Transcripts For KPIX Mosaic 20240714 : vimarsana.com

KPIX Mosaic July 14, 2024

Abatso the cone Summer Internship Program has been run by jv s for 34 years. And it is an opportunity for young jewish undergraduate College Students to have an internship in a jewish Nonprofit Organization in the bay area. Wonderful. How long has the Internship Program been functioning . For 34 years, weve been going, so this program has run every summer for the last 34 years and it has really changed a lot over time. In a moment, we will ask about her particular experience, but can you let us know how many interns are with you this summer and how many nonprofit jewish organizations participate and how the program is structured . Absolutely. The Program Allows for up to 30 different interns, and they can live all over the bay area from San Francisco and some from the east bay and south bay and marin county theygo t sign people who have grown up here. And this year, we have 27 interns. We are at 24 different Nonprofit Organizations. So mostly they are each at different individual organizations. We have organizations that promote jewish diversity, we have organizations that work on Domestic Violence within the Jewish Community, and how we run the program is that i organize the entire program and i match each in turn depending on interests with a different organization. So if someone is interested in learning about marketing, they could be placed in the Jewish Community federation and the marketing department. Direct service, someone might go to the Jewish Community center to do Something Like that. And we recruit the organizations through different processes, some of them have been with us for 15 years. The same organization comes back year after year. And others, i reach out to them and talk about what the internship does and they decide, yes, we host. Will say that is a hebrew word which means in every tongue or every language and that is a jewish nonprofit that works with the entire true diversity of the Jewish Community and it means peace in the home. So Many Organizations have hebrew names as the name of the organization. You are one of the 27 interns, where are you interning . I am interning at the jewish news of northern california, local based newspaper publication with articles and we report a different jewish is skus, issues. I grew up around berkeley and clayton. Where are you now in college . I go to Columbia University in the city of new york. You are at the jewish commnewspaper, are you a journalism major . I am an english and sociology major and i love writing. I was the youth poet laureate of oakland. Writing has been a passion of mine, and i think journalism is just one way that i can tell the story that i see of the world and i can talk about jewish people and all of the ways that we exist. What attracted you to even consider the Internship Program . I actually had a piece written a couple years ago when i school that they republished and it won an award, the press association reward and i was looking for a summer internship for the summer and i contacted the editor in chief and she said there is a great opportunity for me to work there and i should just go through the jv s internship. So i applied and got in and was placed. Will hit a quick break in just a moment, but your story reminds me that people come to this internship in many different ways, and here it was, one of the participating nonprofits actually identified her and then sent her to jv s. There were some new ways to find out about the program, sometimes to the rabbis or the halal which is the Jewish College organization and we reach out through many different avenues Something Like the j and they knew how amazing she was and they specifically talked to her and requested to have her as an intern. Join us in a moment when we returned to mosaic. [ music ] [ music ] good morning and welcome back to mosaic. We are in the middle of a wonderful conversation with jesse austin, the jv s Community Outreach coordination. In particular with the cone Summer Internship Program and one of the jvs interns. Welcome back. Thank you. Tova, you were talk about the work you do at the local jewish newspaper, what are you doing over there and can you let us know what youve learned and what you are doing . I absolutely love my internship. Everyone is so welcoming and kind, and ive been writing many articles about different issues that the Jewish Community is facing currently, different profiles of different famous jewish people in the community. Ive been able to interview wonderful rabbis and community innovators, and just getting to learn the ins and outs of being in a newspaper publication, specifically one that is jewish. And you are in english and sociology major at Columbia University. So im wondering what youve learned that may have surprised you are been different from having grown up in the Jewish Community and what you know from your literature background as well and the way you write as a previous or past youth poet laureate. I want to know with editing you brought with you, what sparked your interest . What may have surprised you . Is everything as you thought it would be . I think its been beautiful to see how storytelling is such an important factor in this country and how so many people have been telling stories of other people, specifically those in their own communities, and as a writer and someone who is a representative of literary arts in oakland, i was able to see how my people were living, and i wanted to write to that. And it is similar working at the j and being in new york. Im being observant and looking around the world specifically as it pertains to Jewish Community. I