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Building Bridges to Connect Jewish Camps and Schools

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Posted in Developing Professionals, Education and Educators, FJC Programs, Guest Bloggers on March 6th, 2013 by alicia - No Comments »

The following was also posted on the Jim Joseph Foundation blog.

By Jordan Magidson, Nadiv Educator at URJ Camp Kalsman in Arlington, WA and Temple De Hirsch Sinai in Seattle, WA. 

One idea that has been drilled into my head for the last four years is that no Jewish community is an island—or at least no community should be. Rather than hoarding our intellectual property we should be sharing it, collaborating with other Jewish organizations and learning from one another in order to create the best possible educational experience for our children. What I find unique about the Nadiv program is that it is one of the first national initiatives to begin building those bridges between Jewish organizations, recognizing that religion schools (that’s what we call it in my neck of the woods) and Jewish camps both have a lot to teach each and learn from each other when it comes to innovative and successful Jewish programming for kids.

My position as Nadiv Educator is pretty unique. I am only one of six Jewish educators who split their time between working in a school and working at camp and only one of two in this pilot that works in supplementary Jewish education. While there have been challenges, they have been minimal and hardly noteworthy. The benefits and opportunities for growth for the camp, the religion school and for me as an educator have been far more numerous.

When I am wearing my temple hat, I am thinking about what makes camp so successful and how we can start integrating that into our religion school. We send 140 students from Temple De Hirsch Sinai (TDHS) to URJ Camp Kalsman each summer. This gives us the opportunity to create a sense of year-long Jewish education for our students. With camp being located only an hour outside of Seattle, we have the chance to utilize this beautiful and uniquely Jewish setting to support what is happening in the classroom. We will begin by sending our 4th-6th graders to camp in May for a Shabbaton where we teach our students and their families about how we can address poverty in our community. Camp is a perfect setting for this as fighting hunger is a major goal of our camp community. This past year we donated roughly 1000 lbs. of food that we grew in our garden to a local shelter and we hope to double that this year. By utilizing program areas like the garden and farm, we not only teach our students about this big issue, but also literally get our hands dirty and show them how they can be change agents in our community. This will have a bigger impact than if we just stayed at our congregation. We are also, of course, hoping to garner more excitement about camp and encourage some first-time campers to try it out.

When I am wearing my camp hat, I am thinking about ways in which camp can continue to grow and be at the forefront of innovation when it comes to Jewish education. It is important that camp not simply rest on its laurels – just because something worked 20 years ago doesn’t mean it doesn’t need rejuvenating. This year at camp we are beginning to move to a fully integrated model of Jewish education, which will be a change from how we have done things in the past. It will bring a new energy to the education program. As Director of Education at camp, I am also aware that not every community I work with has the same resources available to them as available TDHS. That is why we are beginning to send out holiday recourse sheets to schools and families that will allow them to bring a little of the camp spirit into their homes. We are also going to start making available tested and approved all-school and family programming to our camp communities that would like to add more experiential programming to their schedules but may not have the time or resources to create them. This will be one way we can give all of our campers, not just TDHS campers, the ability to experience this year-long Jewish education.

All of this is just the beginning. April will mark one year in this very unique position for me. In this first year I have learned a lot and accomplished a lot. I know that in the coming years I will accomplish even more. David Berkman (Director of Camp Kalsman), Rabbi Daniel Septimus (Director of Congregational Learning at TDHS) and I are all very committed to creating endless opportunities for collaboration. I can’t wait to see where we go from here!

Can Jewish Organizations Really Work Collaboratively? Early Lessons from Nadiv

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Posted in Developing Professionals, Education and Educators, FJC Programs, Guest Bloggers, Jewish Camp in the News on February 28th, 2013 by alicia - No Comments »

The following post was originally featured on eJewish Philanthropy.

Collaboration and partnership have become the buzzwords of our time. The business world as well as the nonprofit sector heralds the advantages of collaboration: sharing resources, bringing multiple perspectives to address difficult issues, eliminating duplication, learning from one another and pooling assets.

