Alternative Spring Break is by far the best program that UCLA Hillel offers to students! AJWS coordinates the alternative spring break and basically your role is recruiting students that you think would be good candidates for the trip!Start recruiting around end of October. There is an application that AJWS will give you and you can basically use that for the recruiting process. These are the fun hammocks that we got to sleep in during our trip!There are two rather large red binders in my office detailing everything that you need to do for the ASB programs. I suggest you read it right away in August so that you know all the details for the program.
The freshmen retreat was a great event that was done the second week of 2nd quarter. I personally think that is a good time to do the retreat because by that time you have your core group of freshmen that will help you plan programs! Also, if possible try to get three or four board members to come with you! I brought 3 with me, the students connected with them and the board members really like meeting the freshmen.
We went to JCA shalom and it was only $25 per person. I would definitely advise you going there again-but book the place early because JCA is a popular place!
I had the pleasure of taking 12 students to Washington DC for a shabbaton the weekend before Spitzer and then taking the students to Spitzer. It was a great time but a bit disorganized since so many people were coordinating the shabbaton! My advice if you do it again next year-work primarily with the JCSC fellows from LA to plan the shabbaton and use the JCRC staff member in an advisory role for the trip-since there are so many details and you know your students but than anyone else! The JCRC will pay for the trip but make sure to figure out all the details for the shabbaton with the other JCSCs that attend!
This was a really fun program that I definitely suggest you do next year! I rented out Sunset Canyon Rec (an outside area) and brought tons of fruit (bananas and strawberries), matzo and marshmellows to dip in chocolate. I did this program during Passover since we did not have SCUBA. Over 40 students showed up to the program! Hillel now owns two fondue pots which I am sure you can find once you start your job here.I definitely suggest doing one or two programs a quarter at Sunset Canyon Rec since it is located so close to the dorms and you definitely reach out to engagement students when doing programs at this location!
Mitzvah Day was a phenomenal regional program that happened third quarter. I would say definitely try to do this program again. All the Hillels in LA came together to do a community service day. We started our day at the HUC grounds-eating breakfast and signing students in. Then students went off to about six different community service sites (that were pre-arranged ahead of time) to volunteer for about 3 hours. Then the students came back to HUC, ate a BBQ lunch that we put together, listened to music and attended a resource fair(to find out about more advocacy/volunteer opps to be involved in). It was by far the best program that we did all year!
Regional Shabbat was done at UCLA this year. Its basically when all the Hillels underneath LAHC come together to celebrate shabbat together. Its a really fun time and about 300 students come to the event. This year it was done at UCLA. So next year it will be done at a different Hillel.