Since it first ran last semester, Boston University Hillel’s BU Jewish Leadership Team (BLT) has been working to help students create and follow through with initiatives of their own. This semester, students will begin bringing these initiatives to life.
Membership to BLT provides students with resources to turn their ideas into realities, according to Ethan Sobel, the assistant director of BU Hillel.
“We basically came up with the idea from student feedback about wanting access and having access to resources on campus.” Sobel said. “All of our staff or our program support, marketing support, et cetera, is available to students around their ideas and their passions.”
Sobel said there were about 30 student leaders spanning across around 20 different initiatives from the fall semester. He said the program is accessible to any student with an idea on campus.
“We are open to all students, everything that we do at Hillel, regardless of your background, religion, any of your social identities,” Sobel said. “We want to engage with you, we want you to come and test us and bring us your ideas, bring us your passions, and we’re here to support it.”
One way in which the team pairs facilitates students’ initiatives is by pairing participating students with mentors who can provide support for their projects and personal lives.
Aarushi Talwar, a senior in the Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, is one of the members of BLT. Talwar, who is working with Israel Fellow Linor Stein and Springboard Fellow Ben Hersch, is focusing her initiative, titled “Survivor Stories,” on creating an event for BU students to speak with Holocaust survivors.
“I just want something to leave an impact on students,” Talwar said. “Something to think about, but also to remember how we can learn from what happened in the past.”
Talwar said the help she received through BLT has been vital to her project.
“I couldn’t do it without them,” Talwar said. “Not only do they offer funds and all the other resources, but there’s a lot of [additional] support.”
First-year medical sciences graduate student Farhan Rana said he thinks programs like BLT can help inspire students to pitch their ideas, and that student leadership is an integral part of university life.
“I think it’s just part of the college experience, basically, for students to take initiative on projects or whatever they’re passionate about,” Rana said. “They can make an impact.”
College of Engineering freshman Anya Keller said her team’s BLT initiative, iFocus, is still in its planning stages, but that she ultimately plans to educate BU students about Israel.
“Israel is a very passionate subject for me,” Keller said. “Now in the heat of its controversy, it’s important to understand how you can find the balance between understanding the complexities and some problems that do exist in Israel.”
Keller said BLT does not have a rigid set of stages or deadlines students need to meet, but instead focuses on ensuring they have all the resources they need.
“We just have to make it happen somehow,” Keller said. “One of those ways is first to plan it out.”
Sobel said membership to BLT lasts until a student decides they want to leave. He said this format enables students to develop and change their initiatives over time.
“One semester you may want to run a social program, the next you may want to engage in a social action project in the city of Boston,” Sobel said. “We’re really open to all of those different types of things.”
Initiatives may also focus on improving projects or clubs that already exist. School of Hospitality Administration junior Sarah Besser said her initiative, Challah for Hunger, helped improve a charitable club on campus by the same name.
“I love helping people,” Besser said. “So, as soon as I realized CFH had a club on campus, I started to get involved.”
Several BU students not involved in the BLT said they could see themselves participating in it or in programs similar to it.
College of General Studies freshman Bruce Coppola said BLT was one example of how BU gives back to its students.
“I think it’s a good idea because it’s always good to give students a voice,” Coppola said. “By giving them initiatives, it gives more students a reason to go out and participate in good things.”
College of Arts and Sciences sophomore Kavya Verma said programs like BLT help motivate students to use the resources around them.
“I think as a student it’s really hard to find resources to fund your ideas,” Verma said. “That doesn’t mean that we don’t have some really good ideas.”