The Jim Joseph and AVI CHAI Foundations, as funders interacting with multiple organizations across sectors, have a bird’s-eye view of what can result when organizations function from within their own separate silos: duplicate efforts on the one hand and unaddressed needs on the other. This led us to ask: can we, as funders, use our resources and influence to catalyze collaboration? And taking that one step further: can we, as funders, collaborate to more effectively advance our common goals?

On the topic of funding collaboration efforts, David La Piana, in his monograph Real Collaboration: A Guide for Grantmakers, offers a sobering observation. “Funders cannot create Real Collaboration. They can only help to enhance it. In most instances, a ‘grant for collaboration’ will not seed or create a partnership where none existed before unless the motivation to create a partnership is present and strong. ”

We are fortunate that talented professionals in the areas of Jewish education that our two foundations support were already thinking of developing and nurturing collaboration and were highly motivated to see it succeed. Jewish camp leaders wanted year-round educators devoting their skills to deepen Jewish learning in camps and Jewish school leaders wanted to inspire their students with more immersive “camp-like” Jewish experiences during the school year. To address these needs, our foundations have jointly funded a five-year grant to the Foundation for Jewish Camp’s Nadiv Initiative, an experiment designed to create new connections between Jewish camps and schools, leveraging unique professional knowledge and best practices for the benefit of both.

Nadiv involves a complex array of individual, organizational and system collaboration in order to produce camp and school alumni whose Judaism deeply engages both their heads and their hearts:

  • Each of six experiential Jewish educators is “shared” by a camp and a school in the same geographic area.
  • Each camp-school pair works together to determine the role of their Nadiv educator.
  • Educators, heads of school and camp directors participate collectively in a community of practice to learn from one another’s successes and challenges.
  • The Foundation for Jewish Camp (FJC) and the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ) together helped develop the program and are directing its implementation.
  • Two foundations have co-invested in the project, communicating regularly and learning the give-and-take required by funding partnerships.

Can so many levels of partnership succeed not only simultaneously, but in such a way that the partnerships build on each other and each strengthens the whole? While Nadiv is just in its early stages of implementation, the first evaluation report has been conducted by BTW informing change. One of the two sections of the report, “The Nadiv Story, Unfolding,” tells the story of Nadiv’s collaborative process as it unfolded, with all the turns and twists in the road. The second section, “Key Learnings from Nadiv’s Launch,” shares successes along with key learnings and offers recommendations for ongoing implementation and future partnerships.

Even in this early stage, Nadiv is turning out to be a fascinating story about collaboration, with multiple characters and plotlines. At the individual level, six educators from a range of backgrounds are working across institutions and denominational affiliations to support one another and share learnings. At an organizational level, camps and schools are leveraging their partnership to retain a talented educator and strengthen one another’s educational work, bringing more of the joy of camp to school and introducing more of the substance of school to camp. At the field level, FJC and URJ are deepening their relationship, identifying shared measures for success, and laying the groundwork for future collaborative efforts. And on the funder level, two foundations deeply committed to Jewish education are bridging their differences to enhance their leverage. While it is too early to identify concrete results, BTW’s report notes encouragingly: “The most common words used to describe the nascent partnerships are respect, communication, collaboration, support and trust.”

At the first Nadiv convening this past fall, energy and excitement ran high as school and camp heads, Nadiv educators and their mentors reached across their organizational divides and talked together about the best ways to inspire and educate Jewish youth. Participants left with a sense of being halutzim (pioneers) in a model that can bring down some of the walls that separate classroom-based and experiential education, winter and summer, teacher and counselor.

We will have to wait several years to fully understand whether this experiment to catalyze new institutional collaboration will achieve what it set out to do. If it does, we hope that other camps, schools and educational institutions will adapt elements of the Nadiv model for their own collaborative experiments. We equally hope that other funders will be inspired to invest (or even better, co-invest) in such efforts.

We will, of course, continue to “learn in public” as the project progresses and look forward to your reactions and your own stories of collaboration in the Jewish education world.

- Josh Miller is a senior program officer at the Jim Joseph Foundation. Steven Green is director of grants management and administration at the Jim Joseph Foundation. Leah Nadich Meir is a program officer at The AVI CHAI Foundation. Joel Einleger is a senior program officer at The AVI CHAI Foundation.

