My Nonprofit Reviews

When I first came to the University of Pittsburgh, my sister tried to get me involved with the Hillel JUC. My first experience at one of their events was a Shabbat dinner that she brought me to. I met a bunch of her friends at Hillel, and she introduced me to the staff there. The dinner seemed very nice, but after this experience, I admit that I was reluctant to be involved with Hillel. I thought that I would have too much work to concentrate on, and I also had a group of friends already, which I thought would occupy most of my free time. However, I continued to attend a few more events along with my sister, and quickly but surely, I realized how wrong my expectations were. I started attending more and more events offered that related to sports activities. One of the things that suprised me about Hillel was the vast variety of events and activities that they offered throughout the year. Towards the end of my first semester, I hadn't attended a ton of Hillel events, but I also realized that I had not volunteered in any way, which is something I try to do as often as I can. Because of this, I decided to come back to school after our winter break and try to become more involved with the social action committee. I met with the chair of the committee during the first week of the new semester and started attending their meetings. In this committee, I found a great group of people who had very genuine qualities about them and were fun to hang out with. The more events I started going to, the more I found how much I enjoyed being a part of Hillel, and I quickly began to make an entire new group of friends. Surely enough, I started playing a more crucial role in helping to plan events, and the Hillel JUC became an important part of my life at school. I am now the social action chair of the student board, and I do something related to Hillel at least once or twice a week. Some of the people I have met in the orginization have become some of my best friends here at school, including my girlfriend. One of the greatest lessons I have learned in life is that the best things happen to you when you are least expecting them to. This feeling could not be more true about my experience with the Hillel JUC.

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