Fast-A-Thon writing and art initiative entry

Remember we had the Fast-A-Thon writing and art initiative? This was with SB Muslim Students' Association, and our objective was to get students who have fasted for charity for this year's Fast-A-Thon to share their fasting experiences with the rest of the nation by emailing us their writing nad art pieces.

This is the entry we got:

Hi my name is Nelly L. Medina and I'm a sophomore at Stony Brook University. I was raised a Roman Catholic, so basically I practiced a lot of Catholic traditions. Even though I am catholic, I was also aware and a bit influenced with other religions as well. My aunt was in a relationship with a Muslim man, I used to date Jewish guys, and in my family, my mother's father is a pastor for the evangelist religion. But mostly, the Roman Catholic religion influenced me the most. Fasting was a bit difficult for me because I don't practice it. I fast during the lent season in my religion, that is, no eating meats on Fridays only fish and giving up on something during the 40 days of lent. Going through the fasting for the fast-a-thon I get to experience a day how my fellow peers fast-that means no eating the whole day until five o'clock. Also, I got to experience the hunger many people go through when they don't have at least a piece of bread to eat. Overall, it was a great experience and I learned a lot from it as well. Unfortunately, I couldn't go to the dinner and discussion after the fasting ended because I had class. I'm looking forward for the next fast-a-thon and I'm going to encourage a lot of my friends to join as well.

Thank you Nelly for being a pioneer in an initiative like this! You have become a part of a movement to breakdown negative stereotypes against of many minorities in our society.

Deadline has been extended!

Hi everyone!

The deadline for the initiative has been extended to Friday Nov. 21. That's a week from Friday!

You have all the information you need to submit a writing/art piece below- art samples and possible questions you could use to describe your experiences, so please use this opportunity to share with everyone you know and don't know what fasting meant to you. This can be a great tool to breakdown negative stereotypes and bridge gaps between cultures and religions. Use this chance to be a part of change!

Sincerely,
-SB AIDemocracy and MSA

Guidelines and art samples provided!

Check out students talking about their fasting experiences!!!! Youtube video of students speaking about their experiences is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtVHkF0b9yc

If you have any questions, please email us at SBAIDemocracy@hotmail.com, and write in the subject line: Question about initiative. Otherwise, when you send us your writing and art pieces, write in the subject line: Submission for initiative, and please don't forget! Both SBAIDemocracy@hotmail.com and sbumsa@gmail.com.

Stony Brook Americans for Informed Democracy (AIDemocracy) guideline questions for writing piece on the fasting experience

• How many times have you participated in the Fast-A-Thon?
• Did you eat before fasting? Did you eat before fasting with a friend of yours?
• What did you do during your fast? Describe your day.
• What was the most memorable part of your fasting experience?
• What was the most tumultuous part of your fasting experience? When? Why?
• How was the breaking the fast?
• Looking back: What did you learn from this experience? If you did this before, what was the recurring theme in your experiences?
• Did you learn anything new this time?
• If you were in charge of this event, what would you do extra or differently?
• Did you learn more about Islam through this event? Can you suggest more ideas to promote diversity and understanding b/w cultures and religions- inclusive of Islam, Muslims, and/or Islamic culture?
• If you could tell one other non-Muslim about the fasting experience what would it be? Now that you have fasted, how will you treat other people who do fast whether it be during Ramadan or otherwise?
• What inspired you to participate in this contest from the beginning?
• What did you hope to learn about Islam as a religion during your fasting?
• Do you think fasting is a productive way to grow as a person?
• Would you be interested in participating in fasting the next year?
• What do you see as the benefit of the fasting process?
• Would you recommend the fasting process for a friend, why or why not?
• How has this experience shaped your understanding of Islam?

The rules in order to have your writing and art piece on the Stony Brook AIDemocracy blog:

• No more than 1000 words.
• Times New Roman, 12 font.
• Write your name, major, year in college, and which state you’re from (you’d be surprised where your friends come from!)
• Submit an art piece describing your fasting experience- a place to express your creativity, even stick figures will do. You can take a picture or go to the sinc site and scan your art piece. Place the art piece after your writing sample in MS word.
  No vulgarity, sexual content, or racist comments PLEASE!!
• Writing and art pieces should be sent to sbumsa@gmail.com (MSA email address) and SBAIDemocracy@hotmail.com (Stony Brook AIDemocracy email address) in MS word as an attachment- it’ll make our lives easier!

Here's a sample of the artwork you can send in! Be as creative as you can be- use stick figures if you want! (they’re not fasting experiences- they’re anonymous secrets from postsecret.blogspot.com...just to give you an example)

Writing and art initiative

Hi Everyone!

You probably came to this blog either through the Fast-A-Thon announcement or by our mass emails. In case you have lost the sheet of paper that lists questions you could answer for your writing piece on sharing your fasting experience, we posted them up here. We also put up a sample pictures of the type of artwork you could submit about your fasting experiences. Like we said, they could be just stick figures if you’re worried about your artistry.

We hope that this will turn into a sort of an online discussion of your fasting experiences with each other and how they have affected your lives. Moreover, we want to share your experiences with young, active people all over the nation, and break down barriers between Muslims and non-Muslims through art, and the art of writing. You have between today (Oct. 20) and Monday Nov. 10 to submit your writing and art pieces to SBAIDemocracy@hotmail.com and sbumsa@gmail.com.

Please encourage your friends who weren’t able to make it to the fast-a-thon, but were able to fast, to submit their experiences to us. Each experience is special and unique, and we hope to get as many special and unique moments as we can! Human life is a string of special and unique moments, so don’t deprive yourselves and each other from sharing them! Thanks a lot and hope to read and post your cool experiences!

-SB AIDemocracy and SB MSA e-boards