According to a recent survey conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, nearly 44 percent of adult Americans have rejected their original faiths to affiliate with another religion or no religion at all. But this trend is not necessarily a generational mid-life crisis; these changes in belief often begin on the college campus.
"Students kind of reassess their identities in various ways when they come to college. There's a certain level of anonymity that allows for explorations in all kinds of ways," Associate Professor of Religion Joseph Walser said.
Freshman John Peter Kaytrosh, who was raised in a Catholic home, found Judaism to be a better fit for him when he moved from Malvern, Penn., to Medford. Throughout his childhood, Kaytrosh attended an all-male Catholic grade school, joined a Catholic choir and was very involved in his Catholic religion and community. He had begun, however, to question his faith even before he left high school.
"Starting in about eighth grade, things started to change for me in a big way. I figured out I was gay, and when I got into high school, I found Catholicism didn't really have all the answers for me," Kaytrosh said. "In 10th grade, I started looking at all sorts of religions."
It was college, though, that introduced Kaytrosh to the religious outlet he was seeking.
"I got to college and discovered Judaism in a significant way for my spiritual development. I started going to [Shabbat] services with my friends and, even after they dropped off, I kept going."
Now Kaytrosh is considering formally converting to Judaism.
Senior Jane Olszewski similarly departed from her religious upbringing last year when her religious development took somewhat of a sharper turn as she declared herself a member of the Bahá'í faith. Formerly an atheist and then later an agnostic, Olszewski was raised in a household that was Catholic but not very religious. She became even less attached to organized religion as her mother grew disillusioned with the Catholic Church.
"I never actually believed in God," Olszewski said, talking about her youth. But her beliefs changed when she spent her junior year abroad in Africa and stayed with a Bahá'í woman in Arusha, Tanzania.
"I had never heard about [the Bahá'í faith] before and was worried that I was about to join a cult. But she explained it to me and it sort of clicked and just made sense to me," Olszewski said. "I came home that summer and declared."
Not all religious awakenings come in the form of conversion, though. While some students decide to explore new traditions at school, others find meaning in re-exploring old ones.
Sophomore Troy Bedik was turned on to religion when she got to campus and became more engaged in her Jewish identity. The daughter of Jewish Israeli citizens, Bedik was always involved with the cultural aspect of Judaism but not as much with the religious observance of it.
"Family dinner wasn't meat and potatoes. It was falafel and pita," she said. "I always felt really connected to the ethnic side of being Jewish, but I didn't understand the religious side."
In Connecticut, where Bedik spent most of her childhood, her family belonged to the Kehilat Chaverim congregation, which describes itself as a non-traditional organization and holds its clergy-less Sabbath services in a Quaker meeting house.
In college, Bedik was introduced to a more traditional form of religious practice.
"I always thought that when I got to college, I would explore my [religious] options," Bedik said. "I went to Hillel and I didn't find it that enticing. Then I met my friend, Eddie, and he told me to come to Chabad and I felt like something really sparked. Judaism is about family for me, and when I go to Chabad I get that familial feeling, so I started going to Shabbat more and learning more."
While changing faiths may feel like the right path, the religious coming-out process is not always an easy one, especially for those with devout families.
Olszewski's family members were both skeptical and surprised when she sat them down and announced her new religious beliefs. "My dad told me that he either thought I was going to tell him I was gay or that I was pregnant," she said. "My sister still thinks it's kind of weird; my mother kind of believes that religion does damage in the world. We don't really talk about it, and I regret that."
That said, her family and friends did eventually become more understanding of her conversion. "My dad really responded well and even went to a [Bahá'í] devotional gathering with me," she said.
When it comes to her friends at Tufts, Olszewski worries that religion and intellect are contradictory in the minds of many students.
"There's this idea that being a person of faith is separate from being intellectual — that it's sort of used by people who are weak. We can talk about drugs, sex, political views; but when it comes to personal religions, people aren't crazy about talking about it," she said.
"But at the same time, my friends are intrigued by [my religion]," she continued "It's become a sort of joke. My roommate will say things like, ‘How's God?' Some of them want to know more about it and they are close enough to know that I'm not someone who got sucked in by a cult or who takes things lightly," she said.
Kaytrosh has seen nothing but conviviality from the Jewish community at Tufts, though some of his friends do not completely understand his motivations.
"As a community, Hillel has been extremely welcoming," he said. "At Tufts, people have gotten a chance to see what this conversion has done for me, but I don't think a lot of them get that it's a spiritual thing and not just a community thing."
And the reactions he has seen from friends and family back home have been largely the same.
"My leaving the Catholic faith was not a big deal for anyone, because I'm gay and it was kind of to be expected. There were a lot of questions of why Judaism though. A lot of my friends from home still don't get it but there's not a lot of discomfort," Kaytrosh said.
"My parents are happy that I've found something that motivated me. It doesn't matter to them that it's religion," Bedik said of her family's response. "Religion has helped me get through college the way I don't think other things could."
At Tufts in particular, there are several organizations that aim to motivate religious discussion on campus, including Pathways — Tufts' Interfaith Initiative — and Conversation, Action, Faith and Education (CAFE) — its student-run descendent.
"I know a lot of people who have not necessarily converted but have really become a lot more open-minded to the concept of religion since they've gotten to campus," sophomore religion major and CAFE member Danna Solomon said. "It exposes you to a different atmosphere. It allows you to see things past the homogenous bubble you grew up in."
