There has been a growing need to work with students from Santa Fe Community College, the local junior college, but there has never been enough Hillel staff nor student interest at SFCC, until this year. Marla came to me at the beginning of spring semester, content with Hillel programming at UF, but hoping to be the student who would bring Jewish programs to SFCC. She inquired as to the procedure of getting a new student group created at SFCC, found a willing professor to be their advisor, and worked with me to devise a plan to rally students for events. While Marla still regularly attends UF Hillel events, she is excited to hold regular events through "Hillel at SFCC" beginning in the fall.
Rachael was a student already involved in Hillel when I arrived this year. She was very proactive in leading Shabbat services and helping other students to gain more knowledge about Judaism. She also was the Kesher (Reform) president, which further helped her develop her leadership skills. We worked with the other service leaders to create a traveling "Shabbat N'Go" progam for dorm students to have a "quickie Shabbat expeirence." While this rotating progam never took off because of university red tape issues, she was instrumental throughout the year in developing and attending progams.
Cindi is a student who approached me one afternoon while I was tabling on campus. She said that she was dating a non-Jewish guy who thought that Judaism was cool and wanted to know more about it. She didn't feel well versed enough to answer these types of questions, so she asked me what to do. I suggested we go out for coffee the next week and talk. We ended up spending over three hours having coffee and talking about Judaism, intermarriage, dating, amd life. I recommended some books for her to read, which she agreed was a helpful idea. After our coffee date she became very involved, especially in dorm programs.
This student first got involved in Hillel with the Brithright Israel program. She attended the winter BR trip and came back empowered and excited about Hillel. At one Shabbat dinner in the spring, I announced the Alternative Spring Break trip to Urugugay. Instantly, Punky decided that this was the program for her and she approached me that same night with one of her other Brithright friends about helping out and being student leaders. She and her friend, Genny, were the two most active and accountable student leaders of the group. Punky definately will be staying involved next year, most actively planning another spring break experience.