Giving, Receiving Constructive Criticism

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Posted in Developing Professionals, FJC Programs, Guest Bloggers on January 30th, 2013 by alicia - No Comments »

The following post was originally featured in The Atlanta Jewish Times

In this post-inauguration and post-election period for the United States and Israel, respectively, we are well aware that leadership styles, models and talents can vary greatly between individuals. In Parashat Yitro specifically, we are witness to the fact that the ability to listen, to hear and to convey ideas effectively are all traits of outstanding leadership.

In the chapters that precede the description of G-d’s revelation at Sinai, we read about Moses’ father-in-law and the instrumental role he played in establishing the legal system for the Jewish people in the wilderness. We are introduced to Yitro after he hears about all the things that “G-d had done for Moses and for Israel His people (Exodus 18:1).”

Yitro then brings Zipporah, Gershom and Eliezer back to Moses, and father-in-law and son-in-law soon reconnect as Moses recounts to Yitro the story of G-d’s power and the Exodus from Egypt. Finally – less than a day after being reunited – the unsolicited advice from elder to younger pours out.

In these moments, we see the mutual respect either has for the other and a model for great leadership. Yitro witnesses Moses serving as the lone judge for the people, hearing their disputes and then rendering his decisions. Then, no more than a verse passes within the text before Yitro intercedes, listens to Moses’ reasoning and then offers his own perspective.

He says, “This is not a good thing you are doing,” a gentle way of telling him that the whole manner in which Moses is going about this procedure is completely wrong (Exodus 18:17). It is not that his rulings or warnings to people are incorrect, as says the Midrash Sechel Tov (12th-century commentary), but rather that the system is untenable both for Moses and the people.

Thus, Moses develops a new system – based on Yitro’s feedback – in which the responsibility is shared with other individuals and only the major disputes come before Moses.

Yitro’s suggestions are not earth-shattering; what is most impressive about this scene is his ability to witness the pitfalls of the current structure and to share practical solutions in a way that Moses can hear them. At the same time, Moses’ ability to place his ego aside, to listen to the perspective of an “outsider” and to implement changes based on that input show his dedication to doing what is best for the people and not to making his own name great.

Indeed, after having recently returned from a conference for the Foundation for Jewish Camp, the value of having genuine leaders who both listen to and share feedback has been on my mind a good deal. I had the fortune to work with educators of varied backgrounds, skill sets and professions (all leaders in their own right) as we modeled educational programs, critiqued one another and internalized the comments that were being offered.

In this small group of Jewish leaders, I perceived Yitro’s ability to diagnose a potential problem and Moses’ ability to listen to feedback, both in group sessions and in individual conversations. Most impressively, at the core of all of these conversations was the commitment to creating outstanding experiences and training programs for others – even if it meant rethinking, refining or changing one’s own program.

Leadership manifests itself in different ways, and thus it is hard to define one style, model or talent as the most beneficial. But as we learn from Parashat Yitro, the ability to listen, to hear and to convey ideas effectively cannot be overlooked in the conversation. These talents have the power to inspire and to bring about real change in the world.

- Rabbi Marshall Lesack is the director of education at Congregation Shearith Israel and a member of the Atlanta Rabbinical Association.

 

Ah-Ha Moments

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Posted in Developing Professionals, Education and Educators, FJC Programs, Guest Bloggers on January 15th, 2013 by alicia - 1 Comment

As it is written: “And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.  And God saw the light that it was good.” (Bereishit, 1:3-4)

Each day, we have moments of light.  We have thoughts, ideas, and contemplations about ways to improve life.  We think about how we can help our family and friends.   We think about ways to make our jobs more meaningful or easier. We think about how to become healthier.  We think.  Not every idea is a good one.  We likely have more bad ideas than good ones.  Yet, rarely do we take the moment to reflect and determine its merit.

Human nature inherently pushes us to go and do.  Many of us attend seminars, trainings, workshops, meetings, conferences, etc.  The rooms buzz with excitement and ideas.  The hour long presentation was the best thing you ever saw.  You walk out the door energized.  You get back to your desk and realize you can’t articulate the ideas you left the room with just moments ago.  Shadows of your thoughts ruminate in your brain.  You try your hardest to put your thoughts on paper, but you can’t reach them.  It’s too late.  The moment of reflection has passed.

