Building Foundations for Community During My First Few Weeks on Campus
Last week, I moved across the country to start my first year at the University of Southern California. Almost everything is new: the campus, the city, the classes, even the weather. I’m learning my way around Los Angeles, meeting people from all over, and starting to figure out what I want my life at USC to look like.
There’s an openness to the first few weeks of college that I wasn’t expecting. People want to talk everywhere I go: in classes, in the student union, even in the elevator. When I take the elevator up to my dorm, someone will make a comment about the view, and before I know it, we’re having a conversation. On a campus this big, those small interactions make everything feel a little more connected.
As I’ve started finding my way, I’ve been thinking about what it means to put down roots somewhere new. Community has never felt like one static place for me — it has always meant finding the people and places that ground me while giving myself room to branch out in new directions.
Just a week in and two of those roots are already starting to take hold: Jewish life and music.
With some encouragement from my sister, I walked over to “Sip & Schmooze,” a smoothie and acai bowl event at USC Hillel. A free meal is always great, of course, but what stood out to me was that the food seemed secondary to so many people who were there. Mostly, we wanted to meet other Jewish students and spend time together. In a place where almost everything still felt new, there was something deeply familiar about that.
I grew up in a strong Jewish community in Brookline, Massachusetts, where Judaism was a big part of my life. I had many Jewish friends, and in high school, I was president of our Jewish Student Union. As an incoming college student, I knew I wanted my Jewish life to continue, but I wasn’t certain how that would look on campus. After an hour or so at Sip & Schmooze, I started to see it. I could picture myself coming to Hillel for Shabbat and the High Holidays, getting involved in Jewish programs and events, or just spending a random Tuesday night studying on one of Hillel’s couches.
That connection to Jewish community feels like an important root to put down. While I’m carrying with me the Jewish traditions and experiences of my childhood, at Hillel, I’ll get to shape what they look like in this new part of my life. Celebrating my first Shabbat and High Holidays at USC will allow me to stay connected to ritual and tradition while branching out to new observances, friendships, and ways of being Jewish that I’ll discover here.
Sip & Schmooze showed me that Hillel would become one of the places that grounded me at USC. At the same time, I’m excited to spend time in the USC Trojan Marching Band, where I’ll play alto saxophone. Over the last week, I’ve spent 13 hours a day practicing with this new group of students whose enthusiasm and excitement have given me space to put another root down in my new home.
I’m only a week into my first year at college, but I’m already learning so much about staying true to my identity – and I’m finding there’s space across campus to be fully myself. One day I might be at Hillel, the next with the marching band, and the next talking to someone I just met in class or even in the elevator. Each connection gives me another reason to feel invested in this place.
I still have four years to figure out what my life at USC will look like, and I’m sure there may be some surprises along the way. But I’m finding that putting down roots doesn’t mean staying still. After all, roots grow and spread. And for me, they may connect at Hillel, overlap in the marching band, and create a foundation that lets me thrive, learn, and grow.
Ethan Bracha is a first-year student at the University of Southern California.