Why Back-to-School Still Inspires Me as a Hillel Professional
Jessica Rykus is the associate director of Hillel of Broward and Palm Beach and is working at Hillel for the first time. Below, she shares her thoughts on starting a new school year as a new Hillel staff member.
I’ve always loved school.
From sharpening fresh pencils to setting new goals, the back-to-school season feels like a reset button for me. A chance to start again. Maybe it’s the teacher in me (I spent years in the classroom before becoming a Hillel professional), but there’s something about this time of year that sparks possibility.
This fall, the semester begins just before Rosh Hashanah. I can’t think of better timing, with both the academic year and the Jewish new year beginning side by side. It’s a fresh start, squared.
Before I found my way to Hillel, I taught early childhood education, first grade, and even a year of middle school engineering. Teaching taught me a lot about organization, preparation, and reading a room. Students, whether they’re six years old or 20, can tell if you’re truly present with them. They can feel if you believe in them.
Those years in the classroom, combined with becoming a working mom, and my time as an executive assistant and chief of staff at the Jewish Federation of South Palm Beach County, shaped me for the work I do now. At the Federation, I learned more about how to build relationships, lead from the middle, and keep a lot of plates spinning at once. It was a place where no two days were the same, and I thrived in that energy.
So when the opportunity to join Hillel came up, I took a leap. Change isn’t always easy — it’s nerve-wracking, humbling, and vulnerable — but it’s how we grow.
Here at Hillel of Broward and Palm Beach, we’re a multi-campus organization covering two huge counties with vibrant Jewish communities. And this year brings an extra twist: we’re renovating our main space, which means creating a sense of “home” in a temporary location. It’s a challenge I’m excited to take on, because Hillel is so much more than a building. It’s a place for relationships, conversations, candy jar runs, and those moments when a student realizes, “I belong here.” That’s what we’ll focus on creating, wherever we are physically.
My own Jewish journey has been a winding one. Though I grew up celebrating the High Holidays, Passover, and Hanukkah, my real reconnection to Jewish life didn’t come until later. In college, I went on a Birthright trip and I still keep in touch with one of my Israeli soldiers from that trip. More than a decade later, she’s one of my closest friends.
Working at the Federation deepened my Jewish identity even further. Now, at Hillel, I get to help students explore and grow in theirs, which feels pretty remarkable.
This year, my biggest goal is to make meaningful connections with students and support future leaders, those who will carry Jewish campus life forward for years to come. I want to help them fall in love with their current and future selves and see what Hillel can do for them and their communities.
I’m also dreaming about building out more graduate student programming and teaching a Jewish Learning Fellowship (JLF) cohort. After all, once a teacher, always a teacher. And, of course, I’m bringing my team along for the ride. They’re the secret sauce. We’re all adjusting to new rhythms, but we share the same goal: creating spaces where Jewish students feel safe, supported, and inspired.
So, if I could offer one piece of advice to students, it would be this: find your people. College can be overwhelming, but it’s also full of opportunities to grow into yourself.
Hillel can be that home base for you to grow: a place to ask questions, explore your Jewish identity, meet lifelong friends, and just be yourself. My hope is that every student who walks through our doors feels a sense of belonging and of possibility.