The most challenging part of the Ross Fellowship is finding students to apply. I made up a brochure and a flyer and posted them all over the outer campuses. The most successful form of publicity for the Ross Fellowship, which is true of most programs in general, is through word of mouth.
Spring semester we hired three students, a Douglass Fellow, a Livingston Fellow and an intramural fellow. We are not continuing with the intramural fellowship in the fall, but the fellows from Douglass and Livingston are staying on board. They are:
Heidi Peck, Livingston Ross Fellow
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Sarah Morrow, Douglass Ross Fellow
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You, the JCSC Fellow, are the supervisor to the Ross Fellows. Once a week we all met together to discuss ideas and planning for future programs. Additionally, after events, we evaluated together its success and how we can improve for the future.
The Ross Fellows held three programs in the spring semester: Shabbat Across Rutgers, Kosher for Passover food packages in the student centers, and an Ice Cream Study Break (in conjunction with Shavuot). Shabbat Across Rutgers is described in more detail on the next page.
Heidi and Jeremy believed that the needs of the Jewish students were not met by the dining services during Passover. Together, they put together Kosher for Passover food packages and handed them out in the student centers. They included information on Passover and instructions on how to remove Hametz from a dorm room. This was an extremely successful tabling program because most Jewish students were able to relate to keeping Kosher for Passover AND what college student doesn�t want a package of free food?! I would encourage them to do this program again next year, and have a sign up at the table. We met so many students, but the majority were not followed up with because we did not record their names and contact info. Additionally, this table is an excellent means to publicize an upcoming Ross Fellows program on the campus!
At the end of the year, Heidi and Sarah, hosted ice cream study break events on Livingston and Douglass Campuses. They connected these programs to the upcoming holiday of Shavuot and connected the all night studying for finals with the all night studying on Shavuot. Livingston�s program was held in the student center and four students attended. Sarah held the Douglass program in a dorm, Lippincott Hall, and twenty students attended (only 5 were Jewish). Both programs were successful, but leave room for improvement! It seems that programming in the dorms on the outer campuses is more feasible than on College Avenue. I would strongly encourage the Ross Fellows to pursue programming in the residence halls next year, because when the programs target a more specific group, more students attend.