Springboard Fellow at University of Michigan Hillel

Springboard Fellow

Michigan Hillel

Role Overview

Make your mark on Jewish student life by joining Michigan Hillel as the Springboard Fellow. You will build one-on-one relationships with students, plan and execute engaging events and programs around campus, and help inspire students to make a commitment to Jewish life. Michigan Hillel is a national leader in nurturing empowered leadership among students who have a profound impact not only on campus life but on the broader Jewish community as well. Most importantly, our student leaders feel a strong sense of ownership, empowerment, and accomplishment.

In this role, you will be a crucial member of our staff through your work with Freshmen Engagement. The Community Engagement Associate is responsible for inspiring, advising, supporting, and growing specific Hillel communities, including Fraternity and Sorority Life and other niche communities on campus. They will encourage student community connectors to explore their own Jewish identity while offering their peers meaningful ways to engage in Jewish life and connect with the Jewish community. You will be a proactive member of our large program team, with involvement in all community-wide programming for our campus, including Shabbat and Jewish Holidays, and large-scale social programs. 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 on 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 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

GOALS: 

• Oversee the experience of Jewish students in Greek Life through our Community Engagement Fellowship, supporting them to create meaningful Jewish experiences in their fraternity or sorority houses. 


• Personally engage 200+ students through 1:1 conversations to help connect and guide them to participate in Jewish community on campus.


• Identify and cultivate students to become leaders in Hillel, being there for them while they discover their own interests, and connecting them to other staff and groups based on their passions, then nurturing their leadership skills.

WHAT YOU’LL DO: 

• Build a minimum of 200 relationships with students on campus, focusing specifically on students in Greek life who are uninvolved with Michigan Hillel and students who have indicated interest in involvement but need an extra push.


• Work with the Manager of Community Service Learning on Hillel’s Engagement Fellowships


• Facilitate, lead, and partner with other staff to develop leadership workshops and Jewish learning for existing communities


• Advise a variety of student-led groups that focus on pre-professional communities and niche-interest groups


• Innovate and oversee relevant and engaging Jewish programming to Greek Life houses and our general student population.

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 Graduate: 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: You think big and creatively, viewing everything as a possibility and embracing a risk-taking, entrepreneurial spirit.


• You Bring Good Vibes: This job isn’t always glamorous or easy, but you’re excited to work with the rest of the staff and our amazing students to bring Judaism to life for students across Michigan’s campus.

What You’ll Bring to the Job

• 0 -3 years professional work experience


• Bachelor's degree


• A natural ability to network and build relationships with a wide variety of people


• A contagious passion for Jewish life and interest in the Greek Life community (experience in Greek Life as a student is preferred)


• Skills to empower student connectors to create meaningful Jewish life experiences for their communities


• Experience using social media tools to attract participants, develop community, and build a stronger brand


• Excellent organizational skills, capable of working independently, and have the ability to prioritize to meet multiple deadlines in a fast-paced environment


• Be comfortable working with students who are exceptionally empowered, entrepreneurial, bright, and highly motivated


• Excitement to work as part of a large staff team

What You’ll Receive

• Competitive salary in the nonprofit marketplace. The salary range for this role is $46,000 - $48,000 in year one of the Fellowship, and the salary range is $48,000- $50,000 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, generous 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.

Are you excited about this role, but worried that your experience doesn’t align with every requirement? We value transferable skills and a growth mindset. Our team is dedicated to building an inclusive, equitable, and authentic workplace. Diverse experiences, identities, and perspectives make us more effective in our commitment to pluralism. We encourage you to apply!

About University of Michigan Hillel

With over 6,000 Jewish students on campus, the University of Michigan Hillel offers diverse, pluralistic and innovative ways to engage in Jewish life. Michigan Hillel is a national leader in nurturing empowered leadership among students who have a profound impact not only on campus life but on the broader Jewish community as well. Most importantly, our student leaders feel a strong sense of ownership, empowerment, and accomplishment. 

Ann Arbor is a small city (110,000 people) blessed with many big city comforts. The city prides itself on its wonderful restaurants, natural and recreational spaces, and a football stadium that holds more fans on a game day than the entire population of Ann Arbor. The Jewish community has one of everything (Jewish Federation, Jewish Day School, Jewish Community Center, and Secular Humanistic, Renewal, Reconstructionist, Reform, Conservative, Orthodox, Chabad and local home-based services). Ann Arbor is the kind of town where people greet each other in the street and where you can have an impact on building community, while the university’s size and diversity makes you feel like you are always meeting new people and learning something new.

About Hillel International

In 1923, Rabbi Benjamin Frankel started Hillel with humble means, a noble mission and a breathtaking vision: to convey Jewish civilization to a new generation. Today, Hillel International continues to enrich the lives of Jewish students and is the largest Jewish campus organization in the world at nearly 1,000 colleges and universities across North America and around the world. As Hillel evolves as an organization, the mission remains steadfast: to create lasting connections with every Jewish student that foster an enduring commitment to Jewish life, learning, and Israel and train them to become the next Jewish leaders.

Hillel is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to creating an accepting and inclusive environment for all.