Springboard Fellow
Grinspoon Hillel at Cornell University
Role Overview
Make your mark on Jewish student life by joining Grinspoon Hillel at Cornell University as the Springboard Fellow. You will build one 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. Grinspoon 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.
As the Springboard Fellow at Grinspoon Hillel, you’ll be the spark that ignites Jewish life on campus. From connecting with students one-on-one to empowering student leaders and crafting creative programs, you’ll help shape a community where Jewish life thrives. With over 300 opportunities to explore Jewish identity, learning, and connection each year, you’ll inspire students to dream big, lead boldly, and make their mark on Cornell’s vibrant Jewish story.
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:
- Coach and advise 6+ 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
- Oversee strategic initiatives to engage students within specific demographics, such as Grinspoon Hillel’s First-Year Fest pre-orientation overnight and Challah for Hunger
WHAT YOU’LL DO:
- Grab coffee with the Organizational Design interns to debrief their recent work and brainstorm campus trends they’re noticing.
- Meet with the Managing Director to refine freshmen engagement strategy so that 90% of all Jewish first-years have at least 1 interaction with Hillel and 40% have 6+
- Sit down with Grinspoon Hillel’s campus Rabbi to review the JLF curriculum you’ll be teaching and prepare for upcoming sessions.
- Meet with the student board’s Greek chairs to refine the Greek Life engagement strategy and plan your next steps together.
- Enjoy lunch with a student curious about Jewish life on campus, learn about their interests, and connect them to a student leader or an upcoming event that matches their passions.
- Help students coordinate and run Challah for Hunger at the Hillel House on North, ensuring that the experience is meaningful and runs smoothly.
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 Ithaca, NY; remote work is not available for this position
- A strong entrepreneurial spirit, willing to take risks, embrace challenges, and learn from both successes and setbacks.
- Confident in leading initiatives, asking insightful questions, and executing creative solutions.
- Collaborative and adaptable, you thrive in working with teams both within and outside of Hillel.
- Committed to continuous learning and development, with a willingness to explore new areas and deepen your own Jewish journey.
- Passionate about connecting every Jewish student to Jewish life, and determined to contribute to the success of our mission.
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 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).
