College Knowledge for the Jewish Student: 101 Tips

Preface

v Preface The first year of college is an exhilarating experience for Jewish students . It is a year when the rush of adrenaline alone is enough to carry a student forward on most days. Time moves in the extreme, as the excitement of much greater freedom and independence, stimulating courses, and new friends makes everything speed by. Most students arrive at college without having given thought to their personal and educational goals or how to best take advantage of the rich resources that their college offers. There is so much attention on the business of “getting into college” that too few students and their families take the time necessary to consider how to make the most of the college experience itself. It saddens me to hear students in their junior or senior years of college first begin to realize the opportunity that college holds for them and how they wished they had spent their first years differently. I hope this book will provide more students and their families with the resources and incentive to take the time prior to the start of college and during the first year of college to reflect on the college experience. Higher education has served as an intellectual and social haven for Jews. Even so, for each individual Jewish student who enters college, it is critical that he or she come intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually prepared for the academic and social experiences that await. College is a qualitatively different experience than high school, and students’ PREFACE vi expectations need to be set appropriately. The transition from high school to college is so significant that it can be difficult for most without some preparation. The most successful college students I have known have modeled the advice that follows in this book. I encourage Jewish students reading this book who will be entering college or who are already in their first year of college to carry these ideas with you to help insure that your transition goes well. Read the tips, digest them, and keep them close by for the many moments when you may need some direction and support. Then brace yourself for the ride of a lifetime—the first year of college. Every tip and vignette in this book has for me brought up memories of the many wonderful Jewish students I have taught and counseled throughout my career. Each tip and vignette reflects a composite of enlightening experiences and conversations with multiple Jewish students with whom I have worked. It has made the writing of this book very special in a way that is quite different from other books I have authored and edited. As I have written this book, I have made every attempt to consider the experiences at all types of post-secondary institutions. Given my scholarly work in the higher education field and my travels to small liberal arts colleges, large research universities, and everything inbetween , I am confident that the tips presented here apply across institutional types. However, because I have been a faculty member at the University of Michigan for many years, I recognize that I may necessarily be influenced a bit by college life at the large public research university and therefore advise the reader that, on occasion, some tips and vignettes may seem a closer fit for some settings than others. I feel so fortunate, particularly as a first-generation Jewish college student, to have had the schooling and subsequent scholarly profession that have allowed me to learn, study, and teach throughout my life. I have written and taught about Jewish identity, the American Jewish community, Jewish education, and relations between the American Preface vii Jewish community and other racial, religious, and ethnic groups. My University of Michigan sociology courses on Jewish Identity and the Sociology of the American Jewish Community have been among my favorites. I remain in touch with many of my students from those classes, including those who met their Jewish partner in class and subsequently married. All the while I have had the opportunity to put theory into practice, working directly with thousands of intellectually creative, dynamic, and caring college students. I have been in one or another teaching role since I led Junior Congregation services and tutored Bar/Bat Mitzvah students as a teenager in Philadelphia at Har Zion Temple where my father served for many years as executive director. For many summers I was a camper and then counselor...