ENGAGEMENT involves bringing Jewish life to students where they are at.  "Where they are at" implies both a physical and a psychological location--where they live, work, hang out, are already comfortable, and on an accessible, fun, interesting, and personal level.

Engagement students are the Jewish students that do not actively seek involvement in Hillel or Jewish life on campus but are usually receptive if we find them.  Some of the engagement tools we have used in the past include Greek Jewish Council, Tzedek Hillel, birthright israel, the West Mall, and FYSH (First Year Students at Hillel).  There are so many ways to put a little Jewish into someones college experience you just have to be at the right place at the right time!

Hillels Center for Jewish Engagement challenges fellows to follow the 80/20 rule 80% of our time on engagement (planning engagement programs, meeting new students, etc.) and 20% of our time on empowerment (in the building, planning holiday events, working with student leaders, etc.)   Remind yourself of this throughout the year and it will help you to stay focused. 

EMPOWERMENT involves facilitating students' discovery of their potential to create meaningful Jewish experiences for themselves and others. Looking at Jewish communal work as the establishment of relationships between individuals and the nurturing of relationships between individuals in a group, the engagement-empowerment balance depends on the particular situation. In one-on-one situations, it is important to gauge where the individual student is at--there are engagement students who are empowerment students in disguise. Some empowerment students become like engagement students when they're in a group of their friends who are engagement students.

Empowerment students actively seek out Jewish activities and/or organizations on campus and are eager to get involved.  These students may drop by Hillel over the summer, come to Shabbat every week, or ask you how they can get more involved early in the semester.  Although you will interact with them (since they are often around the building), you will not work with them directly very often.  Margo and Betsy will primarily work with these students so you are free to go out and find the engagement students.

At UT, the majority of our students are engagement students and because there are close ties to home (Austin is 1.5-4 hours away from most major Texas cities), and their choice to go to a state school, many of our students maintain relationships with their high school and youth group friends throughout their time at UT. Thus, a small barrier is created for us--students will do things only with their friends and only want to do Jewish things that look and sound like the Jewish things they did at home.  But, when you meet a special student and then their friends, you become one of the crowd and it will be as if you were from that town all along.  

The JCSC's job is to work with engagement students, but since engagement students are so many in number, the job is really to work with all students. The JCSC is the person students will go to with questions, concerns, and interests, because the JCSC is the face of Jewish life on campus. Students see the JCSC everywhere--in their dorms, dining halls, Greek houses, and on the West Mall. Because the JCSC has the most first-hand experience with students, the staff relies on the JCSC to evaluate what students need and what interests them. JCSCs see which engagement students can become empowerment students, and can be the first contact an engagement student has with an empowerment opportunity. While it isn't the JCSC's responsibility to train and develop empowerment students into leaders, it is the JCSC's job to find, interact with, and support students who have leadership potential.

According to Amy Greenfield (JCSC 98-99) The Research shows that 20% walk onto campus and walk directly into the front doors of Hillel.  20% will never walk into Hillel or participate or identify in anything Jewish at all.  The other 60% are willing to do Jewish but wont actively seek it out.  This is your mission and challenge to seek out the 60% and discover what they want Jewishly and how you can help them achieve it.