The Schusterman Leaders Assembly will again be held at beautiful Camp Ramah Darom in Clayton, GA from August 22-27. Students may apply to participate by contacting leadersassembly@hillel.org. 

Tailored to meet the specific leadership needs of Jewish students on campus, the 2006 Leaders Assembly will offer two tracks, the Exemplar Track and the Professional Development Track.  Like Leaders Assembly in the past, the Exemplar Track is intended for core Hillel student leaders and advocates, the most influential and engagement-oriented in their Jewish campus communities.  Nominated by their local Hillel professionals, participants in the Exemplar Track will spend the week in an experiential learning environment, developing their skills and learning campus-organizing and relationship-building strategies.

“The goal is for these students to return to their respective campuses and create welcoming and inclusive Jewish initiatives that reach out to uninvolved students while enhancing the Hillel experience for those already involved,” said Simon Amiel, director of the Jewish Campus Service Corps and Program Professional Advancement for Hillel.

The Professional Development Track, a new addition to the Leaders Assembly program, was created for Jewish students outside of Hillel’s core leadership such as Hillel student interns and other Jewish campus influentials.  They will explore a broad range of ways to engage individuals through relationship-building and peer-group experiences.  The goal of this track is to provide participants with the ability to effectively run political, social-justice or recruitment campaigns on campus.  In addition, they will have the opportunity to refine and enhance their transferable professional skills.

“Students in the Professional Development Track will learn to leverage their deep and diverse social networks on campus in order to create initiatives that attract uninvolved Jewish students, to some degree, with Jewish campus life,” said Graham Hoffman, Hillel’s director of innovation and implementation.

Also participating in the Professional Development Track will be Campus Entrepreneurs Interns, students employed to develop new ways to reach out to their peers and engage them in Jewish campus life, and Grinspoon Israel Advocacy Interns,  who promote Israel activities on several campuses across the United States.

“Students will leave Leaders Assembly charged, inspired and motivated to transform Jewish life on campus,” said Amiel.

Additionally, Hillel lay leaders will join the students at Leaders Assembly for the annual Renaissance Institute. The Renaissance Institute enables Hillel lay leaders to observe the program, interact with students from around the world and participate in lay-leader-only discussions and learning sessions with Hillel professionals and internationally recognized educators.

Students may apply to participate by contacting leadersassembly@hillel.org.  The Renaissance Institute will be held from August 23-25.  Lay leaders interested in participating should contact Ruth Rotenberg, 202.449.6575, rrotenberg@hillel.org  or Joel Willcher, 202.449.6628, jwillcher@hillel.org.