Liz was not involved in Jewish life when she arrived at Penn.  She had a Bat Mitzvah but had stopped Hebrew school attendance because of her negative experience.  Liz was registered for a Penn Hillel Birthright trip the summer before her sophomore year and was recruited for the CEI project at the Birthright orientation.  After Israel and her summer CEI training, Liz was ready to share her new excitement for Judaism with her friends, most of whom are very disconnected from Jewish life on campus.  She organized a Shabbat dinner for 35 of her friends in September and her friends had a blast cooking together and creating their own Jewish experience. 

This fall, Liz launched the Social Entrepreneurs Network Initiative (SEN), which will bring to campus successful and philanthropic Jewish businesswomen and men who use the Jewish moral and ethical code in their daily lives to speak and mentor Penn students.   Liz successfully assembled a board of 12 students, all of whom are Jewish and previously disconnected from Jewish life at Penn.  The board will plan activities ranging from planning a board-only Shabbat dinner at a local donor's home, to planning a large group trip (up to 40 students) to New York City to network with high profile business people.  The program kick-off will be a large-scale dinner with Edgar Bronfman and Wayne Firestone as the keynotes.  Liz and her board of 12 students are working to bring high-achieving professionals to campus. 

In addition to SEN, Liz has planned and engaged her friends in running a Gift of Life Bone Marrow drive, an idea inspired by her experience on birthright with Gift of Life.  The drive helped 100 register individuals in the National Bone Marrow Registry.

Marisa Johnson, Northwestern University
CEI Intern 2006-2007
Age: 22
Class Year: Senior, Class of 2010
Hometown: Santa Barbara, CA
Participated in Birthright 2007 with Hillel

Marissa grew up with some Jewish involvement -- she had a bat mitzvah, and continued her Jewish education through 10th grade Confirmation – but was not involved in Jewish life as a freshman at Northwestern.   At the end of her freshman year, she was recruited by Northwestern Hillel's Engagement Director to join the Campus Entrepreneurs Initiative.   As part of CEI, Marisa went on a Birthright trip in 2007 and since returning has continued to stay engaged in Jewish life. 

As a CEI Intern, Marisa focused on engaging her peers through different Shabbat experiences.  Part of her year-long Shabbat Initiative was a challah-baking class where an intimate gathering of all female students participated in challah baking and a discussion about the role of women in Judaism, facilitated by the wife of a campus rabbi.  Through this initiative, Marisa engaged over 100 of her peers who had been previously uninvolved in Jewish campus life. 

CEI inspired Marisa to continue her involvement in Jewish life.  "I had been turned off by Hillel when I was a freshman, and I wanted to be part of the change that would prevent that from happening to others."  She went on to sit on her Hillel's Leadership Council and was an intern at Hillel's Schusterman International Center in Washington, DC during the summer of 2009, helping pilot a new initiative to employ peer networking to engage the thousands of Jewish interns who work in DC over the summer . 

Marisa has recently accepted a job with the government and will be working in Washington, D.C.  " I believe that the leadership, communication, planning, and teamwork skills that I have gained through my experience with CEI and Hillel will prove incredibly valuable as I begin my career."  
 
Joshua Khalili, UCLA
CEI Intern 2006-2007
Age: 21
Class Year:  June 2010
Hometown: Orange County, CA
Participated in Birthright- December 2007 with Hillel

The following was excerpted from reflections Jason wrote after his CEI internship experience.

In my first year at UCLA I was still adjusting to the new environment and I sought to build relationships with my peers. I was introduced and persuaded to join the Hillel Alternative Spring Break trip in Brazil by an intern from the first class of CEI. On this immersive experience I developed close relationships with the other 15 students who joined. After realizing how meaningful my relationships were with my fellow Jewish students, I knew that I would want to become an intern for CEI so I could continue to build relationships and develop a project I was passionate about.

After joining CEI I began to see the diversity of Jewish students on campus and the diversity of interests among the students. By attending many different events at Hillel, Birthright, and stepping outside of my comfort zone with others, I was able to establish 60 relationships with Jewish students on the UCLA campus. I decided to tie my personal interest in science to an initiative which explored the conflicts and overlap between science and Judaism. About 20 students came and after that initial event, I began to have discussions with a committed group of students about two times per month.

I currently serve as a CEI Advisor and Co-President of Hillel at UCLA, where I direct the student committees involved with engagement at Hillel at UCLA. 

CEI helped me garner my skills in leadership, organization, and communication, which I have been able to apply to different jobs as a pre-medical student on campus, and which will continue to help me as I pursue a career in medicine. The beautiful relationships I was able to create with my fellow interns and students, the development of my own initiative, and the skills I have learned continue to help me succeed as an adult and understand what Judaism means to me.

Jason Leivenberg, University of California, Berkeley
CEI Intern 2006-2007
Age:  22 years old
Class Year:  Graduated May 2009
Majors:   Sociology and Mass Communications
Hometown:  Sherman Oaks, California

The following was excerpted from reflections Jason wrote after his CEI internship experience.

My Jewish identity was molded by an Alternative Spring Break trip to Biloxi, MI in Spring 2006, in which I fully understood the importance of Tzedek and Tikkun Olam.  After that trip, I was motivated to keep exploring my Jewish identity and what was meaningful to me and so became a CEI Intern.
 
My most proud and successful CEI initiative came after I was an official CEI--I organized and planned a Passover Seder during my semester abroad in Rome.  I wanted to bring a sense of community to other Jews who were living away from home, and I saw a trend with Juniors/3rd years who studied abroad for a year/semester, came back to their campus and had no connection to their Jewish identity.
 
With the help of Hillel International and Birthright NEXT, my proposal to raise funds for the "Passover Seder in Rome" was accepted and I raised $15,000.  Nearly 140 students from six European countries came to Rome to celebrate Passover together. 

Today, I am the Engagement Associate at Santa Barbara Hillel. In this role, my number one goal is to empower students to embrace their own meaningful Jewish experience, take ownership over the things in life that excite them and help them find a way to make it relevant to them and the rest of their community.