Five students from the United States and Canada joined the Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life Board of Directors this week.

Gary Diamond of the University of Western Ontario Law School; Zachary Galin ('07) of Northwestern University; Rella Kaplowitz ('06) of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County; Sara Morris ('07) of Washington University; and Perry Teicher ('07) of the University of Michigan will serve on the board for two years. In addition, student board members serve on up to two committees and act as the student voice in board decisions.

"The students on our Board of Directors bring an invaluable perspective to the issues and policies that steer the course of our organization," Hillel President Avraham Infeld said. "We are proud that the energy and fresh ideas that they already have brought to their campus Hillels will benefit the international movement as well."

Gary is currently a candidate for a bachelor of law and business administration degrees at the University of Western Ontario, where he served as president of Western Hillel as an undergraduate. A native of Toronto, Ontario, he is also the past and current president of Canadian Federation of Jewish Students (CFJS) and a board member of the Canadian Council of Jewish and Israel Advocacy.

Zachary, from Roslyn Harbor, N.Y., is the president of Northwestern Hillel and a senator of the Associated Student Government at Northwestern, and he received the Northwestern University Emerging Student Leader Award in 2004. He is working toward a double major in learning and organizational change and mathematical methods in the social sciences, and he has published the results of his original research concerning impact of early school starting times on student sleep habits.

The new co-chair of the board's Student Initiatives Committee, Rella has served as the student representative for the Hillel of Greater Baltimore Governing Committee and Board and the vice president of UMBC Jewish Student Union. A psychology major from Baltimore, she worked as a research assistant for a pediatric oncology laboratory and received a Maryland Distinguished Scholar Honorable Mention for academic excellence.

Hailing from Gainesville, Fla., Sara is the treasurer of the Jewish Student Union at St. Louis Hillel at Washington University and a Hillel community development fellow, in which she assists new students in making the transition to college. Majoring in business administration, she is also the recruitment chair for Big Brothers, Big Sisters on campus.

Perry, a double major in organizational science and political science from West Bloomfield, Mich., has served as the vice chair of the University of Michigan Hillel Governing Board and currently chairs the Michigan Student Assembly's Budget Priorities Committee. He also worked as the Democratic National Committee's field manager of grassroots campaigns in Ann Arbor, Mich., last summer, and this year he spent his summer interning at the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs.

The Board of Directors is comprised of more than 80 of Hillel's key representatives from the Council of Jewish Federations and federation leadership, B'nai B'rith International, college students, Hillel professionals, faculty and delegates at-large. Student board member terms are staggered: five new board members join annually, allowing student members to mentor one another.