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Blog #1: First Blog
September, 2009
Leading Shabbat blessings with the rest of the Senior Staff at camp
Service leader, Israeli dance instructor, lice-checker, temperature-taker, office-organizer, paper cutter, program-leader, teacher, hostess, concierge, resident God expert...the list goes on and on. When I agreed to work as the education director at the URJ Camp Kalsman (the newest URJ camp near Seattle), I thought that I would write and run the education programs, work with the visiting regional faculty and lead a few services. With my 17 years of URJ camp experience, I should have known that a written job description means nothing when you are thrown into an environment in which everyone is, literally, responsible for one another. Numerous times throughout the summer, I had to take a step back, have a "for this I am going to grad school?!" moment, and laugh.
I would not consider myself an extremely spiritual person. My ties to Judaism revolve around my passion for Jewish education and identity building, rather than my ties to God. So when the camp director told me that the educational theme for the summer would be "God," and that I was in charge of developing an entire curriculum for every camper at camp, ranging from the age of 7 through 18, I had no idea where to start. Luckily, I had a fabulous faculty mentor in the School of Education who helped me develop a logical and meaningful outline for the program, while guiding me away from the typical activity-based-without-much-content actiities that so many of us have had to endure at camp. After digging through the shelves of the Tartak Learning Center (the educational resource center on the Los Angeles campus), I finally had enough information to write the 50 or so programs that I would be running throughout the summer.
The stateside RHSOE students for 2009-2010
200 education programs later, I cannot claim that I am any more of an expert on God than I was at the start of the summer, but I have learned many valuable lessons. I now know that I can write an entire curriculum based on theoretical, rather than factual, information. But more importantly, I have learned that people of any age can and will talk about God. In fact, I had just as many meaningful conversations with our eight-year olds about God as I did with our high school campers.
Now, I am back in LA and my job description has been significantly narrowed to consist of student and intern. Although my education of Jewish education has broadened beyond the camp realm, I know that my experience running an entire educational program this past summer will help me to be a better student and teacher. No matter where I end up after graduation in May, I know that somehow I will find my way back to camp. Because even in my most sleep-deprived, and stressful moments of the summer, where I was busy with everything except what was written in my job description, if you had asked me if I want to return to camp next summer, without hesitation I would have replied, "Of course! I love camp!"
The 2009 Camp Kalsman female staff
Posted by Lauren at 2:35 PM
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Blog #1: First Blog
September, 2009
Brad me and Tami were a little too excited about our job as program planners and judges
(Please note, this post was originally scheduled for October. Due to technical problems, we were not able to post Lauren's entry in October. Please enjoy Lauren's post in November!)
According to GoogleMaps, I live approximately 1,114 miles (that's a 17 hour and 18 minute drive) from my family. For the past six years, I have lived a three-hour plane flight, with at least one stop along the way, from my family. When people ask me where I want to work next year, I almost always reply, "Wherever they hire me." But in actuality, I would love to be in Texas, driving distance from my family.
Although the two-hour time difference from Los Angeles to Midland, Texas can be tough (especially when my mom forgets and calls me at 7:00 am on a Sunday), I have luckily managed to find and create my own "families" here in LA. The people in RHSOE have become my own little education family. In class, we celebrate everyone's birthdays with cake and a card. We laugh, we cry, we tease each other and we call our professors by their first names.
Luanne Rebecca and Jessy were the RHSOE Top Chefs
Each year, during the week between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, we have an education retreat for everyone in Rhea Hirsch. We spend two days at a camp in Malibu learning together, this year with Debby Kerdeman, an incredible Jewish educator who works in the secular field, as our scholar in residence. In addition to meaningful reflection on values and value-tensions, we walked (I pretended to run) and chatted on the beach with many of our classmates and professors. That evening, the third-year students, Tami, Brad, and I orchestrated an "Iron Chef" night in which we consumed entirely too much graham crackers, frosting and peanut butter as our classmates and professors created two dishes: one symbolizing Jewish education and the other symbolizing RHSOE. As Tami and Brad drove me straight from the retreat to the airport the next day so I could fly home to Texas for the rest of the break, we couldn't help but reflect on how lucky we are to have such a strong community within the School of Education.
I spent my week at home with my mom, dad, sister and dogs enjoying the readily available street parking (non-existent in LA) and "shopping" in my sister's closet. Unfortunately, my brother could not join us for the holiday because he is living in Israel for the year (I am super-jealous) as a participant in Otzma, a volunteer program. Although I love my life in LA, I truly appreciate the time that I get to spend with my family. And on a side-note, my little sister was just accepted to the University of Texas (her first choice)! Although I will always be a USC Trojan at heart, I am beyond thrilled that she will follow in the rest of my family's footsteps as a Longhorn!
 and me picture-perfect for the holidays.JPG)
Jennifer (my little sister) and me picture-perfect for the holidays
I could continue on and on about the families I have become a part of here in LA, from my internship family to my roommates, but unfortunately I have reached my word limit for this blog. Now you have something to look forward to next month!
