Bethel receives $60,000 Faith and Health Campus Grant
By Heather Schnese S’12, content specialist
February 26, 2026 | 12:30 p.m.
Bethel has been awarded a $60,000 grant from Interfaith America to advance its Interfaith Initiative, a multi-year effort to strengthen interreligious engagement in health-focused social work education. This helps Bethel equip students to care for people of all faith backgrounds with conviction, humility, and professional excellence.
Bethel will use the grant to: redesign two social work courses to recognize religious pluralism as a key influence on health and well-being; develop an interreligious studies certificate; formalize and fund practicum placements in settings where interfaith-informed practice is essential; host a spring 2027 Interreligious Symposium; and produce peer-reviewed scholarship and conference presentations that help shape national conversations about religion, health, trauma, and justice.
“Religion plays a profound role in how communities understand health, suffering, and justice, yet our educational experience often underprepares students to engage this diversity skillfully,” says Professor Eydie Dyke-Shypulski, chair of Bethel’s social work department and director of Bethel’s Master of Social Work (MSW) program. “Ignoring religion does not make it irrelevant; it simply leaves practitioners ill-equipped to handle the complex realities of those they serve.”
These initiatives do not promote religious relativism or dilute personal faith, rather equip students to practice ethically in a religiously diverse society. “In a social work course, for example, students might study how religious identity affects access to preventive care, mental health stigma in different faith communities, end-of-life decision-making, and trauma recovery and spiritual coping,” explains Dyke-Shypulski. “Rather than treating religion as an ‘add-on,’ a redesigned assignment might require students to conduct a biopsychosocial-spiritual assessment, analyze how religious belonging (or exclusion) functions as either a protective factor or stressor, and develop an intervention plan that demonstrates culturally and spiritually responsive practice.”
— Professor Eydie Dyke-Shypulski, chair of Bethel’s social work department and director of Bethel’s Master of Social Work program
The initiative affords collaboration between Bethel’s social work department and seminary, with seminary faculty strengthening the interreligious component. “Students will be equipped with the interdisciplinary skills required to lead and serve effectively in complex, pluralistic health and justice environments,” says Dyke-Shypulski.
Bethel is one of 14 universities to receive the grant, part of Interfaith America’s national Faith & Health Campus Grants program funded by the John Templeton Foundation. And receiving the grant builds on the social work department's strong record of securing external funding, including two grants totaling $1.5 million from the Minnesota Department of Education (2024-2027) to fund scholarships and paid internships for students pursuing school social work.
— Professor Eydie Dyke-Shypulski
This latest award not only affirms the department’s leadership in faith-informed practice, but also advances its commitment to preparing students to serve diverse communities with skill and conviction. “By engaging interreligious competency, students extend the core Christian commitments of dignity, compassion, and justice—learning to love neighbors who believe differently and practice hospitality without compromising their own conviction,” says Dyke-Shypulski. “Ultimately, navigating religious differences with humility and professional skill is not a compromise of faith, but a profound expression of it that ensures no client is harmed by a lack of understanding.”
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