Springboard Ezra Fellow at Johns Hopkins University Hillel

Springboard Fellow

Hopkins Hillel

Role Overview

Make your mark on Jewish student life by joining Hopkins Hillel as the Springboard Fellow. You will build one on one relationships with students, plan and execute engaging events and programs around campus, facilitate meaningful Jewish learning, and help inspire students to make a commitment to Jewish life. 

In this role, you will have the privilege of working with students enrolled at one of the world’s most elite research and academic institutions. Our students are curious, interesting, passionate, and incredibly committed to strengthening our Hillel community. Their thirst for knowledge manifests both in the rigor of their academic portfolios and in their quest to deepen their Jewish identities. By serving as a mentor, educator, and personal cheerleader to our students, you will have the opportunity to help them grow into proud Jewish adults and learn to be impactful leaders. Since no two days and no two students are the same, you will never be bored as a Springboard Fellow at Hopkins Hillel. Days may be spent catching up with a student over (free) coffee, going ice skating (on campus!), hosting a Birthright reunion lunch, or leading one of our many learning fellowships.  

You'll wake up each day (or at least most) and be genuinely excited and enthusiastic about creating an inviting place that inspires students to explore, experience, and create vibrant Jewish lives. This is so much more than your average 9-to-5.

About The Springboard Fellowship

The Springboard Fellowship is a paid, two-year fellowship that brings recent college grads with raw talent, passion, and skills needed to reimagine and redesign Jewish student life to college campuses across North America. 

Trained in Relationship-Based Engagement, Human-Centered Design and other entrepreneurial frameworks, you will be exposed to the most successful initiatives from across the Hillel movement. Fellows will work with students to imagine, create, and refine experiences for Jewish life that dramatically impact student engagement, efficiently and strategically apply and scale successful initiatives from across the movement, and give birth to cutting-edge ideas that have the potential to transform how Hillel and creates inclusive spaces for #AllKindsOfJewish.

We’re looking for people who embrace challenges, take risks, fail, and learn from the past, while maintaining their passion and sense of humor. Extensive Jewish education is not necessary — just an interest in creating a vibrant Jewish community, a commitment to learning, and the desire to make a difference in the lives of students. 

What You’ll Do

• Support student-initiated programs and serve as a Jewish resource to students and student groups
• Recruit and Teach Jewish Learning Fellowships.
• Help craft and implement the annual cycle of Jewish holidays and Shabbat programming.
• Provide Jewish students of diverse backgrounds and identities with a sense of belonging to the larger Jewish community on campus
• Meet with students from different cohorts and demographics on campus to engage them, identify their interests and connect to opportunities.
• Meet with students to help connect them with leadership roles in Hillel.
• Work closely with the Director of Engagement to develop and execute a general strategy for programming and engagement.
• Support recruitment for events, special programs and trips, including Birthright Israel, MTF and Alternative Spring Break.
• Cultivate one-on-one relationships with Jewish students by meeting them where they live, work, study, and/or socialize.

Please note: Due to the nature of Jewish student life at Hopkins, during the semesters this position will require several nights/weekends, including for Shabbat and holidays.

Who You Are

• You’re A Relationship-Builder: You thrive on meeting new people, understanding their interests, and forging meaningful connections.
• You’re A Collaborative Team Player: You enjoy working collaboratively with a team to solve problems and explore new initiatives.
• You’re A Passionate Learner: You love learning and continuously building up your Jewish knowledge.
• You’re an Innovative Educator: You believe in infusing education into captivating experiences that stimulate the imagination.
• You’re A Facilitator: You thrive in creating spaces for students to converse, share ideas, and explore and develop their own ideas on relevant issues.
• You’re A Recent College Grad: Whatever your degree, you are excited about Jewish life on campus and have experience as a participant and maybe even as an educator in a Jewish educational setting.
• You’re A Creative Thinker: You are constantly reimagining the ordinary, seeking ways to repurpose and improve things.
• You’re A Bold Visionary: Think big and creatively, viewing everything as a possibility and embracing a risk-taking, entrepreneurial spirit.

 ~You’re A Springboard Fellow ~

What You’ll Bring to the Job

• 0 -3 years professional work experience
• Bachelor's degree
• This is an in-person role location in Baltimore, Maryland; remote work is not available for this position 
• An outgoing, welcoming, warm, and inclusive personality.
• Excitement to work within a pluralistic Jewish community.
• Ability to identify challenges and a willingness to offer solutions as part of a team.
• A strong self-motivated, flexible and resilient work ethic.
• Confidence initiating and running programs, and serving as the lead staff.
• Exceptional time management and organizational skills
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Basic social media skills, and ability to assist with marketing for the purpose of student outreach.

What You’ll Receive

• Competitive salary in the nonprofit marketplace. The salary range for this role is $44,000 - $46,000 in year one of the Fellowship, and the salary range is $46,500- $47,500 in year two of the Fellowship.
• A comprehensive benefits package, including health insurance, retirement plan, Life, AD&D and Long Term Disability (LTD) insurances, Flexible Spending accounts, vacation/sick time, and parental leave.
• High-level professional development to help develop core skills in experiential education, including learning from some of the most innovative organizations in Jewish education today. 
• $3,200 in professional development funds from the Springboard Fellowship to utilize over the course of two years.
• Intensive Jewish summer and year-long learning experiences that will provide you with the knowledge, passion, and critical tool kit to fuel your work building our Jewish communities. 
• Mentoring and career coaching to help you during and after your Fellowship. 
• A network of terrific colleagues from across the Hillel movement. 
• Travel opportunities, both domestically and internationally, multiple times per year (if permitted).

About Hopkins Hillel

The Hillel at Johns Hopkins University is a vibrant and pluralistic Jewish community on campus, anchored by a modern and well-equipped four story building that students call home. The building, which is one block from the main entrance to the campus, includes multiple meeting rooms, a library, offices for staff and students, a kosher kitchen and dining room, and comfortable lounge space for study, informal meetings and schmoozing. Students enjoy our beautiful facility to study, meet friends, participate in diverse programming, explore Israel and celebrate Shabbat and Jewish Holidays. There are approximately 400 Jewish students at JHU, about 7% of the undergraduate population. Jewish students are an active, dynamic part of both Hillel and the campus community. The Jewish students, like the entire student body at JHU, are motivated, thoughtful and energetic. There are many opportunities for students to become active in Jewish life through community building, culture and the arts, Israel dialogue, social justice, and religious life.

About the Associated

Johns Hopkins Hillel is proud to be an agency of The Associated: Jewish Federation of Baltimore along with 26 other agencies.  We harness the strength of our agencies to form ONE network. The Associated and its network of agencies work collaboratively to make a critical difference in the lives of Jews in Baltimore, in Israel and around the world while positively improving the larger community in which we live and work. Visit us at https://associated.org/ to learn more.  Over the years, Hopkins Hillel has called upon the professionals at The Associated for a broad array of support, including questions regarding the Hopkins Hillel facility (e.g. issues relating to security, insurance, and maintenance), documenting testamentary gifts, budgeting and public relations (e.g. addressing antisemitic incidents).