College campuses are places of great opportunity for young Jews, but also present substantial challenges to Jewish identity and engagement. Our College Campus Activities Committee, a group of committed lay leaders from Jewish Federation Los Angeles, is charged with examining how Jewish students are impacted by Jewish life on campus.
For the last two years, our College Campus Activities Committee, Chaired by Virginia Maas, collaborated with Federation professionals to develop a Student Engagement Grant initiative designed to support individuals or organizations committed to working to strengthen Jewish campus life.
During the grant cycle, the committee focused on drawing applications from organizations in which our Federation did not have previous campus-based relationships, as well as renewing grants from past recipients – a strategy which yielded a batch of 46 proposals. After much consideration, we made some difficult decisions and funded 15 programs for 2012-2013 –representing four new organizations, six returning organizations and nine campuses.
We are proud to announce the 2012-2013 Grantees*:
- Alpha Epsilon Pi Fraternity – CEO Roundtable
- Chabad at USC – Birthright Follow-up Initiative
- Hillel 818 – F.A.C.E. Internship, L’chaim Tovim
- Hillel at UCSB – LEAP Student Leadership Development
- Loyola Marymount Hillel –Student Engagement Fellows
- Fowler Museum at UCLA – Lights and Shadows exhibition
- UCLA Center for Jewish Studies – Service Learning Course in Applied Jewish Studies
- Hillel at Santa Monica College – Students Making Change Hillel Internship
- Hillel at UCLA – Social Justice Initiative 2012-13, Jewish Medical Student Network
- USC Hillel – Campus Entrepreneurs Initiative, Spirituality/Sexuality Retreat and Follow-up Programs, and African-American Jewish Engagement Initiative
- Tzofim (Israel Scouts)/JAFI – Mishelanu
* Some organizations had multiple programs funded by our committee
The Jewish professionals on college campuses face many challenges in their work. By providing these programming grants to campus professionals, we hope to expand the reach and scope of the opportunities these organizations give to their students and communities.
For more information on how our Federation supports Jewish life on campus, contact David Harris, Campus Activities Coordinator, at DHarris@JewishLA.org, or click here to view our available campus activites.
