Over 200 Hillel interns and young professionals will gather in Clayton, Georgia, next week for Hillel’s Engagement Institute, the annual training of Hillel’s Campus Entrepreneur Interns (CEI), Jewish Campus Service Corps Fellows (JCSC) and Grinspoon Israel Advocacy Interns.

The Engagement Institute, the first to include all three programs, will be held at Camp Ramah Darom in Clayton, GA from August 14-19.

“The idea behind this institute is for professional and intern cohorts to train together to successfully facilitate the broadening of Hillel’s reach and double the number of Jewish students involved in meaningful Jewish experiences,”  said Graham Hoffman, Hillel’s director of Innovation & Implementation and senior advisor to the president.

Eighty-five Campus Entrepreneur Interns, representing 12 campuses and the largest contingency at the institute, will spend the week taking part in experiential learning sessions focused on successful engagement strategies and methodologies.

“These students, who have had no prior significant involvement with Jewish life on campus, are the best teachers Hillel could possibly have in regards to how to reach uninvolved students on campus,” said Hoffman.

In past years, CEI and Grinspoon trainings have taken place in conjunction with the annual Charles Schusterman Leaders Assembly. With Leaders Assembly slated to be held this winter, the traditional summer slot was left open, presenting new training opportunities for the three programs.

“It was always a challenge fitting in Grinspoon training among the important sessions of Leaders Assembly,” said Zach Gelman, national student leadership development initiatives associate for the Israel on Campus Coalition, “This year we will be able to cover more and provide a more holistic approach to the Grinspoon training.”

The 36 Grinspoon interns in attendance will be given more team time in order to develop the tools and skills needed to tackle the specific issues areas they chose when applying to the program, rather than focusing on the big picture.

“We’re focusing on having them develop a network from the inside out, paying more attention to the interns being each other’s resources,” said Gelman.

Seventy-three JCSC Fellows, including 21 senior fellows, will round off the engagement institute, spending the week working on relationship based engagement and purposeful programming.

“There are more senior fellows this year than there were last year,” said Missy Green, Hillel’s senior associate for JCSC and Human Resources. “They will bring a good sense of leadership and a different sense of energy to the Corps.”

They will be joined by past and present JCSC supervisors as well as Hillel’s Senior Jewish Educator Dan Smokler, who will be leading sessions on Jewish role modeling and Jewish conversations on campus

“We are excited for a new cohort of fellows and look forward to seeing what their individual talents are and how they bring them to campus,” said Simon Amiel, Hillel’s director of JCSC and professional development consultant for Human Resources.

Additional highlights of the institute include:

• Sessions led by professionals from MySpace, Teach for America, Taglit-birthright israel, Masa, Grinspoon Foundation, and AIPAC
• Address from Hillel President Wayne Firestone
• Low ropes course team-building activity
• Mystery Dinner Theater
• Rejuvenation Shabbat Celebration Pilot