Growing up in Orlando, Florida, Kate Hartman didn’t realize that there were Jewish professional jobs outside of synagogue life.
“I knew that people were rabbis and cantors,” the Arlington resident said. “But beyond that, I didn’t know that you could be what I’m doing right now.”
Hartman is in her second year of a Springboard fellowship at George Mason University Hillel. It’s a two-year program that connects graduating college seniors or recent graduates with a Hillel to invigorate Jewish campus life.
This work is not exactly what Hartman had in mind — she went to Rollins College in Florida for media and cultural studies. Her involvement with Hillel in college changed that. During her junior and senior years, Hartman served as president of Rollins Hillel.
“Being able to create community for my peers in college was so meaningful,” she said.
The Jewish community, however, wasn’t a large one. Of the 2,500 undergraduate students, only about 250 were Jewish. “It was a very small community, but [I felt] like I knew everyone who was Jewish on campus,” Hartman said.
“And because I was president, people knew me — they knew they could come to me if they had an idea for something fun we could do, or if they had a problem. I just found that incredibly meaningful,” Hartman said. “When I found Springboard, an opportunity that I could continue to do that, I just felt like it was what I needed to do.”
Many of her responsibilities involve student engagement: lots of programming, event planning, conducting one-on-one meetings, leading Jewish learning fellowships and other initiatives and managing Hillel’s internship program.
“Just interacting with the students is the best part of my day, whether it’s [through] a program or just stopping by [our] lounge space to say hi,” Hartman said.
It helps that Hartman is a recent college graduate herself.
“Sometimes they’re surprised when I know their slang or their internet humor,” she laughed. “But I think that’s what’s so special about Springboard, is that we are the people that are closest in age to students, so sometimes, I think that makes them want to come to us for specific advice.”
If a student is going through a difficult time, “they know that [Springboard fellows] were just in college, just as they are, and not much has changed in the past couple years,” Hartman said.
She credits her listening skills as one of her best assets in the role.
“Whether you’re ready for it or not, students are going to come in and [talk about their issues],” Hartman said. “When you’re in college, a lot of stuff happens with your friend group, and you’re really navigating the real world for the first time, so I think that’s definitely a great skill to have.”
A Springboard fellow should also have a strong sense of Jewish pride, according to Hartman, who was raised in the Reform movement and attended Hebrew school twice a week.
“That’s what the college students need to see, especially in the last couple of years,” she said. “I think just being an adult who lives their life Jewishly is super important, especially to my students.”
Hartman also reminds herself not to take herself too seriously. “I will tell people [Hillel] is kind of like summer camp, but for adults,” she said, citing arts and crafts and movie nights as examples of typical activities. “There’s a lot of aspects of this job that are not that serious, and being able to buy in is super important.”
The job is more than organizing pizza parties and spa nights — Hartman also leads Jewish learning fellowships and other educational opportunities as part of her role.
She brings experience as a teaching assistant for an undergraduate course on the Holocaust. “That was definitely something that made me want to try teaching the courses through Hillel,” Hartman said of her college TA position.
Hartman said she gained inspiration from the Hillel staff at Rollins. “I saw three different people work at my Hillel during my four years of college,” she said. “They’re all women, which is very inspiring.”
The dean of religious life was a female reverend, and the director of the Jewish studies program — where Hartman minored — is also a woman.
“I felt like there was a lot of strong Jewish women when I was in college,” she said.
Entering her final semester as a Springboard fellow, Hartman looks forward to leading her third cohort of the Jewish Learning Fellowship and celebrating Passover with the Mason Hillel community.
“I’m looking forward to seeing another class of students graduate in May,” Hartman said.
As for Hartman? She hopes to continue this career trajectory with another Jewish nonprofit organization after the spring.