God teaches us reflection from the start of the Torah.  Each act of creation is followed by a recap and nod of approval.  The Yitro Leadership Program brings Assistant and Associate Camp Directors together from all parts of the US.  In a three-day seminar, not a moment is wasted.  We walk in and have agendas, workbooks, notebooks, and pens waiting for us.  The flip charts are placed at the front of the room near the PowerPoint projector.  There is a coffee table at the back of the room.  It’s time to work.  You look at the agenda, and it looks like any other schedule: three sessions before lunch, another four before dinner, and an evening program.  The agenda, however, doesn’t tell the whole story.  We revisit the content from our previous two seminars.  We look at the challenges facing our own camps today.  We build a frame, together, for what we are about to do.  We are learning as we share with each other best practices.  With each topic, we work through case studies, build skills, and develop benchmarks.

We are asked to flip to page one of our workbooks and jot down any revelations we’ve had.  The top of the page reads “Ah-Ha Moments”.  It’s a blank page in a workbook.  We are in session, but we are silent.  Many would look at this as wasted time and space.  This is intentional.  Reflection is critical to learning and development.  It underscores that which we have found most important.  It allows us to remember our thoughts at a later time.

Thinking back on our sessions, I had so many “Ah-Ha Moments”.  One of the most profound discussions and topics was about the way we train our staff.  Training is not a one week process at camp.  In fact, training is an ongoing process in life.  We coach, we teach, we cultivate, and we teach our staff to be better individuals.  We are in the business of role modeling. We are in the business of growing children into young Jewish adults.  What do we want our kids to Know, Value, and Do in their lives? These are the methods we use to train our staff as role models.

What’s an idea that you lost?  What do you wish you remembered?  What got lost between the meeting room and your desk?  Stop.  Think.  Reflect.  Write.  Imagine the good that can come from it.

- Dan Baer, Associate Director, Camp Interlaken JCC

2013 on the Horizon

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Posted in Education and Educators, FJC Programs on January 4th, 2013 by alicia - No Comments »

This post originally appeared on eJewish Philanthropy

As we enter 2013 and consider what the new year will bring, I see three important trends affecting our community today overall that need to inform our conversations and our plans – as Jewish professionals, lay leaders, and a community as a whole – as we move forward into this year.

First, we face the continued challenge of the affordability of living a Jewish life today. Many in our midst simply cannot afford to participate in the varied opportunities which are available. Great strides have been made and generous funders have stepped forward with scholarships and financial aid, and we are watching with heightened interest the progress generated by The AVI CHAI Foundation, PEJE, and Yeshiva University, among others, who are working hard to make day school education more affordable. But we still need to do more across the board to serve all segments of our community. We need to develop lower cost, more efficient offerings as well, targeting those in the challenged middle income brackets. The ongoing uncertainty of the economy requires our creativity and collaboration.

Second, our institutions need strengthening. We can accomplish this by better utilizing our communal assets and resources more effectively. Again, we see this trend evolving with successful models under development. The Nadiv program, which has created senior experiential Jewish educator positions that are shared by nonprofit Jewish overnight camps and Jewish day or synagogue schools, is but one new great example to address this need. Nadiv aims to enhance the quality of education at Jewish camps and schools in a sustainable way, create a new model for year-round positions for trained and talented Jewish educators, and model a new way to foster deeper collaboration between different kinds of institutions in the Jewish educational world. Individual organizations can benefit from asset sharing as well. The merger of Hazon, Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center, and Teva Learning Alliance is a recent illustration of this, but collaboration does not require complete fusion. For example, over several years the Foundation for Jewish Camp has worked in partnership with the Harold Grinspoon Foundation on several projects towards a mutual goal of getting more kids to experience the transformative power of Jewish summer camp.

Third, we feel a moral imperative to create more inclusivity within our community. Together we must address our ability to meet the needs of all Jews in North America to appropriately reflect its broad diversity. Many groups are tackling areas that need attention in different ways. For example, the Jewish Funders Network has taken on the task of guiding and supporting funders to make more educated decisions in supporting programs for Jews with special needs and physical disabilities; Keshet is an organization dedicated to the inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Jews in Jewish life; and the field of Jewish camp has created overnight camps for Russian-speaking Jews and multi-racial Jewish families. We hope this is just the beginning.

