Small Moments, Big Impact
The journeys Springboard Fellows take to become part of the Hillel community are as unique and diverse as the Fellows themselves.
For Olivia Rosenblum, a second-year Fellow at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, PA, her journey started with something very unexpected: shopping for pajamas.
Olivia didn’t grow up with an active Jewish community, and becoming part of one wasn’t high on the checklist for her college experience. At home, Judaism was more about family traditions than going to services, so getting involved in Hillel wasn’t on her radar. That changed when her peer mentor at Skidmore College invited her to a Shabbat dinner. She enjoyed it so much that she left already planning to attend another one, and went with a new friend to pick out matching pajamas to wear to the event.
Before that Shabbat, the idea of finding a sense of connection to Judaism through a pajama set would never have occurred to her. But that small moment ended up making a big difference.
When the pandemic broke out in the spring of Olivia’s sophomore year, she wasn’t sure what that would mean for the rest of her time in college and her future career choices. Getting involved with student leadership and community-building, in part through the connections she’d made through Jewish student life, helped her stay on track not just with her career exploration, but also in maintaining her relationships with her campus community.
As graduation approached, it was a Hillel professional who recommended that she apply for the Springboard Fellowship, and Olivia knew it was the perfect opportunity to continue her connection to her community and explore a career in student affairs.
In her first year of the Fellowship, Olivia adjusted to being on a new campus, working through her initial imposter syndrome and embracing the warmth of her new community. Just like she did when she was a student, she put relationships first, and built connections by sitting with students and learning about the small and important moments in their lives. The seeds planted by those conversations gave her the ideas she used to create meaningful and dynamic programs in partnership with student leaders.
The Springboard Fellowship has given Olivia the opportunity to deepen her existing passion for student affairs and program development while building her personal and professional networks. She learned about networking and pitching from her Springboard career coach, attended the 2023 Hillel International General Assembly to meet new people in the Hillel movement, and is currently preparing for an informational meeting with a professional she connected with through Springboard who specializes in organizational development and emotional intelligence coaching — a conversation she hopes will lead to new opportunities to expand the skills she uses in her work with students.
Since that first Shabbat dinner in college, Judaism has become an important part of Olivia’s identity. Being immersed in Hillel has given her the opportunity to work in student life in a way she never expected, and helped her shape her understanding of her future career goals: to keep working with college students in leadership and identity exploration. She’s had the opportunity to support students across a variety of backgrounds with a variety of visions for the future, and offers a meaningful Jewish connection to the students she serves.
Whether it’s with a new pair of pajamas or an invitation to a Shabbat dinner, Olivia is helping her students see that however they express their Jewish identity, there’s a meaningful place for them in the Hillel community. She’s there to help them find it.
The Springboard Fellowship is now accepting applications for the 2024–2026 Cohort Tet. Apply today and impact the Jewish future.