TARGET
GROUPS
FYSH (FIRST YEAR STUDENTS IN HILLEL)
I
have had an amazing time working with first year students!
They bring such new energy and life!
They come to campus anxious to make friends and meet new people.
Hillel offers them a family away from home. Sharing the same religion, culture, and heritage allows you
to make instant connections with them.
They
are such an important target group because the future of Hillel depends on them.
Before you know it, they’ll be our juniors and seniors!
It is important to identify future leaders among them and to begin
building leadership skills so that they will eventually be ready to take on
board positions.
There
are approximately 2,000 first year students at UM.
Seventy percent of them live on campus; the other thirty percent are from
the area and live at home. Eighty
percent of residents in the Residential Colleges are first year students.
There are no exclusively freshmen halls; each floor houses both first
year and returning students and at times a first year student is assigned to
live with an upperclassman.
Programs:
Sunset
at Sunset Place: We went to Sunset Place shopping center for dinner and an
IMAX movie.
Star
Island Cruise: We went to Bayside Marketplace and took a 1.5 hour cruise by
the estates of celebrities. I
passed out a list of famous Jewish sailors (including Tony Curtis and Kirk
Douglas) and their biographies.
“I
Scream, You Scream, We all Scream for Israel!”:
We had an ice cream party at the Rathskeller and gave out information on
the Birthright trip to Israel.
FYSH,
Friends and Food: We got together to watch the hit T.V. show “Friends” and
eat pizza in a Resident Master’s apartment in Pearson Residential College.
Hillel
Hits the Cheesecake Factory: We
went to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner.
I bought cheesecakes for everyone to split for dessert.
Twist
and Shout!: We got together to bake
challah on a Friday afternoon in a Resident Master’s apartment in Hecht.
J.O.G.
(Jews on the Go): We formed a Jewish running team to take weekly jogs around
campus.
Chocolate
Party: I invited a number of
freshmen girls to my apartment to eat chocolate and watch the movie “Chocolat”.
Each guest was asked to bring their favorite chocolate dessert to share
with everyone else.
NBA
Game: We bought group tickets to a
Heat vs. Knicks game playing at the American Airlines Arena.
First
year students were involved in coming up with program ideas and advertising the
events. But they definitely needed
the guidance of a staff member to get them started, coordinate all efforts, and
make sure that nothing got overlooked.
GREEK
STUDENTS
Approximately
12% of undergraduate students are Greek. While
the percentage of students in fraternities and sororities is rather low, the
Greek organizations are very visible and have a strong presence on campus.
There
are eleven fraternities in the Interfraternity Council:
Alpha
Epsilon Pi*
Alpha
Sigma Phi
Kappa
Sigma
Lambda
Chi Alpha*
Phi
Delta Theta
Pi
Kappa Alpha
Sigma
Alpha Epsilon
Sigma
Alpha Mu
Sigma
Chi*
Sigma
Phi Epsilon
Zeta
Beta Tau*
There
are six sororities in the Panhellenic Association:
Delta
Delta Delta
Delta
Gamma
Delta
Phi Epsilon
Kappa
Kappa Gamma
Sigma
Delta Tau
Zeta
Tau Alpha
*These
fraternities have houses where brothers live.
All other fraternities and sororities have suites; no one lives in the
suites.
Each
Greek organization holds a weekly chapter meeting on either Sunday or Monday
evenings.
Every
other Tuesday there is a Panhellenic meeting at 8pm followed by an
Interfraternity Council meeting at 9pm. The
location of the Panhellenic meeting changes each week, rotating amongst the
sorority suites. And the location
of the Interfraternity Council meeting also changes each week, rotating amongst
the fraternity suites and houses. You
can call the Greek Life Office to arrange to attend any of these meetings and
they will write you in the agenda. It’s
a great way to reach out and talk to members of every fraternity and sorority at
once.
I
mostly worked with students from Alpha Epsilon Pi, Sigma Alpha Mu, Delta Phi
Epsilon and Kappa Kappa Gamma. Alpha
Epsilon Pi’s International office gives us money to co-sponsor programs with
their chapter here. This past year
they sent us $150.
I
have become very close with several Greek students. However, I have found
working with their organizations to be challenging.
I discovered that creating a Jewish Greek Council was way too ambitious
of a task for me to accomplish over the course of just one year.
I recommend that unless next year’s fellow really wants to work with
Greeks, they select another target population (such as graduate students) who
would be more receptive to the idea of working with Hillel.
Programs:
Make
Your Lulav Shake!: We gave out free smoothies in a sukkah at the University
Center. (We called Linda Sher to
reserve the rock. Jacob Woloshin
was in charge of constructing the Sukkah.)
Keeping
the Faith: We had a Keeping the
Faith movie night at the AEPi House. Their
International office gave us money so we were also able to order food from
Chicken Kitchen for dinner.
Latke
give-away: We made latkes at the
AEPi house before Hanukkah.
Toga
Shabbat: We had a toga themed
Shabbat with Greek food. I tabled in a toga the week before the event to promote it.
That got a lot of attention!
Bid
for the Bachelor: Our Greek students helped JSO and our UJC interns to organize
our annual fundraiser in which we auction off dates with Jewish students.
We were able to raise over $1800 to donate to the UJC.
Free
Pot for Tu B’Shevat: We planted
and decorated flowerpots for Tu B’Shevat.