What I learned building a Community
Cal Poly Pomona (CPP is not a university that is known for social life and community. For a large school with approximately 27,000 students, only about 10 percent of them live on or near campus. This makes it very difficult for strong social and cultural communities to develop.
Entering Cal Poly Pomona as a Jewish student, not only was I unsure how I wanted that part of myself to play during my college career, but I was unaware of the extremely small Jewish community that was present.
I began my journey with the Jewish community through the organization “Hillel.” Hillel is an international organization that seeks to build a strong Jewish community, as well as amplify the voices that are a part of it. Most chapters of Hillel have full time staff, a fully furnished space, as well as a large budget to help support a strong Jewish community. I can clearly remember walking in to a large classroom with only about 4-5 people. No staff, no resouces, just a few people and a goal of growing. This was the entirety of the Jewish community when I entered college.
I left this social event both excited and worried. I had never been extremely involved in a Jewish community growing up, and I found this to be an amazing opportunity to grow personally and learn. The event also left a weird feeling in me. If this is the regular showing of people, where’s the Jewish community?
I hadn’t gotten fully involved in this idea until my Sophomore year, where I had been invited to join the board of Hillel as Vice President. This allowed me to ask the question at heart for me; What is the best way to build a community?
Like I said before, CPP is not a social school, and that goes without saying that a Jewish community is not much different here. This presented a very difficult challenge when trying to find Jewish students and making them committed members. We tried numerous tactics, from tabling at club fairs and resource fairs on campus, to straight up asking people who looked Jewish if they were.
Hosting events was the bread and butter of any community, particularly a community that celebrates so many significant cultural holidays and events. We also made sure to diversify our types of events, since we had students along the entirety of the religious practice spectrum. From hosting bowling nights, to religious service events, we were able to engage students across the spectrum.
As the years went by, our numbers began to grow. We had about 10 students my freshman year, 20 my sophomore, 40 my junior year, and over 50 Jewish students by the time I graduated.
Looking back on my entire experience building up a Jewish community at CPP, I learned a few extremely important lessons that will serve me for years to come:
You can never do this alone
One of the biggest mistakes I made during my time was taking on a task by myself without working with others. I wanted to guarantee that the project could be done on time and up to my standards. This is an unsustainable pathway, and it is far more effective to delegate tasks and collaborate on assignments rather than take it “lone wolf” style.
Communication is key
The amount of times that dates were misaligned, tasks were miscommunicated, and meetings were unproductive is too many to count. Ensuring that all members are fully understanding of the communication expectations allowed myself, as well as the rest of the board, to succeed.
You can’t do this for the resume
You need to have the right reasons in order to successfully build community. Being on a board position within Hillel is always about putting in the work first and not expecting name recognition or external celebrations. You have to always be in this work to build a community and bring people together. I’ve seen friends get involved in the community for the wrong reasons, and it often leads to miscommunication, procrastination, and an overall lack of progress.
Building up a strong Jewish community will always be one of the most fulfilling things i’ve done at school, and it is easily the place that I have left my biggest mark as a student. I early await being able to return as an alumni years down the line and seeing how the Jewish community that started with 4 people at a predominately commuter school was able to blossom into something so much more than that.