Even as we work to address these three trends, I believe we should remind ourselves of the context in which we do so. We aim to create a more joyful Jewish experience for everyone. I hope we can all agree that “joyous Judaism” can help break down barriers and silos which confront us. The field of Jewish camp has done so successfully and provides a great example for us all. Camps inspire an expression of Judaism that is joyful, powerful, and sustainable. Camps put children on a Jewish path which stays with them for life.

May the new year bring us closer together as we reach toward our ultimate collective goal: building and securing a more vibrant Jewish future.

- Jeremy J. Fingerman, CEO, Foundation for Jewish Camp

Doing My Stuff

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Posted in Developing Professionals, FJC Programs, Guest Bloggers on November 16th, 2012 by alicia - 1 Comment

Harry Chapin is one of the singer-songwriters whose music has provided the soundtrack to countless summers at Camp Alonim and many other Jewish camps over the years.  In one memorable tune, Harry spins a lament about the meagerness of his guitar – his “monophonic symphony,” his “six string orchestra.”  How about adding a bass, lead guitar, drums, and some strings – wouldn’t the music sound much more full that way?  “Maybe I just need a group to help me do my stuff,” sings Harry.

As a camp director, one group that helps me “do my stuff” is my cohort of FJC’s Executive Leadership Institute (ELI).   Barely a year after we first gathered to begin our learning together, my fourteen fellow directors and I recently reconvened in New Jersey along with the fantastic FJC faculty and staff for the first time since the summer.  The room was filled with hearty hugs and warm feelings.  And then, once again, we got down to work.  We continued our skill-building in the areas of board development and fundraising.  We updated one another on the various “summer change” projects we each initiated at our camps – from what worked, to what didn’t, to what’s next.  We pored over various aspects of budgeting and financial management – the toolbox both for managing a budget month-to-month and for using financial data to communicate organizational priorities and health clearly and effectively.  We learned new ways to recruit and retain campers and families – from postcards with QR codes that can be scanned to link to an online summer photo or video, to online marketing efforts that are increasingly common in the for-profit and not-for-profit worlds, to year-round efforts to connect kids and their families with each other and with camp’s joyful Judaism.  We shared what we do, and had a friendly competition about how many of our ideas we could share with one another.  “You wrote 131 retention ideas on your giant post-its?  Ha – we have more!”  Brainstorming led to “a-ha” moments and then the increasingly antsy feelings of “I want to go home and get started!”

Some of us are technically “competitors” – some are even in the same geographic markets – so why has the spirit of collaboration been so palpable since day 1 of ELI?  It’s because we all believe in the value of Jewish camp to change lives, we all believe each kid in this world is unique and might find his/her true “home away from home” in a different place, and we all know that despite the ever-improving products we’re offering, the majority of Jewish kids still don’t attend Jewish camp!

As important as ELI has been for learning best practices and refining our nitty-gritty skills both as “mayors” of our seasonal outposts and as year-round executives with multi-million dollar budgets, it’s that community that FJC has created that has made ELI such a worthwhile endeavor.  The job of a camp director can sometimes be a surprisingly lonely one, even during the summer.  Now, because of ELI, I have a cohort of colleagues across the country, each of whom is committed to excellence for their camps and any of whom I would feel comfortable calling to discuss an issue.

But it’s even more than having an expanded rolodex and the comfort of knowing I can use it.  This summer, my fellow ELI Fellows joined me at camp.  Not physically, of course, but the next best way.  I could ask myself: How would Terry warmly welcome the waves of first-time parents and campers?  How might Lewis make a necessary change and communicate it to stakeholders?  How would Anne exhibit consistency when everything seems to be descending into chaos?  How might Noah listen to this camper or that staff member who might need some special attention?  Would Melissa be satisfied with the level of intention shown to our teen programs?  I believe leadership is most effective when it is by example – and because of ELI, I had with me the examples of fourteen other stellar camp professionals with whom I could empathize imaginatively throughout the summer.

