Like many postgraduates, Craig Carroll wasn’t sure what to do with his life. He knew he wanted to incorporate community and he’d been active in Northwestern Hillel, where he went to college, but didn’t have a “dream job.”
“Every time you talk about what you want to do, you’re basically describing working at Hillel,” others told Carroll. “So I don’t know why you haven’t applied to that already.”
Carroll took his peers’ advice and joined American University Hillel in fall 2024 as a Springboard fellow, part of a two-year program for recent college graduates to invigorate Jewish student life on campuses across North America.
Originally from Westchester, New York, he lives in the Shaw neighborhood of Washington, D.C.
Tell me about your Jewish upbringing and background.
I was born and raised in New York and grew up in a pretty Jewish area outside New York City. I went to Hebrew school, did lots of Jewish holidays with my family and was bar mitzvahed. Throughout my life, Judaism was very much a constant. I didn’t think it was going to be a big part of my life in college. … I didn’t think I would actively choose to be engaged in Jewish community and Jewish practice. In college, I took Hebrew and I met a lot of Jews in my Hebrew class, and they became some of my closest friends in college. We started going to Hillel together all the time; Hillel very quickly became a big part of my life. I realized I wanted to live my life in a way that Judaism is central.
Have you always seen yourself working in the Jewish communal world?
It wasn’t a thing I had considered. I was so close to the [Hillel] staff at Northwestern, but I didn’t really start asking them how they ended up there until the end of the year. [Working in the Jewish communal world] wasn’t really on my list, and I very quickly realized it should have been.
What are your responsibilities as a Springboard fellow?
My main responsibility is student engagement. I reach out to students from all over the university: students we’re familiar with and students that we don’t see a lot, and I make an effort to get to know them, see what their interests are and make them feel welcome in the community, especially with younger students, with getting acclimated to AU. I supervise a few committees and [a team of 15] interns. I supervise our musical Jews committee and the student committee that plans our annual Holocaust Remembrance Week. I’m a facilitator for one of our Jewish learning fellowships; I just finished one of those yesterday about ancient wisdom for modern well-being, which was a really, really great experience.
What do you like about working with AU Hillel?
The No. 1 thing is the people. I love my team. I’m very lucky to be part of a team that is really motivated; we are very much on the same page about a lot of our goals. Our main goal is making as many students as possible feel welcomed and feel like they have a safe space at Hillel. The students are so amazing; they’re just as motivated as the staff. American is a politically active campus, so everybody is ambitious and focused on the real world and it’s an exciting environment to be part of. Our students are so kind and wise and funny, as well, so I love being around them.
What is it like working on a college campus as a recent college graduate?
I love being able to be a role model, but also somebody that they can relate to, because I’m pretty close in age to them. There’s a natural feeling that [students] can turn to me if they need to as somebody that they can see is on their level, but also someone to look up to and someone who can support them.
What has it been like adjusting to life in D.C.?
I love D.C. I’m so happy here; it’s a great city for young people and Jewish people. I found a lot of really strong Jewish community and connections. It’s also a really strong community for queer people. I was looking for an environment [where] I could meet other queer people after college and just be in an environment that feels comfortable and encouraging for gay people.
What’s next for you?
I really don’t know. I think what’s really valuable to me now is living in D.C., doing work that’s focused on relationship building, teaching people and being part of Hillel. Those are the three core things that I love about this current job, my current life. So I’m hoping to keep as many of those things as possible and we’ll see.
