School’s out and college kids often look for jobs where they can get some real-world learning to enhance their classroom studies. Starting Monday, June 13, seven lucky Jewish students will spend their summer vacations working at a variety of Jewish agencies as part of the Daniel L. Brenner Leadership Summer Internship Program.
This is the ninth year for the program, which is administered by Karen Gerson, director of the CAJE/Jewish Federation’s Learning for Life Program. College students get paid while working for a Jewish institution. Interns have worked a variety of Jewish institutions over the years including Congregation Beth Torah, Congregation BIAV, Kansas University Hillel Foundation, Midwest Center for Holocaust Education, The Jewish Community Relations Bureau|American Joint Committee, Jewish Community Center Summer camps, Jewish Family Services, Jewish Community Foundation, Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City and Village Shalom.
Gerson said the program makes an impact on the community, and both the interns and the institutions benefit from it. Howard Jacobson, who has been involved from the beginning as a funder and a mentor, agrees.
“Before they serve as interns, most of them have very little concept of how things work in the Jewish community,” said Jacobson, who over the years has held many leadership positions in the community including serving as president of the Jewish Community Center, Jewish Federation and Jewish Community Campus.
“We have found that they gain a much better understanding of the Jewish community during their internships. After they return to our community or their own community, almost all of them have gotten active in various Jewish organizations. So it’s really been a win-win for the community as well as the students,” he continued.
Jay Lewis, executive director of KU Hillel, said his organization sees benefits from both sides of the coin.
“For KU Hillel, the interns we have had over the past few years have helped us reach out to and engage hundreds of incoming freshmen each summer. For our students who work as interns across the Kansas City Jewish community, the internship is a fantastic professional and leadership development program that connects our best and brightest to the Jewish community,” Lewis said.
Gerson explained that the internships show these students how they can make a living in the Jewish community, as well as the role volunteers play. In the short-term, they also get to meet new people their own age and network with them when they meet weekly for a seminar.
The seminars are presented by a variety of professionals and lay leaders in the community. Gerson said the presenters often talk about how they first got involved in the community as young adults. As a mentor, Jacobson also offers to meet with the interns in smaller groups if they desire more insight into the community.
Up until this year, the main funder of the program was the Sam and Helen Kaplan Memorial Fund, which is directed by Jacobson. It will still fund a small portion of the program this year, but now the majority of funds come from the Daniel L. Brenner fund.
“Daniel Leon Brenner expressed his religious faith throughout his life in his devotion to education, justice and charitable service to others. This program combines all three of his passions, as well as his heartfelt belief in passing on these values to the next generation,” noted Barbara Unell, Daniel Brenner’s niece. “He would be honored to be among those supporting the important life lessons integrated in the experiences of the participants of the program,” she said.
A portion of the funding also comes from the institutions, which Jacobson thinks is important.
“If the organizations don’t have any stake in the program, then they aren’t going to appreciate it. So we pay for part of it and they pay for part,” he said.
Gerson believes the agencies benefit from the interns “fresh, new perspectives and their fantastic ideas.”
Jacobson pointed out that the interns are matched with positions that fit their interests. They are in charge of at least one project for the summer and have access to the executive director, board meetings and committee meetings to really get an insight into the inner workings of the institution.
Gerson and Jacobson believe the program has been a huge success. Of the 42 alumni, 12 work in the field of Jewish communal service or fulfill volunteer roles in their Jewish communities. From last year alone, two are in rabbinic school and one is pursuing a master’s degree in Jewish communal social work.