Springboard Innovation Fellow at Loyola University (Metro Chicago Hillel)

Springboard Fellow

Metro Chicago Hillel

Role Overview

Make your mark on Jewish student life by joining Loyola University 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. A successful Loyola University Chicago Jewish Life Associate will be a natural community organizer who thrives in a fast-paced environment. If you’re highly motivated and looking for fun and meaningful work, this is your chance to join our outstanding, multi-campus staff committed to building a welcoming and vibrant community that values Jewish learning and fosters relationships across Chicago.

MCH is looking for a dynamic, energetic, self-starting, and creative Jewish Life Associate to inspire Loyola University Chicago students to make an enduring commitment to Jewish life, learning and Israel. MCH draws together a profoundly diverse array of students to build an incredible Jewish community. You will mentor student leaders, work collaboratively with MCH staff in planning awesome events, and build relationships on campus to support Loyola University Chicago efforts to welcome and support Jewish students. You should have strong interpersonal and communication skills and an entrepreneurial approach. 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

GOALS: 

• Strategically engage and maintain meaningful relationships with a wide variety of students, including responding to student needs and concerns, supporting leadership development and coaching students in on-campus coalition-building with other student organizations 
• Develop new programming and opportunities for students guided by their feedback and responding to their needs and interests 
• Represent the Jewish community at Loyola as part of Campus Ministry including participating in monthly staff meetings, collaborating on  interfaith efforts, and supporting division retreats

• Partner with colleagues to help students explore their relationship to Israel and to coach students in responding to anti-Israel and antisemitic incidents on campus, so that they may advocate for a safer, more positive experience for Jewish students

WHAT YOU’LL DO:  

• Assist student leaders in coordinating catering and logistics for Shabbat dinners on campus
• Work from your office in the Campus Ministry suite to be available for student drop-ins and accessible to Campus Ministry colleagues
• Recruit for and promote immersive experiences for students, including Taglit-Birthright Israel
• Strategize with the MCH team to determine our response to anti-Israel or antisemitic incidents on campus
• Maintain social media presence for Loyola University Chicago Hillel, develop a personal-professional Instagram presence to connect with students, and closely monitor social media activity related to Loyola University Chicago’s campus community
• Analyze student engagement data from this year and the previous one to create a list of known students to contact and encourage to sign up for a student seder 
• Collaborate with fellow campus ministry staff members on university faith programming 

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 Chicago, IL; remote work is not available for this position 
• Passion for Jewish community, Judaism and Israel, and an excitement for future trips to Israel and for the opportunity to continue developing your own relationship to Judaism
• Knowledge of Jewish community, culture, heritage, and traditions
• An entrepreneurial spirit, willingness to take risks and the self-awareness to learn from efforts that don’t work out as planned
• A dynamic personality, outstanding interpersonal skills, excellent communication skills, and a sense of playfulness
• Initiative and organizational skills
• 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 $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.

Metro Chicago Hillel is part of the Hillels of Illinois, a department of the Jewish United Fund/Jewish Federation of Chicago (JUF). As an employee of JUF, your comprehensive benefits package includes:

• Up to 20 days paid time off (starting with 15), up to 11 sick days (starting with 7), 8 paid federal holidays and up to 13 paid Jewish holidays 
• 6 weeks paid parental leave
• Medical, dental, and vision insurance
• 401(k) match
• Additional health and wellness benefits, financial benefits, and tuition reimbursement.

As a Springboard Fellow, you’ll receive

• 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, following COVID-19 safety guidelines).

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.