'Variety doesn't challenge the world you came from:' keeping faith at UNC

One of the first Hindu teachings sophomore Taruni Santanam learned was that religions are the path to the summit of a mountain — people just take different paths to get there.

Religion has been a force at UNC since the University’s founding.

Early in the University’s religious history, all students and faculty were required to go to chapel. Person Hall was the original chapel space, but Gerrard Hall was built later to accommodate a growing campus population.

Non-denominational Protestantism was how UNC originally identified, history professor Harry Watson said, but now religious beliefs from all over the world pervade the country’s oldest public university.

“Variety and complexity isn’t a bad thing, it’s actually a really wonderful thing and that variety doesn’t challenge the world you came from — it simply shows you that devoted and earnest people can reach different conclusions,” said Religious Studies Department Chairperson Randall Styers.

She’s got an app for that

Junior biology major Moza Hamud is a Muslim exchange student from Mombasa, Kenya. She said her family instilled the values of Islam in her at a young age and those values define her as a person.

“I am here at UNC, away from home, so many miles away. I could easily just change and not wear the hijab and just go out drinking. Nobody is watching me, right, except God of course,” Hamud said.

“But I feel like my family did a good job instilling that religion and the love for God in me that I don’t even think about, like, doing that and I hope that God continues to guide me in the same way.”

At home, a call to prayer sounds five times a day to signal her community to pray. At UNC, she downloaded an app to remind her when to pray, wherever she is.

Science and religion

As a chemistry major, senior Matthew Tugman has to reconcile science and his Christian faith, but he said his call from God is to be a physician.

“Since coming to college and growing in my faith more, I so want to do the best to get to where I want to be, but instead of doing it for selfish reasons, I see God is going to able to use me as a physician one day,” he said. “I’m responding to that call. So my reasons for working hard have changed a lot since coming into college.”

Though he hears people say Christians are anti-intellectual and unable to reconcile science and faith, Tugman said he has been able to study the Bible and keep his convictions.

A life called to serve

Service is important in the Sikh faith, and first-year Preeya Deol said the turban worn by Sikhs is a sign for people to know who to go to if they need help.

Deol went to a Christian high school. Being the odd one out caused her to hide her religion at first, but eventually she saw her faith as a source of strength.

“I just shouted it from the rooftops,” she said.

After taking a trip to India when she was 18, she said she found a new sense of identity.

“That’s when it just kind of clicked — this is where I’m from and this is who I am,” Deol said.

Her confidence in her religion has allowed her to find solace in prayer and community in the student Sikh organization, Carolina Khalsa.

A happy balance

Sophomore Michael Roochvarg was taught the values of Judaism when he was young. As he got older, he learned to interpret them for himself.

“It’s about finding a happy balance with what you feel comfortable doing and what you can physically do,” he said.

During a busy first year at UNC, Roochvarg put his faith on the back burner — but now he’s the vice president of UNC Hillel.

“To me, faith, especially in Judaism, provides people that flexibility to be more or less religious and participate or not participate,” he said.

A cradle Catholic

First-year Julian Esain grew up in Miami in a predominantly Hispanic community where Catholicism was very important to the people around him.

He said he really enjoys having open discussions with people of different faiths and different opinions at UNC.

“Coming to college I’ve made it a goal to just be, like, open-minded, listen to other people’s stories, listen to other people’s beliefs, and make sure to not do anything on my religion that would infringe upon someone else’s,” he said.

Affected by tragedy

Anam Ahmad, a sophomore biostatistics and chemistry major, was afraid to walk to Franklin Street after the Chapel Hill Shooting in 2015.

“The most difficult thought that came up for me was so I was terrified going to Franklin Street because I’m Muslim, and then I felt comforted by the fact that I don’t wear a hijab so people wouldn’t know I’m Muslim,” she said.

“And that really hurt because that’s not the reason I don’t wear the hijab and I didn’t want that to be something comforting. You want to be confident in your faith.”

Ahmad said she found community in the UNC Muslim Students Association and at the University as a whole.

She and her roommate Santanam, who is Hindu, are very close, and their discussions about their different religions have brought them closer together.

“I like learning a lot and faith, because it’s so close to people, you get to know people a lot more,” Santanam said.

Finding connections

Tugman said interfaith events provide frequent opportunities for discussion. At these events, several students said they discovered that different religions have the same foundations.

Hamud has found that idea to be true when talking to friends who practice different faiths.

“We learn a lot from each other, and I don’t think religion stops us from being who we are,” she said.

Santanam said religion is beautiful.

“To see people believe in something so much and have that shape their lives as well as shape who they are as individuals — especially if they do connect very strongly with their faith — is incredible.”

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