For Ava Susser-Stein, Hillel is the college-age equivalent of Jewish summer camp.

The Washington, D.C., resident is the Springboard Fellow at Hillel at The George Washington University, a role she started in July. The fellowship is a two-year commitment for recent college graduates interested in bolstering campus Jewish life.

“What I love is that I’m creating a community for other people,” Susser-Stein said. “What’s significant about that is throughout all of my upbringing — going to Jewish day school and then summer camp for 10 years, then being in college in Hillel — other people were creating communities for me that, now, I get to create for other people.”

As the Springboard Fellow, Susser-Stein plans social programming, facilitates student engagement, runs GW Hillel’s website and social media and works in marketing for GW Hillel.

“I planned all of Welcome Week, which was a really big responsibility for someone who’s brand new, but it definitely threw me in and taught me how to do everything,” she said.

GW Hillel’s Welcome Week consisted of six events: coffee and donuts, bagels, a shaved ice truck, a paint-and-sip, a barbecue and Shabbat services and dinner, all between Aug. 24 and 28.

Susser-Stein also meets with students over coffee and helps them get involved and find their place within GW Hillel.

“I’m a very social person, so this [work] definitely fills my cup most days,” she said. “I feel productive and like I’m making a difference, which is what I wanted.”

The Jewish professional almost had a very different job.

“I really thought I was going to be jumping into the corporate world after college. I was so determined to do that,” Susser-Stein said.

Halfway through her undergraduate studies, she switched her major from theater to business.

“I was kind of lost in what I wanted and what I needed,” she explained. “But what I look back at now is the fact that I was at Hillel [on] day one of college. I ended up with different leadership positions and [was] part of the [Maryland Hillel] community every single semester of college.”

That opportunity for student leadership — including serving as Hillel’s president of first-year students as a freshman — set Susser-Stein up for her Springboard fellowship, she said.

“That’s helped me feel like this is where I’m supposed to be,” she said.

Growing up in the suburbs of Philadelphia, Susser-Stein’s Jewish identity took root at Perelman Jewish Day School. When she transitioned to public school after elementary school, her Jewish community stemmed from summers at NJY Camps, as a camper for seven years and later as a camp counselor.

“The way that Hillel is my life right now, camp was that for me for the longest time,” Susser-Stein said. “That’s also where I found a lot of my Jewish identity … [The Jewish community has] always been the community I go back to, which is so special.”

What’s her “why”?

“A big part of it is the community aspect,” she said. “When I was working at camp … I remember feeling like it was so cool that I could create activities and programs and experiences for these campers who were the same age that I was when I started [camp] in fourth or fifth grade. These are memories they’re gonna have their whole lives like I [have].”

Susser-Stein continued her involvement with the Jewish community at the University of Maryland.

“I had such a beautiful experience at Maryland Hillel, and I feel like a lot of that was because of the Hillel staff and the community they created for the students,” she said. “Now I get to do that for other people, which is pretty cool.”

While planning GW Hillel’s Welcome Week programming, Susser-Stein reflected on her own college days and what she enjoyed.

“A lot of the events that I attended or created, what was so special about them and what incentivized me to go sometimes was the social aspect,” she said. “This is an opportunity to meet people and hang out without any pressure of school or professional development, like [a time to] just be you, and I think people need that.”

She planned a paint-and-sip night — complete with sparkling apple cider — to give students an outlet to express themselves.

“The idea of it was to paint Judaica that we would hang up around Hillel,” Susser-Stein said. “What I found really cool was that people took their own experiences and it ended up in their artwork. Everyone knows what a Star of David looks like, but one person might paint it completely different from another.”

She tries to plan events that appeal to more than just one group of students.

“Obviously, paint night is going to appeal to a specific demographic of people who are artsy and who like to paint,” she said. “But I pushed that we were making Judaica, so some students showed up because they wanted to contribute.”

What matters is that people show up and have a good time in community.

“Something that’s always been so special to me is having Jewish friends,” Susser-Stein said. “I feel a very strong aspect of family when I’m with other people who are Jewish.”

She aims to continue building this “Jewish family” at GW Hillel over the next two years.

zbell@midatlanticmedia.com