Stony
Brook JCSC Yearbook > Being a JCSC
Contents:
1.
Center
for Jewish Engagement
4.
Get a Life!
5.
Tips
For the Future & Other Random Stuff
In addition to your involvement on-campus, there are a multitude of trainings and assignments that emanate from Hillel’s Center for Jewish Engagement (CJE) to support you throughout your fellowship. Based in Los Angeles, the CJE is one department of Hillel’s International Center and is composed of Rhoda Weisman, Melanie Sasson Gruenwald, and Senta Burke. The CJE overlooks all of the 90-something JCSC fellows spanning the globe and divides them up into teams, each being headed up by a local coordinator (a local Hillel staff member who is an engagement “expert”).
There is a report assigned by the CJE every month that helps you monitor your progress, a monthly team conference call, and national JCSC training conferences take place in August (Leader’s Assembly) and December (Professional Staff Conference). There is a JCSC email listserve where you can send an email to all JCSC’s and CJE coordinators at once. This is very useful if you have a question about anything, need inspiration for a program or just want to rant about something. You will find out much more about all this at Leaders and any questions throughout the year should be directed toward your supervisor or team coordinator.
In the past, the JCSC Supervisor has been Deborah but this past year Rabbi Joe was my supervisor. Ideally JCSC’s meet with their supervisor a couple hours a week to touch bases on what has been going on – program planning, the relationships you’ve been building with engagement students, your Jewish learning, and life as a JCSC in general. I think it is good if these meetings take place outside of the Hillel office but that is not always possible. Rhoda talks about “supervising up” which means that if you feel there is something you should be guided more on but haven’t, don’t hesitate to bring it up at a meeting!
One of the reasons this is a fellowship and not just a job is because we are supposed to learn and grow throughout the year, professionally and Jewishly. Use this year as an opportunity to learn more about an area of Jewish study that you are especially interested in. You can take a class somewhere, study with a partner, or do anything at all. This is something that will be discussed with your supervisor at the beginning of the year.
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Tips For the Future & Other Random Stuff