Community Engagement Associate

Cornell Hillel

About the job

Cornell University Hillel Role Overview

Ignite Jewish life on an Ivy League campus with the largest Jewish student population. Cornell Hillel seeks a dynamic, creative, and outgoing self-starter with proven organizational skills and strong follow-through to help us inspire Jewish students at Cornell University. We are looking for a talented Community Engagement Associate to join our team who will be able to build one-on-one relationships with students, put on awesome events across campuses, and help inspire students to make a commitment to Jewish life. Each year, our student leaders and professional team create more than 300 program opportunities for students to engage in Jewish life, learning, and Israel.

Cornell Hillel’s Community Engagement Associate will be a dynamic, creative, well-organized professional with strong interpersonal skills and a passion for Jewish life.  The ideal candidate is highly motivated, outgoing, and engaging, and able to connect with a wide range of students. Every day brings new ways to connect Jewish young adults with opportunities to further their identities and practice active Jewish life. You will serve as a Jewish young adult role model for our students, and they will be drawn to your approachable, dynamic, and engaging personality and outstanding interpersonal skills. Your talent for active listening will empower others to create their own connections to Jewish life that are meaningful to them. 

What You'll Do

• Coach and advise student leaders to help them grow Jewishly, develop high-impact initiatives for their peers, and acquire new leadership and community organizing skills
• Build relationships with over 250 students by engaging them in meaningful conversations and connecting them to Jewish life on campus; you’ll learn about their interests, what drives them, and connect them to relevant opportunities
• Utilize data to ensure a strategic approach to building Jewish life and community on campus
• Oversee strategic initiatives to engage students within specific demographics, such as freshman or students in Greek life
• Collaborate with a staff team to problem-solve and support team initiatives 
• Support the day-to-day operations of Hillel including programs and events, administrative and organizational tasks, and welcoming students into Hillel spaces
• Participate in weekly supervision meetings, as well as weekly staff meetings, and frequent team check-ins and strategy sessions
• Participate as a member of the Cornell Hillel staff team in major programs, Shabbats, and holidays and staff meetings

On a day to day basis you will

• Meet for coffee with student leaders to brainstorm creative ways to engage new students
• Meet with colleagues to discuss Greek Life engagement strategy and follow-up     
• Have lunch with a student interested in getting involved in Jewish life on campus, identifying their interests and then following up with a connection to a student leader or next event
• Facilitate a program planning meeting with a group of student leaders
• Dedicate time to note your interactions in the database and send follow-up or check-in emails to students
• Support a student event in the evening where you meet two new students and invite them to have coffee next week

What You’ll Bring to the Job

• Bachelor’s degree
• 0-2 years of professional work experience
• A strong sense of flexibility, empathy, creativity, and humility.
• Ability to connect with someone no matter how quiet or loud they are, what their Jewish knowledge is, and what they think they know about Hillel.
• Motivated toward fulfilling our mission of connecting every Jewish student at Northwestern to Jewish life and community.
• Flexibility, including the ability to work some nights and weekends as needed.
• Desire to continue developing your own relationship to Judaism.
• Willingness to admit what you don’t know, and excitement to learn in those areas.
• A strong entrepreneurial spirit
• The belief that our work isn’t done until every Jewish student is connected to Jewish life
• Ability to work independently and as a member of a great professional team.

What You’ll Receive

• Competitive salary in the nonprofit marketplace. The salary for this role is $45,000.
• Health Benefits: Medical, dental, and vision insurance.
• Prepare for your future: a 403(b) plan.
• $3,000 budget for professional development, mentoring, and skill-building opportunities as part of the global Hillel movement.
• Travel regionally and abroad, particularly to Israel.

About Cornell Hillel

Cornell Hillel is located in Ithaca, NY, which combines small-town life with a world-class academic/college town community. Ithaca has been named one of the top 100 places to live, a top 10 recreation city, the best green place to live, and one of the "foodiest" towns in America. Cornell University is one of the world’s foremost institutions of higher education, with seven undergraduate schools and five graduate schools located in Ithaca, NY, in the Finger Lakes Region of Central New York State. Cornell Hillel is housed in Anabel Taylor Hall, home of the Cornell United Religious Works. Jewish students make up approximately one-quarter of the student body on the Ithaca campus, approximately 2,500 students. Cornell Hillel currently engages a talented professional team of 13 full-time and one part-time professional.

Cornell 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.