Major: Anthropology
Hometown: Minneapolis, MN
John Cioci Lazur grew up in a Unitarian Universalist Humanist congregation in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and they are graduating from Tufts with a BA in Anthropology. Their Tufts experience started with the 1+4 Bridge Year Program during which they lived in León, Nicaragua, and they supported local community development projects and educational initiatives at a technical school. Coming to campus as a first-year, they took part in the CAFE (Conversation, Action, Faith, and Education) Pre-Orientation, organized by the University Chaplaincy, and they soon fell in love with the vibrant interfaith community on campus and in Boston.
While at Tufts, they have served as a representative on the Interfaith Student Council for four years, organized and supported a variety of programs at the University Chaplaincy, and participated in the Building Interfaith Leadership Initiative at the Miller Center for Interreligious Learning and Leadership as an Undergraduate Fellow and, currently, an Alumni Liaison. Last year, they participated in the Tufts Summer Scholars program, and they pursued independent research to examine Tufts’ own religious history through oral histories with alumni and staff and through archival materials. This research is culminating in a capstone project that investigates the emergence of religiously pluralistic community on campus in relation to the University Chaplaincy, student-led movements for social justice, multifaith sacred spaces, and Tufts’ Universalist heritage.
This summer, they are working as one of the co-coordinators for the same CAFE Pre-Orientation program that welcomed them to Tufts’ campus, and they are excited to welcome incoming students with the ethos of radical hospitality and openness that has defined their student experience at Tufts.