ELI has reminded me that I alone am more than a “monophonic symphony,” and it has taught me that we each need a group to help us do our stuff.  “And we would play together, like fine musicians should.  And it would sound like music, and the music would sound good.”  Thanks, ELI 3.  Thanks, FJC.  And, for what I’m sure won’t be the last time: thanks, Harry Chapin.

- Josh Levine, Director of Camp Alonim in Brandeis, CA

To A New Year & Four New Camps!

Posted in FJC Programs, Jewish Camp in the News on September 20th, 2012 by alicia - No Comments »

Last week, we announced the four new camps to be included in our Specialty Camps Incubator II Program. We’re very excited about the new opportunities in Jewish camping, and clearly we’re not alone! If you haven’t heard enough about the four new camps chosen for our Specialty Camps Incubator II, we’ve corralled the press coverage over the last week and compiled it here for you. Congratulations to the new camps! We are looking forward to watching these innovative camps grow from ideas into reality and will continue to keep you posted through the Summer 2014 launch.

 

You can read more about the Specialty Camps Incubator and see the full descriptions of the camps on our website.

 

Another Happy Camper

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Posted in FJC Programs, Parents, Why We Love Camp on July 17th, 2012 by alicia - No Comments »

One thing that makes Jewish camp, well, Jewish is the happy campers that take home a stronger Jewish identity.  Everyone at the FJC offices smiled with pride today when we received this note:

My son, Noah, returned from camp at JCA Shalom. He is a One Happy Camper recipient. He LOVED it! He was nervous about going since he’d never been there and didn’t  know anyone but the staff quickly put him at ease and he bonded with his cabin mates. We enjoyed seeing the daily pictures of him on the camp website where we could see for ourselves that he was having a wonderful time. He is now connected to friends all over the west coast and he enjoyed meeting counselors from Israel. He said that he learned more Hebrew, the Birkat HaMazon and enjoyed celebrating Shabbat with everyone. He also said that he looks forward to returning.

The experience did many things for him- improved his confidence in being able to be on his own away from home with all new people;  built his self-esteem as he tried and succeeded at so many new things; connecting him with Jewish peers; and strengthening his  Jewish identity. All of this in just 12 days!

We cannot thank the Foundation enough for making it possible for Noah to attend a  Jewish sleepaway camp.  With three older siblings in college we could not have afforded to send him without this support. We look forward to someday being able to return the favor. Please extend our gratitude to all who are involved with this wonderful program.

Regards,

The Fischer Family

Promoting Jewish Camping

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Posted in FJC Programs, Guest Bloggers on June 12th, 2012 by alicia - 2 Comments

Shalom from URJ Eisner Camp! As I prepare for my summer here on Senior Staff, I’ve been thinking about my time as the Foundation for Jewish Camp Camping Fellow at Temple Beth Shalom in Needham, MA. I have spent the last year acting as a camping resource for the community, promoting Jewish camping, and connecting families to the amazing network of Jewish camps in the Boston area and beyond. Towards the end of the academic year, I focused on an especially important part of the job: connecting our TBS students to their home community as they go off to 13 different camps and 2 Israel programs!

At TBS, we want our youngest members to know that we care about their lifelong Jewish educational experience. As studies and anecdotes have shown time and again, Jewish camp has an incredible impact on young people’s lives. Along with visiting various camps throughout the summer and working at one of the most popular camps among our families, I spent a week in May preparing over 150 packages for our TBS campers. The packages were full of both useful and silly things to enjoy at camp, and will be sent during each session of the summer. It is our hope that these packages will make our campers smile and remind them that we are thinking about them all year long.

As I put those packages together, I thought about what else campers receive while they are away at camp, what they can’t get from the mail room: independence, new friends, a sense of community. Though we send them off with water bottles and stationary for letters home, they come back with a stronger Jewish identity and plenty of ruach (spirit) to share. In the fall, these campers will return to our community, reinvigorating our classrooms and sanctuary. I sent them off with packages and now I can’t wait to see what they bring back!

- Leah King is a Foundation for Jewish Camp Camping Fellow at Temple Beth Shalom in Needham, MA

Cornerstone 2012!

