Students for Open Doors and Ethical Leadership brings students and faculty members together for a formal dinner a couple times a month.
Martin Luther King, Jr. is the inspiration for this group.
“We wanted to create a space where people could come and meet other people and share a meal,” said Yardena Wolf, the Director of Communications for SODEL. “The Beloved Community is an idea from Martin Luther King, Jr. where people would live peacefully with one another and more relevantly where conflict could be resolved in a positive environment. One of the goals of SODEL is to foster organic relationships among students who may not have ended up in a room together previously, which leads to a more united campus.”
Caroline Bechtel, executive director of SODEL, said the goal of dinners is also to build a community of diverse, passionate students who all have different experiences to share.
“At each dinner, 20 guests sit around a table, enjoy a free meal and have interesting conversation,” Bechtel said. “The dinner is meant to cause genuine conversation, and, from the personal testimonies shared, I am confident each student learned more about the human experience and what their peers experience on campus.”
SODEL dinners are formal, sit-down dinners and are invite only. However, SODEL isn’t made to be entirely exclusive.
“If a student or faculty member would like to become involved in any of SODEL’s future dinners, they can, and they are able to join the Assembly as a general member, attend any of the events or even bring an idea to the executive board if they wish to be a project leader. We welcome all students from diverse backgrounds,” said Bechtel.
SODEL holds dinners four times a year, two in the fall and two in the spring. The next dinner is scheduled for Nov. 18.