think this internship has allowed me to really hone in on what is important to me and how i want to stand up for the jewish people through my storytelling and working with others. That is so interesting. So we all have so many different stories and different narrative perspectives. I know it is a big question, but you are a poet, and i wonder how you understand the use of words to portray a way of being in the world. The way we see or the words we choose to think about the gold topics. Whatever those topics are. If you have anything youve learned from your work that tells you how to communicate that to a broad audience. I think language is one of my most powerful tools, and i learned with poetry how to express myself, but at the j, ive learned that there are different ways to express yourself. There is a journalistic voice and as someone has their own sense of who they are and how they want to communicate, you are learning in being in a journalism setting, how to do it in a more detailed way and a direct way in a way that is going to tell people immediately what is happening. There is a sense of urgency in the Jewish Community right now because of the antisemitism thats happening and all the discrimination, so you want to be aware that you can be flowery and beautiful and some of your other writing, but when it comes to journalism, specifically investigative and news reporting, you want to tell the people whats happening in the world right now. Rabbi eric weisss experience is so dynamic and so inspiring , and it is one experience. So im wondering if you could talk a little bit about how the other 26 or 27 total interns interact and come together through the course of a whole summer as part of the cone Internship Program. Absolutely. One of the really fantastic parts about the Summer Internship Program is that we use a cohort model. So the design is that monday through thursday, the go and they work in their internship sites and they get to learn marketing and development and writing in all of these skills, and then we all come together for our friday Seminar Series every friday through the eight week Internship Program. And we Work Together and we bonded together and we really develop a sense and feeling of community. And we learned about judaism and professional development, so they have an opportunity to learn about networking skills and work on the resume and learn about how to use linkedin and how to really become a professional. And we have amazing speakers from all over the bay area that come and, professors from colleges, and executive directors of organizations, and they all come in and they share and we learn about judaism and israel and all of the hot topics and issues that are impacting our community. Thank you so much, we will take a quick break in just a moment, but before we do, i know we will say goodbye to rabbi eric weiss and welcome another jv s intern. But in a sentence or two, can you make a comment about how you, yourself have learned from the cohort group . The cohort group has been a place where im safe to be my jewish self and i can grow in my jewish professionalism, and im able to expand and see the world through a jewish lens along with my other peers. Thank you so much. We will say goodbye to you and welcome another intern in just a moment and return in a moment with jesse on mosaic. Good morning and welcome back to mosaic. Im rabbi eric weiss. We are in the middle of a wonderful conversation with jesse austin, Jewish Community Outreach Coordinator and we are joined with a new summer intern, liana thompson. Welcome. Thank you. Lets jump in and ask you where you were placed the summer and what nonprofit and what youre doing . Im with shalom by which means peace in the home and it is a jewish antiDomestic Violence organization. And ive been the Youth Program intern, that means i am running workshops on healthy relationships for youth ages eight to college age. Youth program intern. So what kind of programs are you involved with . We have a program called love shouldnt hurt which is a Youth Education program, so we go into schools and summer camps and Jewish Community centers and we give this program where we are talking about teen dating and consent and healthy relationship and how to manifest this. And we give these presentations to folks of all ages. So thats what ive been doing with a couple other interns from the program. We are leading this. So weve done so far around 15 over the course of the summer. Where did the kids come from . A lot of them are in jewish programs, but a lot of them arent. We got into public high schools in San Francisco to do these programs. Weve also got the summer camps. Its been a super broad range and ive enjoyed that because i got to flex my educator skills over a wide variety of audiences and see where individually i can adjust myself in order to serve the people that im talking with. Where did you grow up in the broader bay area and where did you go to college . I grew up in berkeley and i just graduated from Bryn Mawr College which is outside of philadelphia. What a you to the Summer Program with jv s . One of my friends from my Jewish Youth Group growing up which is the jewish youth for i i was looking, since i just graduated, i was looking for something to fill the summer, and she said hey, you should check out this program, its really great, entered at an organization and i know you want to do this as your career and i checked it out and it was. It seems like the range of eligibility is someone going into college or the summer theyve graduated in all the years in between. As long as the only requirement is that you have done at least one year of college. You could be a senior or anything. I also wanted to note that i was also in the same youth group that she was in in the same year, jewish youth for community actions, thats a connection i share with liana which is an amazing Jewish Youth Group in the area. How long has that been in existence . I believe it is 23 years. 