It would be easy to say, “Like father, like daughter.” Or, you could say she’s following in the footsteps of her older sister. But it might be best to paraphrase Frank Sinatra and say Salute to Youth honoree Ally Grant became a leader by doing it her way.
Ally is the daughter of Bob and Evie Grant and graduated Sunday night from Blue Valley North High School. She was honored as a member of National Honor Society, Spanish National Honor Society, earned the Presidential Service Award all four years of high school and maintained a 4.0 or better GPA every semester as well. On top of that, this past year she served as president of Congregation Beth Shalom’s USY chapter, was named the Howie Stillman Leadership Award winner earning her a scholarship to her final USY Kinnus (convention) and served as captain of the BVN girls’ tennis team.
Ally was nominated by two staffers at Beth Shalom, Polsky Religious School Coordinator Patti Kroll and Youth Director Stefanie Williams. Williams characterized Ally as “an exceptional leader” each of the three years she has served on the KCUSY chapter executive board — first as communications vice president, then membership vice president and finally president.
“In each position, she has exceeded all expectations and raised the bar for those who follow her. She is dedicated to creating meaningful programming and experiences for all those around her,” Williams said.
Ally became interested in USY at an early age as she watched Williams, who at the time was her third-grade religious school teacher, and her madrichim (teachers’ assistants) do fun things associated with USY. Then her older sister Roni joined the syngogue’s youth group.
“So I knew USY would always be something that I would do,” said Ally, who also served as a madricha at the Polsky Religious School as a high school student.
For a while she was a member of both BBYO and USY, but USY — which has about 80 members here — was more attractive to her.
“What kept me going back to USY was I liked that there was a really strong Jewish aspect to it while at the same time a social aspect,” she explained.
Through the years she has come to love the different mix of people in the Jewish youth group.
“Everyone can be themselves,” she said. “Especially at conventions you’re encouraged to be yourself and be as Jewish as you want to be, which is really cool to me.”
As she climbed the leadership ladder, Ally said she doesn’t feel like she was ever ordering anyone around. Instead she was able to communicate to the other members of the board what was going on and what they could do together.
“Each member of the board was more than happy to step up and plan programs and do what their responsibilities called for,” she explained.
Williams said Ally is successful because she “always has a positive attitude and inspires everyone to work hard.”
“She has helped to create an amazing, fun community within the walls of our youth lounge and beyond! Ally is passionate about making our world a better place, and working with her has made me a better director,” Williams said.
As evidenced by her choice of activities, Ally said Judaism has always played a big role in her life. When she attends American University in Washington, D.C., in the fall, she hopes to take part in activities sponsored by the university’s Hillel that serves one of the largest Jewish populations of any private university in the nation.
“I want to continue to have a Jewish aspect to my life. I don’t know how strong it will be in college, but I definitely want to continue to practice Judaism and have the morals and values that I’ve learned through USY and through religious school,” said Ally, who plans to study public health and possibly minor in Spanish.
Several people inspired Ally to become a leader in the Jewish community. Two of them are her grandparents from Des Moines, Iowa, who she affectionately calls Oma and Opa, the German names for grandma and grandpa.
“I’ve always looked up to them,” Ally said. “Judaism played a huge role in their lives and they inspired me, my sister and my cousins to continue to practice Judaism and to keep it a big role in my life.”
She noted that both of those grandparents are Holocaust survivors. Oma is from Munich and went on the Kindertransport with her sister and brother. Opa is from Berlin and escaped with his parents to Shanghai.
She continues to be motivated by her father, who is the immediate past chairman of the Jewish Community Center, and her sister, who served as USY president three years ago.
“I think that seeing how both of them took on those leadership positions with such passion for what they were doing inspired me to continue to look for my niche as a leader. It just so happens that I thought my niche was as USY president,” Ally said.
This summer she will continue being a leader, this time to a group of young girls for eight weeks at Herzl Camp in Webster, Wisc. Last year she was an ozo (counselor-in-training), and spent six summers as a camper. The only summer she missed was before her junior year in high school when she participated in a four-week USY Israel experience in Israel.
“I’m really excited. It’s going to be really different than my past summers at camp but I think it will be really cool to be in that position and have that leadership role,” Ally said.
She doesn’t exactly know what the future holds for her, but it’s a sure bet she’ll continue to seek out her niche in the Jewish community.
“I don’t know where I’ll be … but I could see myself continuing to be a leader within the Jewish community.”
