Volunteer Opportunities

SHEN Spiritual Education Project

Do you ever wonder what keeps people apart, why humanity is split along innumerable lines such as religion, community, culture, race, color, gender etc.? Do you want to build bridges to build cohesive and loving pluralistic societies and the global village that the world has now become?

In the opinion of Spiritual Heritage Education Network Inc. (SHEN), the main reason of the current divisiveness is the lack of education in our schools, colleges, and universities in matters dealing with our underlying unity, interconnectedness, shared values and their spiritual roots. Our goal is to close this gap. SHEN plans to reach its goal by promoting, developing and undertaking research and education in spiritual heritage of humanity.

It is our position that religion unites people into communities; while spirituality is all inclusive and unites the entire humanity. Besides, spirituality also unites humanity with nature. Spirituality is totally inclusive and unifying and it knows no boundaries. It lies at the core of all religion; see the Figure below showing a graphical representation of the Anatomy of Religion.

Why then is there divisiveness and historic identity savagery? We attribute them to a lack of discernment between core spirituality and the surrounding religious doctrine. This lack of discernment is wide spread today and it is primarily responsible for the current human and environmental crises. We hope to address its underlying causes through the proposed education in spiritual heritage of humanity.

The core spirituality is equally meaningful to people of faith and of no faith. It also is didactic in nature and its validation lies well within the jurisdiction of today’s humanities, social, natural and life sciences. We aim to develop integrated multi-disciplinary multi-religious curricula focusing only on the inclusive core spirituality. We regard it as the most suitable vehicle to transform deep human consciousness to address the crises humanity faces today.

We need young people with open minds to help define education in shared spirituality and moral values in a diverse setting. We envision the work to be inter-disciplinary and inter-religious. We require it to be all-inclusive, irrespective of faith or the lack of it. Our goal is public education to enable the perception of our essential oneness.

SHEN is aware of the magnitude of their educational mission. It is not something that any selected group of people, in any particular time and/or place can achieve once and for all time. It is a process that we seek to initiate; a process which will evolve and expand to include people of diverse experiences, cultures, perspectives, religions, philosophies, etc., but who share the common desire to encourage and to facilitate a deep probing of the human spirit and its relationship to the universal spirit, both for themselves and for all other interested persons.

To this end, we seek volunteers who will:

1.       act as research and development assistants to faculty in course development;

2.       act as faculty members to develop educational and course material;

3.       act as members of an editorial board;

4.       help in fundraising;

5.       help in lobbying to promote spiritual education;

6.       fill various bibliographic and library functions;

7.       develop operational procedures, policies, and guideline; and

8.       help in any other way in realizing the SHEN mission. 

9.   help in opinion gathering to define inclusive spiritual curricula meaningful to all

If our vision inspires and its potential ignites your imagination, we need to hear from you. Please get in touch with us by e-mailing:

volunteer@spiritualeducation.org.

Research and Development Assistants

This is a key volunteer role for academically inclined persons including university, college and senior high school students. It consists of the research and development activities required to assist the faculty in the definition and implementation of our curricula.

For the first few days, our faculty will familiarize the volunteer with the position, goals and objectives of the organization and the proposed curricula. The volunteer will also learn about the description, outline, goals and objectives of the particular course assigned to her/him.

The volunteer will develop and execute a schedule of library research and developmental activities such as assessment and evaluation of the course materials, development of bibliographies, writing course objectives, etc. He/she will help with the drafting of course modules deliverable on the internet in a distance education mode. The student will meet with the supervising faculty on a regular basis and report on activities carried out.

Every effort will be made to keep the challenge and motivation level high optimizing learning by making the volunteer work experience relevant to her/his goals, background and tradition. Inter-disciplinary and inter-religious nature of our work enables us to cater to the needs of an individual volunteer and benefit from the strengths the volunteer brings. In addition, we will ensure that the volunteering experience promotes the intellectual and spiritual growth of the volunteer as it promotes the goals and objectives of our organization. We very much want the students to come back to resume their work with us building on the experience and growth achieved the first time around.

Interested? E-mail us at volunteer@spiritualeducation.org.