23 years ago, i was in the first year and then liana was in it. That is fantastic. And what are some of the things that you have learned there and as part of a cohort in the Broader Community . One thing i really appreciate is getting a sense of the broad layout of jewish nonprofits and jewish agencies in the bay area, as i stated before, this is a field i really have to go into, so its been really helpful to be able to see who is doing what and have actually real Networking Opportunities with the folks who are employing the interns, so i really appreciated learning a lot about that. And also through the internship, friday seminar is, weve been able to learn great and practical skills like how to set up a linkedin and how to communicate effectively and to public speaking. These are great things that no one has ever sat down and talk to me about, ive had to learn through trial and error but thats one of the thin tha gigo toe ally given k k nal career. D justa nu here on [ music ] welcome back to mosaic. Im rabbi eric weiss. We are in the middle of a wonderful conversation with jewish vocational services, the cohen Summer Internship Program, the average core nader and liana thompson, one of the interns. Welcome back. Thank you. Liana, lets continue with the convto know, so far i know the Summer Program isnt over, but what have you learned that you think you might actually take beyond the summer or internship and into your work life and life in general. One thing i really found very fruitful from the internship is a combination of my values of kind of a jewish basis to approaching service work, approaching Great Community change work and also serving women and girls. While they serve all people who are affected by Domestic Violence, that most practically means ive been interacting with a lot of young people mostly women and girls who are looking for support and asking for help and this is the kind of thing that i want to do in my career. I want to try to merge together my love of supporting women and girls in the world with my love of jewish culture, learning and changing the world from a jewish lens, we talk about repairing that is a jewish value that i believe i can use that with what ive learned this summer from working there. Im very excited about that. Theres so much conversation in the community at large, really the entire country about what is work, and some people make a decision because of who they are as individuals that work for them is primarily an economic device, and they utilize money and sense of values, elsewhere, people want to look for ways in which their work and other interests mash. Some people dont want that because of the way they live their lives, they like to keep those two things separate. So im just curious to know at the threshold of your work life, how do you think about that notion of economic viability and the longterm work that will enhance you and the ways in which you want to develop a skill set and to what degree it is important or not important on a personal level to articulate values in the workplace. Versus articulating your values in other places than work. How do you think about that . Thats a very real question. Going into nonprofits, i think a lot about this, because that is a Mission Driven type of work. And you are right, in some instances, the mission is not as important to the work that is done, but i know in the work i want to do, mission is essential, values are central, i want to work to make the world a better place, and i know the skills and contributions i can give and i know that i want to use those to be able to support and uplift people in my life, people in my community is, and so for me, the values of the work that im doing are very much tied to my personal values, and i dont think i would want to separate them even if i could. Idyou study . I was and it was major. English in the sense of English Literature . Yes. Basically i saw english as an i talking about social issues. I couldve done it through sociology and philosophy, i was a spanish minor, so i was looking at latin america, but english is the way i chose, so it was english. Im just curious to know, what do you see on the horizon about work . Do you think of work in the greater bay area or the country at large . Do you look to an urban setting, a rural setting, a suburban setting . And what does work look like for somebody of your generation, of your vision at the threshold of it . Absolutely. So i plan to move to washington dc in august, and i will start working at a law project that specializes in giving support to women who have experienced job loss due to pregnancy or parenting. So in my particular case, that looks like working in an urban setting in a law firm with similar values to what ive been kind of doing here in the bay area. I think as a greater whole, it is so, things are shifting. It is really important for us to be able to have a direction, because the way i see it, there are so many ways i can plug into my values through various nonprofit jobs, law jobs is plug in, so i look for y i can opportunities that fall in line. When communities look at how to repair the next generation for work, it takes a lot of vision and a lot of very practical decisionmaking. So lets talk about how it is that gbs makes this investment in our community and the youth of our community over all

© 2025 Vimarsana