Posted by Lauren at 3:30 PM
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Blog #4: December Blog
December, 2009
Celebrating the first night of Chanukah and my birthday with my roommate Ryan
Latkes have been fried, candles have been lit, and I am knee-deep in my last week of class and exams. However, I am not yet going to drone on and on and my sense of disbelief that I am about to start my last semester at HUC. Instead, I want to share with you one of my most valuable learning experiences that I have had this year. Although it has occurred outside the walls of HUC, it is still very much connected to my education here.
Each year, the School of Education assigns its students internships. Last year, I worked at Temple Isaiah (a larger congregation in LA) as a seventh grade Torah and Hebrew teacher. Because most of my Jewish teaching experience had been limited to informal, camp settings, having the opportunity to work in a large religious school was extremely beneficial. Now that I have overcome my fear of seventh graders, learned how a large supplementary school operates, and experimented with various teaching techniques, I know that I would feel comfortable teaching in any supplementary school class.
Ilana and Lauren - Michpacha Coordinators
This year, my internship is centered more on the administrative aspects of running a religious school, but to say that I am simply learning administrative tasks would be a complete understatement. One of my classmates and I run Mishpacha, a family learning program at Congregation Or Ami in Calabasas, California. And when I say run the program, I mean that we write lessons, supervise faculty teachers, keep track of attendance and make-up work, send e-mail newsletters, buy supplies, run faculty meetings, and perform hundreds of other tasks to keep the program running.
Although working as a co-coordinator of Mishpacha can be very intense (most weeks I spend more time on work for my internship than on homework), it has been an incredibly valuable learning experience. I have learned about family education (a model of Jewish education designed to combat the "drop off culture" of most religious schools by integrating the entire family into learning), and helped to create a curriculum about the Tanakh (the Jewish Bible) for participants ranging from kindergarten through adults, which is not an easy task!
Posted by Lauren at 1:30 PM
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Blog #5: January Blog
January, 2010
 and me celebrating 2010 in Tel Aviv.JPG)
Brett Yonatan (a camp friend) and me celebrating 2010 in Tel Aviv
Have you ever had the opportunity to revisit your former self? To return to a time in your past and to see how truly far you have come since that moment in your life? In the Rhea Hirsch School of Education we constantly reflect with one another, but over my winter break I have had a chance to really reflect on my own...
After a year and a half, I returned to Israel to visit my younger brother, Brett, who is volunteering there with Otzma, a volunteer program for recent college graduates. He is having a fabulous time, and I loved seeing the life and community he has established for himself. We traveled the country, from Ashquelon, to Caesarea, to Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and Haifa. Throughout our travels I was amazed at the hospitality of everyone that we stayed with. Friends have opened their homes, their parents have cooked us Shabbat dinner and made me tea when I didn't feel well, and everywhere we went we were welcomed as though we were family.
I also had the opportunity to walk down my former street in Jerusalem, to stroll through the HUC campus in Jerusalem, and to realize how much I have grown since I lived there a year and a half ago. I am no longer a young girl straight out of college, unsure of my path both professionally and personally. I have learned from my adventures and my mistakes, and I am happy with where I am right now. Sipping tea with Sally Klein-Katz, my education professor from the year in Israel, and sharing with her what I have learned in my two and a half years at HUC more as two colleagues than as a student and a professor, reiterated how lucky I am to be in an institution that cares for all their students on such a deep and personal level.
Spending Shabbat with Brett and his adopted family in Ashquelon
Perhaps the best part of my trip, however, was spending two weeks with my brother. We have only become close in the past three or four years, and aside from a road-trip to LA when I moved back to the States after my year in Israel, we have not had the opportunity to spend much time together. Luckily, we got along the entire time (even though we shared a room and I woke up at the crack of dawn almost every day), and I know that this will be an important building block in our relationship in the years to come. The only thing that would have made it better was if our younger sister, Jennifer, had been there with us too.
Now that I have had a chance to visit my past, I am back in LA thinking seriously about my future. I am beginning to write my curriculum guide, and beginning to apply for jobs. I can't believe that it has been almost three years since I began my career at HUC, and I can't wait to see where the rest of this year will take me!
Posted by Lauren at 11:45 AM
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