff; programs, including Bridging the Gap (BTG), that support curricular and co-curricular bridgebuilding projects on dozens of campuses; and year-round skill development opportunities, including the online asynchronous training course, “INTF 1101: Interfaith Foundations for Emerging Leaders.”