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2007-2008 KESHER Leadership Council
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Samantha Dresser - Michigan State University
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Samantha Dresser is a senior at Michigan State University,
studying Psychology with a minor in Jewish Studies. She has been very
active in the MSU community as an employee of the MSU Student Foodbank for
the past three years. She has also been active in MSU’s Hillel:
holding past positions in Women’s, Religious programming and the
KESHER board. She has served as a KOACH intern for the Conservative
movement and a KESHER/ARZA Fellow for Reform Israel Advocacy. Samantha
has spent the past two summers working at the Kutz Campus for Reform
Jewish Teen Life first as a Resident Advisor, and then co-directing the
mentor component of the Mitzvah Corps Major. Additionally, as a fourth
grader, Samantha- dressed as Queen Esther won the costume contest at her
local Purim carnival.
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Chase Foster - Purdue University
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Chase is a junior at Purdue University
majoring in Psychology with a minor in Jewish Studies. He is currently
co-religious chair of Hillel and the House Manager of his chapter of
Alpha Epsilon Pi. He also teaches the 4th and 5th grade sunday school
class at Temple Israel in West
Lafayette, and also serves as their Youth Group
Advisor. He has worked the past four years at GUCI in Zionsville, IN
as a counselor, Migdal Specialist, and Avodah Unit Head. He has been a
participant on KESHER's Argentina
Ambassadors Trip and Hillel's Leading Up North Trip where he spent ten
days doing social action work for the Jewish Community in both locations.
He loves working with people, helping out the Jewish Community, and hopes
to attend graduate school when he finishes his undergraduate degree.
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Dan Garwood - McGill University
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Dan Garwood is a third year student (which is
what juniors are called in Canada)
at McGill University
in Montreal,
pursuing a Joint Honours Major in Jewish Studies and Philosophy. Contrary
to popular belief, Dan is not Canadian; he is from New York. He is also pretentious
enough to use a semicolon in a bio about himself. When he's not
correcting other people's grammar (actually, even when he is), Dan serves
on the executive of Kesher McGill, which he helped found, songleads
services, and sings in a classical choir and an a capella choir. Dan also
loves Ultimate Frisbee, tennis, and rock climbing, and he enjoys the
music of Bob Dylan, The Band, Guster, Dan Nichols, and many more. Dan's
Jewish journey has taken him from his home congregation in Mount Vernon, NY to
Eisner, Kutz, NFTY-NAR (he was regional RCVP in 2004-05), NFTY EIE
High School in Israel,
and Kesher McGill. He hopes to continue that journey by attending Hebrew Union College's
rabbinic program after completing his undergraduate degree.
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Mira Lyon - University of Toronto
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Mira is a fourth-year
student at the University
of Toronto, studying
Peace and Conflict Studies and also a Don (R.A) in residence. She is a proud
Canuck, with a consuming love of that tiny country on the other side of the
pond; she grew up partly on a kibbutz in the south of Israel, and spent
last year at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, wholly loving exploring every
centimetre of the country and interning at the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees. Mira donated her soul to the URJ long ago; she
was President of her local Temple Youth Group for two years, danceleader
and Social Action Vice-President of NFTY-NEL, and SAVP of NFTY in 2004-5.
She was co-chair of Tzedek Hillel at U of T, a founding member of the local
STAND chapter, works at the JCC after-school program with adorable
munchkins, and has been teaching Hebrew and Religious school to kiddies
since age 14. An alum of the Meitav Fellowship, EIE, Camp George
and Kutz Camp, Mira really just likes this stuff a whole lot. In her
"free" time, Mira enjoys playing with her foster siblings,
re-reading old favourite books, co-ordinating social justice activities,
speaking Hebrew, watching obscure movies, apparently slipping on banana
peels, and reducing her life to acronyms. Feel free to be in touch!
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mlyon@students.keshercollege.org
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Traci Stratford - Indiana University
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Traci
is junior at Indiana University-Bloomington majoring in Jewish Studies
and pursuing an area certificate in Nonprofit Management and minors in
Hebrew, History and International Studies. Having grown up in the Chicago area, she
was very active in her synagogue youth group and NFTY-CAR, serving as the
regional Communications Chair junior year and Regional President her
senior year. Traci has spent every summer since 1995 at Olin-Sang-Ruby
Union Institute (OSRUI) as a camper, avodahnick and a madricha (counselor).
At IU, she is an active member at Hillel, serving as a co-Reform
Religious Chair and Israelpalooza planning chair sophomore year and is
currently serving as a co-Over 21 Club Chair and liaison to KESHER. She
is an ARZA-KESHER fellow and had the opportunity to represent the
fellowship at the TaMaR delegation and World Union conference in Jerusalem in March,
2007. Traci is also very active with IU’s Dance Marathon
benefitting the Ryan White Infectious Disease Center at the Riley
Children’s Hospital in Indianapolis—the second largest
student run philanthropic organization in the country as well as her
sorority on campus, Phi Mu. When she is not in a meeting, at Hillel or
studying at the library… she enjoys painting, listening to Guster,
partaking in the IU social scene, reading Cosmo and Facebook stalking
(sad, but true).
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tstratford@students.keshercollege.org
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Jill Goldstein – New York University
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Jill Goldstein is a senior at New York University. She is studying
Broadcast Journalism, Jewish History, Cinema and Religion. Originally
from south Florida,
the cold hasn't gotten to her yet and she loves living in the Big Apple
on a dorm floor dedicated to creative writing in the City. A
previous co-President of Hillel at NYU (thru Dec. 2006), she has
also been the KESHER Intern and is basically a big Jew. She grew up at
URJ Camp Coleman (with a couple years at Kutz Camp in between) and has
worked there for 3 summers as a bunk counselor and unit educator. She
had the opportunity to work on the first KESHER Leadership Training
Seminar and write for RJ Magazine. She is dedicated to social
justice and spent Labor Day weekend of 2005 in the Houston Astrodome
volunteering with those affected by Katrina. Jill loves
coordinating community service and service learning activities as well
as fun leadership development. One day she hopes to make documentaries,
affect peoples lives, and perhaps make just enough money to buy a
cardboard box to live in and some pink paint (to paint the inside
pretty and pink just for her).
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