Engagement Associate

Santa Cruz Hillel

Role Overview

The Engagement Associate at Santa Cruz Hillel is one of the primary Hillel staff members working to engage students across our three campuses – UC Santa Cruz, Cabrillo College, and CSU Monterey Bay. In this position, you will be responsible for expanding our capacity to reach Jewish students where they are, supporting their engagement in Jewish life, and cultivating spaces that enrich their lives.

As Engagement Associate, you will build one-on-one relationships with students, put on awesome events around campus and in areas students frequent, and help inspire students to make a commitment to Jewish life. Your focus will be on our first-year community and transfer students, as well as leading the engagement and student leadership development at our smaller campuses of Cabrillo College and CSU Monterey Bay. There is no one size fits all approach for how we can reach all Jewish students, and you will have the opportunity to think outside the box for how to best bring in new students and keep current students engaged in Jewish life. This role will have you waking up each day excited to connect with Jewish students from all different backgrounds and help foster their relationship with their Jewish identity, capitalizing on their goals and interests in creating vibrant and unique experiences that keep them coming back for more.

What You’ll Do

• Meet with students 1:1 and in small groups for coffee, tea, or a snack in order to build authentic relationships and to help connect students to friends, community, and experiences.
• Utilize different tools and strategies for reaching students, including tabling on campus and social media.
• With support from the Director of Jewish Student Life, create a strategic plan to effectively run successful programs for students at our commuter campuses of Cabrillo College and CSU Monterey Bay, and put into action.
• Help unengaged students connect with other student leaders, staff, events, and other opportunities that are part of Hillel.
• Support students who come up ideas for new initiatives aimed at engaging a community that has not been served.
• Recruit for cohort learning and immersive experiences such as Jewish Learning Fellowship and Birthright Israel.
• Partner with the Director of Jewish Student Life and student board to offer a multitude of ways for students to connect with Jewish life and their community.
• Participate as a member of the Hillel staff team in major programs, Shabbat dinners, holiday gatherings, student planned events, wellness initiatives, and other Hillel programs.

On a day to day basis you will

• Coffee with a student you met at Shabbat who has expressed interest in becoming more involved in Jewish life on campus.
• Visiting CSU Monterey Bay for an ice cream social and chatting with students about how they can engage with Hillel and Jewish life.
• Meeting with the Hillel student board to plan a First Year off-campus outing, helping them design the programming and identify an exciting destination for the experience.
• Deciding the theme and giveaways with the Membership/Engagement student board member for an upcoming tabling in the Quarry.
• Shopping for an upcoming Pita and Paint Night, and following up with students to make sure they know when and where the event is.
• Attending a program led by a fellow staff member, seeking to connect with students in the room who you may not yet know.
• Dedicating time to log your interactions in the engagement database and text/send emails to students who haven’t seen in a few weeks.

What You’ve Accomplished

• 0-3 year’s work experience.
• Previous work, internship, or volunteer experience with Hillel or other on-campus Jewish organizations is highly preferred.

What You’ll Bring to the Job

• Passion for connecting with people from different backgrounds with the goal of building authentic and meaningful relationships.

• Strong commitment to Hillel’s pluralistic vision of Jewish life and supporting “all kinds of Jewish”.
• Proactive approach toward cultivating relationships with under-engaged or not-yet-engaged Jewish students on campus, 
• Creative “on the fly” problem solving skills, and a resilience to “roll with the punches” and go back to the drawing board if your first attempts don’t go according to plan.
• Confidence initiating and running programs, and comfort asking questions.
• Excitement to collaborate as a team with other Hillel staff members. You are ready to support them as they are in turn to support you.
• Belief that our students should drive our Hillel and focus on creating opportunities that capitalize on interests and goals you discover about them through long-term relationship-building.
• Ability to thrive in an environment that is fast-paced and multi-faceted - no two days will be the same.
• Excitement to continue developing your own relationship to Judaism.

• A willingness to work atypical hours (evenings and some weekends) and travel.

What You’ll Receive

• Salary ranging from $55,000-$60,000
• Comprehensive benefits package, including health insurance, a 403(b) retirement plan, life insurance, long-term disability (LTD), ample vacation days, sick time, and parental leave.
• Opportunities to attend global conferences and immersive travel experiences for personal and professional development.

About Santa Cruz Hillel

Located between the beach and the redwoods, Santa Cruz Hillel supports Jewish students in Santa Cruz and Monterey Counties. Serving 400 students annually, with potential to serve hundreds more, Santa Cruz Hillel is a unique Hillel built off the relaxed Santa Cruz culture while serving an activist student population. As a small Hillel team of three, each staff member has the opportunity to create a lasting impact on the future of Santa Cruz Hillel and all of the students who engage with us.

Santa Cruz Hillel is located in the beach town of Santa Cruz, California and serves as one of a handful of Jewish organizations in the county.  As a Hillel without a permanent building, programs and meetings take place on campus, in coffee shops, in parks and on patios, and in nature.

Santa Cruz 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.