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Posted in Developing Professionals, FJC Programs, Guest Bloggers on June 4th, 2012 by alicia - No Comments »

The following post originally appeared on the Camp Poyntelle Lewis Village blog.

When I arrived at Cornerstone with the other fellows from CPLV, Jorie Cohen, Bill Porreca, Hayley Roher, Steven Underweiser, and Yoni Geisler, it seemed as though we were in for a crash course on Jewish programming.  We were right, but in a completely different way than we had originally imagined.

Each morning, our first activity was to spend an hour discussing certain aspects of camps with other camps.  These sessions, called Morning Mingles, were more focused on sharing ideas than learning from the Cornerstone staff.  “My favorite part of Cornerstone was comparing programs with other camps to get new ides for summer 2012,” said Hayley Roher, junior girls counselor and programming specialist for Camp Poyntelle.  Ideas for camp-wide Jewish programming and Maccabiah were shared, among many others.  Some of these ideas will be on the calendar this summer, and would not have been without Cornerstone.  In addition, when discussing these programs, fellows would question one another about the functionality of some programs.  Jorie Cohen, programming specialist for Lewis Village, said “it was amazing to share and get amazing ideas from other counselors facing the same obstacles that we had.”  Both she and Bill Porreca, supervisor for Lewis Village, attended sessions about overnight programming, learning from other camps how to make overnight experiences more interesting for teenage campers, specifically girls.

Over the course of the program, we each attended a different specialty track session.  Mine was focused on using food as a tool to teach Jewish values and tradition.  We began by discussing how we are all connected through spices, as the different spices led to trade routes, political connections, and wars.  We discussed how different food cultures were developed as a result of the available spices, and examined how food is part of the Bible.  We used ingredients mentioned in the Torah to make new dishes, some of which could have possibly been made by our ancestors.  We made foods mentioned in stories of Jews during the Inquisition and the Holocaust, and read stories of the foods’ role in the characters’ lives.   By the end of the three session, we learned how people can be connected and build culture through food and how it has impacted our history as a people.  We created fun memories and built connections that we other wise wouldn’t have, and brainstormed techniques for bunk bonding, and programs that can improve each of our camps.

The theme for Cornerstone this year was “Tell A Story,” and in this fashion we each met with one Cornerstone educator to hear their stories.  Said Steven Underweiser, lifeguard for Camp Poyntelle, “I really enjoyed the activities that involved expanding on camp’s values.  We did an activity that incorporated our personal stories and how that can relate to camp.”  In a session with Naomi Less, Poyntelle’s Cornerstone advisor, Steven and I were asked to write our stories and tell them to people we did not know.  While our life stories may be considered very personal, we found the activity easier than we expected.  At the end of the activity, we had received feedback on the delivery of our stories and felt more comfortable sharing them, learning to value the trust of those who became our audiences.

Throughout the week, we broke out into Camp Rooms, during which each team would discuss their sessions and come up with an action plan to implement these ideas in their camps.  Half of our time was spent split into Lewis Village, led by Assistant Director Mallory Saks, and Camp Poyntelle, led by Poyntelle supervisor Jonah Zinn.  The other half of our time was spent together, so that we can discuss changes that can be made to improve both sides of camp similarly.  At the conclusion of the program, we presented our action plans to Director Sarah Raful Whinston, editing them with her input.  Our Cornerstone advisors, Naomi for Poyntelle and Amy for Lewis Village, would also attend portions of these sessions so that they could enhance our thought process and push us to create the best action plan possible.  They will be visiting Camp Poyntelle Lewis Village for Shabbat during the summer to check on our progress.

When we left Cornerstone on Thursday morning, we all were happy to have attended.  We were excited for the summer to begin, so that we may begin implementing all that we had learned these past few days in the everyday operations at Camp Poyntelle Lewis Village.  We are excited to improve the lives of our campers through teaching values and reshaping our approaches to some camp experience.  I wish I could say more without giving too much away, but you’ll just have to wait and see when Summer 2012 begins on June 24th!  See you then!

- Sara Karol, a 3rd year Camp Poyntelle Lewis Village counselor, just finished her freshman year at the Kelly School of Business at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. 

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