Discus Awards

Community Service

I have been volunteering for between two and 6 hours per week for the past four years, mostly in my Jewish Community. I have planted trees in Israel, made blankets for children's hospitals, been a teacher's assistant at my Temple, I have worked with several social action groups, especially food pantries, provided childcare for struggling families and tutored kids of all ages. One truly amazing experience was the Walk to End Genocide. I participated in both the Orange County and Los Angeles walks. It was mesmerizing marching with hundreds of other people of all ages in a hope to stop genocide throughout the world.

Faith

I have been a member of my Jewish community since I was five years old. After a hard time, I regained my Jewish community. I have attended and lead Shabbat services both for my entire community as well as for my youth group. I am a Hebrew teacher to a group of ten fourth grade students.

For two years, my sophomore and junior years of high school, I served as my youth group's Religious and Cultural Vice President. Well holding this position I had many duties. I created and Israel awareness among my peers; I planned festival celebrations, teaching the Jewish culture and history; and I worked with my youth group board in board meetings to decide how to get everyone involved and interested in our faith. This year I am thrilled to be the President of my youth group to continue this work!

Work

This past summer, I was ecstatic to learn that I was going to be given my own class of ten students to teach Hebrew to. After observing other classrooms, helping teachers, and planning my own small lessons for the past four years I knew that I was ready for this new challenge, a wonderful and meaningful opportunity. My job is to teach my ten fourth grade students the Hebrew letters and vowels and how to make words out of said letters and vowels, as well as teaching them the meanings of words and prayers in order to prepare them for their bar/bat mitzvah (the ritual of becoming a Jewish adult). I have learned about crowd control, classroom management, and the value of teaching first hand. This job has truly shown me that hard work can pay off. I am very grateful for this opportunity.