Your financial support is vital to keep the GTU’s engagement with the world’s religious traditions vibrant and fruitful, and to sustain our scholars as they continue to do exceptional work.
Your gift to the GTU supports dedicated students like Enver Rahmanov, who came to the GTU because he believes deep engagement with the diverse religious traditions of our world can help us become more compassionate people. After completing his master’s in interreligious studies at the GTU, he became the volunteer 
coordinator for Maitri, a residential care facility for those dying of or severely debilitated by AIDS. “I doubt I’d be doing this work today if it weren’t for the GTU,” says Enver. “My experience studying in the GTU’s multi-religious context has rooted me more deeply in essential values—compassion, humility, generosity, forgiveness—that are shared in the various traditions.”
Enver Rahmanov was born to a secular Muslim family in Turkmenistan, and moved to the United States in the mid-1990s to work for the United Nations in New York City.
He first came to the GTU in the early 2000s as a student at Pacific School of Religion, where he earned an MTS in 2005. He spent the next several years engaged in a variety of national and international efforts for peace and social justice. But the demands of such grueling work, especially in situations marked by interreligious conflict, caused him to decide to return to the GTU:
After several years working with an international humanitarian agency that dealt primarily with countries of conflict, such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, Sudan, Burma, I felt like I was losing faith, not just in religion but perhaps even in humanity. I needed to step back to see a bigger picture, to find a place that would replenish my spirit, ground my practice, and show me the wisdom how to face the world of suffering so I could be of better service.
That's when I decided to return to Berkeley, where I joined a Tibetan Buddhism community and became part of the first cohort of students in the GTU’s master's program in Interreligious Studies.
What I did not expect is that GTU would give me the opportunity to explore my own sense of multiple religious belonging in an increasingly interdependent and pluralistic world. Thanks to the school's diverse religious scholarship, its strong focus on contextual theology, and many intimate conversations and friendships developed with amazing diversity of people of faith who come to study here, GTU has equipped me to be a contributing scholar for the State of Formation, a national network of students and practitioners in interreligious dialogue. Perhaps one day I can return to GTU to do my PhD and add my voice to the emerging field of an interreligious dialogue and belonging.
GTU has helped me discern even further by deepening my interest in what the Dalai Lama calls the "education of the heart" and a religion-science dialogue on basic values of our shared humanity, pursuing not only conceptual but rather practical understanding of compassion through Buddhist chaplaincy courses and independent study at the Sojourn chaplaincy program at San Francisco General Hospital, as part of my GTU coursework. If not for those experiences, I do not think I would be working now at Maitri Compassionate Care in San Francisco, a hospice and respite care residential facility for people living with HIV/AIDS.
Being born thousand miles away in Central Asia, in my journey of faith, I found my homecoming in GTU. I was here right after 9/11 in 2001 and came back in 2012 to embrace the change and be a part of a larger caring multi-faith family. I hope more people join us and support the GTU, so we can continue to heal and transform the world in a more compassionate one.
Your gift to the GTU supports religious education that equips scholars and leaders to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century. Donate online by clicking the green box on this page, or mail check to GTU, 2400 Ridge Rd., Berkeley, CA 94709. Thanks for your support!