Join us to meet your fellow Roothbert Fellows, past and present!

Where: Zoom!

To RSVP, and to find a Zoom link, click here!

Where: Zoom!

• Link here

• Meeting ID: 850 4599 5114

  Passcode: 206980

This is a host session in which fellows will meet and greet the fellowship pod facilitators and have an opportunity to ask questions and have short conversations. The pod facilitators will have an opportunity to share about their pod foci and themselves, answer questions, and learn about the fellows.

You are welcome to join more than 1 pod. They meet 6x a year for 1.5 hours. Please note the times of the pod facilitators below

You can meet the pod facilitators for these two pods from 4:00-4:35:

Nature is Spirit: Consciously Communing with Earth Community

We are a part of the Earth Community. There are many members of the Earth Community that we don’t consciously commune with. This pod invites us to increase conscious communications with other Sentient Beings in the Earth Community. Participants in the pod will spend time communing with other Sentient Beings outside of the pod and use their time inside of the pod to explore integrating their encounters in the affective, cognitive, behavioral, and spiritual dimensions. Participation in the pod includes being part of an optional WhatsApp group so that the community experience thrives in between pod meetings.

Pod Facilitators: Judy Lewis and Nadjwa Norton:

Judy’s communing with nature is rooted in her biological and spiritual lineages: therefore, it is an intrinsic part of her identity. Nadjwa spends most of her time with her NYC Earth Community. She is committed to and designing opportunities to spend more time with her Earth Community in various geological locations.

Challenging Scarcity Mindsets by Cultivating Abundance Mindsets Through Ethical Reflection and Action

We’ll explore cultivating abundance mindsets by challenging scarcity mindsets. We will begin each session with a silent gratitude practice of abundance and end each session with an abundance offering (poem, song, quote). We will learn how striving to practice integrity and generosity can reveal and sustain abundance; whether sourced from faith in God or the abundance of nature. A central thread will be that ethical action ripples outward, contributing to a broader positive impact—an ongoing ripple effect that extends beyond us. We’ll discuss the behavioral and emotional shifts that come from adopting this mindset (e.g., balance, peace, empathy, nuanced living). We will engage some skit writing and discussions to unpack everyday ethical choices. This will support the practice of decision-making aligned with an abundance mindset, with attention to how these actions radiate outward.

Pod Facilitators: Habiba Rabiu and Nadjwa Norton

Habiba Rabiu recently graduated with a degree in International Affairs from the New School. She is passionate about exploring spirituality and her interest in the dynamics of abundance versus scarcity stems from her observations of everyday human behaviour, especially where these two high-tension concepts clash. She is also a big fan of Mullainathan & Shafir’s research on scarcity mindsets. Nadjwa Norton practices abundance living and is grateful to all the sentient life who teach her how to live in and generate abundance in ways she has yet to integrate into her practice. She works hard to revise her practice by analyzing and reducing scarcity lenses and actions.

You can meet the pod facilitators for this pod from 4:40-5:10.

Playing Games: Spirituality, Competition, and Cooperation

This pod will help us explore aspects of our spirituality through game play. There will be a variety of different types of games played including cooperative and competitive games. We will then reflect on what we have come to understand about ourselves and how we relate to other entities in these experiences.

Pod Facilitators: Nadjwa Norton and Vijay Varma

Vijay Varma ponders the similarities between sport and game. He is a willing participant in the Game of Life and plays the hands he is dealt. Playing games is one of Nadjwa Norton’s most frequent spiritual practices. She is excited to learn more about herself and practice her spirituality in the company of a new community.

We are seeking Fellowship Pod Leaders for 2026! This is an opportunity for you to be connected to the fund in a substantial way and one way of engaging in reciprocity.

Please respond to Nadjwa Norton, Fellowship Pod Coordinator at nelnorton@gmail.com by September 14, 2025 if you would like to be a Fellowship Pod Facilitator.

You can sign up knowing who your dyad facilitator will be and your pod content. You can also sign up and I will match you with a dyad facilitator and then you will decide your pod content.

Email Nadjwa with any questions. The actual final pod abstracts will be due October 5, 2025.

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Design Rationale Thinking

• The pods increase our alignment to fellowship within and across fellows of all classes.

• The pods reduce the likelihood of the fellowship interactions being abandoned as a result of mismatched schedules, relational synergy, or solitary responsibilities for maintaining contact.

Fellowship Pod Design

• Two veteran fellows come together to facilitate the fellowship pod.

• 3+ new fellows are in the fellowship pod.

• Pods meet every 2 months for at least an hour and a half.

• There is some type of interactive component with materials/resources included.

• Commitment to the pod is for a year, 6 pod sessions, for both facilitators and fellows.

Fellowship pod dyad facilitators write an overview of their pod focus. A pod focus indicates the area of interest/expertise/focus for a pod dyad. A description of the pod dyad and pod focus will be made available to new fellows.

There will be a host day, October 25, 2025, in which all fellows can listen and learn with and about each other. New fellows will meet and greet the dyads and have an opportunity to ask questions and have short conversations. The dyads will have an opportunity to share about their pod foci and themselves, answer questions, and learn about the fellows.

Announcing the 2025 Charles van Horne Art Award, a self-nominated competition for Fellows currently on grant who are practicing visual artists! Apply by August 31st!

This award honors Charlie van Horne, a longtime Roothbert Board member, Treasurer, President, and great-nephew of Antonie van Horn Roothbert. Charlie was a financier, philosopher, and gifted artist who brought curiosity, compassion, and creativity to everything he touched. This award celebrates his legacy and enduring love for the arts.

The Award

• $500 prize

• Featured spotlight on the Roothbert Fund website (including the winning work and a selection of additional pieces)

How It Works

Submit one high-quality image of your visual artwork by August 31, 2025. Submissions will be shared with the Roothbert Fellowship community for a vote in September, and the winner will be announced in early October.

Submit via the link below by August 31st!

We hope you’ll consider sharing your creative work and honoring Charlie’s legacy through this special opportunity.

In this virtual session, we will read children’s biographies as a way to engage in spiritual connection with other equity advocates. We will see what we can learn from them as we seek to revise and strengthen our own spiritual equity advocacy work.

Purpose

• To construct reading biographies as a spiritual practice

• To situate children equity advocates as our teachers

• To contemplate and acquire equity advocacy strategies

Materials: Please bring an empty jewelery box or treasure box (something to put your collected wisdom in), crayons, markers, or colored pens/pencils

Prework: Research a child who has been investing in equity advocacy work.