Engagement & Global Jewish Life Coordinator at Goucher College Hillel

Engagement & Global Jewish Life Coordinator

Goucher College Hillel

Role Overview

Make your mark on Jewish student life by joining Goucher College Hillel as our Engagement & Global Jewish Life Coordinator. This position is designed for an early-career Jewish professional looking to utilize different skill sets. You will be our primary engagement professional, working with peer engagement interns to make sure every Jewish student at Goucher has an opportunity to advance their Jewish journey at college. You will also be our primary professional connecting Jewish students to Israel and global Jewish communities and cultures, creatively presenting educational content and experiences to deepen our students’ knowledge and sense of peoplehood. 

This position is made possible with support from the Israel & Overseas Department of the Associated: Jewish Federation of Baltimore and has been designed with the campus culture of Goucher College in mind. Goucher is a liberal arts college fully committed to expanding students’ global consciousness through study abroad and cross-disciplinary studies, and as such this position’s title and responsibilities reflect a Hillel approach in that same spirit. As Engagement & Global Jewish Life Coordinator, you will bring an understanding of the campus environment and a deep connection to and understanding of Israel and global Jewry to this position, along with a motivation to make an enduring impact on our students and gain professional expertise.

As Engagement & Global Jewish Life Coordinator, you will be the beating heart of our Hillel community, bringing knowledge, creativity and passion to the work of opening doors for student involvement through Israel and the global Jewish community, and providing the strategy and oversight for Hillel’s engagement strategies.  Along the way, you will be mentored by the Executive Director and gain skills that will help you support Hillel and advance in the field, including working with lay leadership and the local community as well as advancing our partnership with the college.

What You’ll Do

• Oversee student engagement, including personal engagement focused around Israel and global Jewry, including creating people-to-people connections; along with recruiting, training and overseeing Engagement Interns
• Enhance connections to the worldwide Jewish community through weekly Israel and global Jewry programs and Israel education, including larger campus-wide programs, in coordination with Hillel International, the Associated, and other partner organizations.
• Enable students to grow skills of advocacy and dialogue around Israel, and knowledge of when and how to use these skills.
• Recruit for (and hopefully staff) Birthright Israel trips.
• Utilize Baltimore Jewish community resources such as the Israel Insight Forum and the Associated’s network of Israel and Overseas professionals and Shlichim to connect students to deeper engagement opportunities such as Onward Israel, MASA, and building networks.
• Staff events and meetings in rotation with other staff
• Connect with our Board of Directors and supporters to communicate ongoing activities, and find ways to get them involved and connected with students.

Past examples of “day to day” work we’d expect the Engagement & Global Jewish Life Coordinator to be involved in:

• Meeting with engagement interns to share notes about social networks and find a way to connect with pockets of students not currently involved with Hillel
• Meeting with a third year history major who has returned from a semester in Morocco and expressed interest in becoming more involved in Jewish life on campus, connecting them with resources on and off campus to build knowledge of Jewish history in Europe and Africa.
• Meeting with student leaders to facilitate productive discussion, and help the group think through all the angles and work necessary for an upcoming program.
• Working collaboratively with Executive Director to prepare a report on student activities to be used for an upcoming board meeting or a fundraising piece.
• “MCing” a Hillel "Nailed It!-style" cooking program where students hilariously attempt to bake cakes in the shape of places they went on their recent Birthright trip.
• Creatively engaging students in content that builds connections between our students and worldwide Jewish practices, people, and communities.

What You’ve Accomplished

• 1-3 years experience
• Bachelor’s degree required
• Spent significant time engaging with Israel – understanding its culture, language, history and politics.
• Proven success:
• Developing, implementing and evaluating programs.
• Building pluralistic Jewish communities and creating a welcoming, vibrant, and deeply enriching Jewish environment.
• Inspiring, mentoring and motivating students through traditional, but also experiential education
• Managing multiple projects simultaneously while maintaining quality across all areas

What You’ll Bring to the Job 

• A passion for working with emerging adults and investing in their growth as Jewish leaders.
• A commitment to pluralism and comfort with your Jewish identity so you may act as a role model and mentor for emerging Jewish adults.
• A deep connection to Israel and Jewish identity that can be shared with students.
• Some knowledge of Jewish culture and history and curiosity to learn more.
• Ownership of your unique Jewish knowledge and experiences and ability to inspire others to be on a Jewish journey.
• Some familiarity with the college setting.
• Comfort working independently and collaboratively.
• An entrepreneurial spirit - things may not always go according to plan, but you understand that resilience and creativity are part of developing great new opportunities.
• Strong written and verbal skills, effective at communicating with a variety of stakeholders including students, parents, alumnae/i, and university partners.

What You’ll Receive

• Competitive salary in the nonprofit marketplace. The salary range for this role is $54,000-60,000
• A comprehensive benefits package, including health insurance, retirement plan, Life, AD&D and Long Term Disability (LTD) insurances, Flexible Spending accounts, generous vacation/sick time, and parental leave.
• Great professional development, mentoring, and skill building opportunities
• Being part of a citywide Hillel community, including a supportive community of practice of program professionals

About Goucher Hillel

Goucher Hillel is a dynamic and inclusive Hillel, working within the fabric of a liberal arts college community committed to global citizenship, innovation, and changing lives.  We are dedicated to being intentional and personal as we provide our students a gateway to Jewish life at a key moment in their development.  The work is both demanding and rewarding.

Goucher is unique as a small liberal arts college (1000 students) with a Jewish population (~160 students, 14-18% of the college) that is among the highest 20 schools per capita in the US.  It is an inclusive Hillel community that is woven into the fabric of the college while being well-resourced and staffed (2.1 FTE staff, including this position) that has proven capable of delivering excellence in terms of breadth of engagement and depth of transformational Jewish experiences.

We are fortunate to be a program of the Associated: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore, along with Johns Hopkins, Towson, UMBC, and University of Maryland Hillels. The Jewish community in Baltimore is well-connected and devoted to the sustained success of Jewish life in town as well as growth of professionals.  Baltimore, or "Charm City," is a city with a burgeoning downtown social scene, with plenty of entertainment, a great sports scene, affordable living options, and things to do every day of the year.  Goucher is in Towson, a growing suburban social hub in its own right. Hillel pros in our town have consistently found Baltimore a great place to work, and our Hillels collectively won the "Great Place to Work" award a few years ago at Hillel International Global Assembly.

Goucher Hillel is affiliated with Hillel International. Hillel International enriches the lives of Jewish students so they may enrich the Jewish people and the world, and envisions a world where every student is inspired to make an enduring commitment to Jewish life, learning and Israel.