Repair the World Coordinator, University of Pennsylvania Hillel

Posted by on June 13, 2011

Repair the World Coordinator – University of Pennsylvania Hillel (897)

Posted on: May 31, 2011

Posted by: Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life

The University of Pennsylvania is an Ivy League university located in Philadelphia. There is a large and very active Jewish community based in the Hillel building and around campus.  Penn Hillel’s mission is to empower students to create the experiences, relationships, and communities that help students explore Judaism with the same level of complexity, intensity, and sophistication as in all other areas of campus life.  In this way, Hillel is not just a building and certainly not a club to join. Hillel is the catalyst that encourages vibrant and diverse expressions of Jewish life in Steinhardt Hall and all over campus where students work, rest, and play. Penn Hillel works to inspire a sense of confidence in students’ own Judaism by empowering them with the skills, knowledge, and experiences to live meaningful Jewish lives. Of the approximately 2500 Jewish students at Penn, Penn Hillel reaches 1000 different Jewish students, and our separately-branded engagement initiative, the Jewish Renaissance Project, reaches an additional 1200 different students.

A significant piece of Penn’s approach to Jewish life is providing high quality and sustainable models of service, civic engagement and social justice to its students, informed by Jewish values and reflection. In partnership with Repair the World, a new national organization dedicated to making service a defining element of Jewish life, learning and leadership, Penn Hillel is working to build a ‘social action movement’ amongst the Jewish community at Penn.  Together, Penn Hillel and Repair the World aim to significantly expand the number of Jewish students engaged in meaningful and on-going service at the university, thereby creating positive social change in the world.

Penn Hillel is seeking a Repair the World Coordinator who will assume the role of further embedding the values of service and social justice into Penn Hillel’s culture.  Through professional development and training in the methodology of Jewish service-learning (JSL) facilitated by Repair the World, the Repair Coordinator will be eager and able to act as an in-house expert helping Penn Hillel grow into an organization that understands and creates service opportunities that are sophisticated, well designed, and impactful to participants and communities served.  Penn Hillel places a primary focus on impact that reaches beyond program attendance; impact is defined as the ways that Jewish experiences/actions, learning, values, and rituals help students to construct a meaningful and successful life.  To this end, the Repair Coordinator will serve as both inspiring Jewish educator and community organizer.

Responsibilities Include:
Programmatic
• Collaborate on the development and implementation of a logic model for integrating JSL into the mission and culture of Penn Hillel.
• Develop new and enhance pre-existing JSL initiatives that reach a larger number and wider variety of students in a way that (1) create powerful Jewish experiences for student participants, and (2) are sustainable and have real-life positive impact on the communities in which these students will work.
• Coach and supervise student leaders and interns (including Repair the World Fellows) to help them to grow in their Judaism, to develop highly impactful initiatives for their peers and to acquire new leadership and community organizing skills. The Repair Coordinator will work with students groups including, but not limited to, Social Justice, Jewish Culture, Holocaust
• Serve as a JSL educator for a broad range of staff and students, to help frame service in a larger Jewish context.
• Develop relevant curriculum for the social justice experience through Hillel.
• Build meaningful personal relationships with students who are not already involved in Jewish life and/or social justice work.
• Serve as a thought partner and entrepreneurial leader for Penn Hillel staff
• Help coordinate the day to day logistics for Hillel’s programmatic offerings
• Develop and nurture relationships with local community organizations, university personnel and partners in the College House System, Greek community, Civic House, Netter Center for Community Partnerships, Office of Student Life and throughout campus.

Administration and Professional Development
• Professional Development:  Actively participate in a Community of Practice/professional development cohort with other Repair the World campus professionals, exploring best practices in JSL.
• Budget:  The Repair Coordinator will supervise the budget of groups s/he works with; provide oversight for the use of funds by student groups; and assist the Director of Penn Hillel in developing parts of the Penn Hillel budget.
• Board Support:  The Repair Coordinator will provide support for the Penn Hillel Board of Overseers as needed and appropriate.
• General Administration:  The Repair Coordinator will share other administrative responsibilities with the Penn Hillel staff, as needed.
• Institutional Advancement:  The Repair Coordinator will assist in general development and reporting efforts, especially to raise money for new initiatives that fall into the Repair Coordinator job portfolio and to report to current partners.
• Publicity: The Repair Coordinator will take primary responsibility for development of Penn Hillel’s major publicity pieces and website management that relate to service, social justice and advocacy.

Working As A Part of a Broader Staff Team
• Penn Hillel Staff Responsibilities:  As a member of the Penn Hillel staff team, and in an effort to embed the value of service into Penn Hillel’s culture, the Repair Coordinator will attend Penn Hillel staff meetings and participate in regular supervision with the Assistant Director for Leadership and Operations.
• Hillel of Greater Philadelphia Staff Responsibilities: As a staff member of Hillel of Greater Philadelphia, the Repair Coordinator will attend regular evaluative, consultative, and educational meetings; may serve on Hillel of Greater Philadelphia committees; and assume responsibilities in other areas of the agency as required and appropriate.

Qualifications:
The successful candidate should have:
• A desire to study and implement meaningful JSL
• Authentic experiences with and passion for service, and an understanding of Jewish perspectives on social justice
• A contagious passion for Jewish life
• A natural ability to network and build relationships with a wide variety of people
• A creative spirit that seeks opportunities to innovate and experiment
• A deep understanding of university culture

Candidates should also:
• M. A. preferred, but we will consider candidates with a B.A.
• Be comfortable working with students who are high energy, entrepreneurial and bright.
• Feel comfortable working closely with a dedicated staff team who, with other partners, are working to create a special Jewish community at Penn.

Salary:
Salary is competitive with a comprehensive benefits package.

For more information on the University of Pennsylvania Hillel and campus, check out the following websites:
http://www.pennhillel.org
http://www.weRepair.org
http://www.jrp.com
http://www.upenn.edu

How to apply

Please refer to Hillel’s website for additional job postings and application instructions by going to:

http://hillel.silkroad.com/epostings/submit.cfm?fuseaction=app.dspjob&jobid=291151&company_id=15725&version=1&jobboardid=84