Hillel of Buffalo is thrilled to announce the hiring of Alexa Zappia as our Springboard Innovation Fellow. Alexa will be working full-time for Hillel, engaging with undergraduates and helping them to create innovative Jewish initiatives based on their academic and personal passions.
Alexa was selected for this position because of her passion for social entrepreneurship and for helping students to find their voices in the Jewish tradition. As an undergraduate at St. John Fisher College in Rochester, Alexa founded Rocks of Unity, an initiative that uses dialogue and art to teach, empower, and advocate through educational workshops and civic outreach.
Alexa encourages students to be proud of who they are, and to find joy in ways that we are each unique. Her passion for social justice is deeply rooted in her experience growing up in the Buffalo Jewish community, and we are grateful that she has chosen to pay it forward to Jewish students on campus.
Alexa is a recent graduate of St. John Fisher College, where she earned a degree in Inclusive Childhood Education with a Concentration in English Literature. She taught music at the Jewish Community Center – Gesher School in Rochester and served as a School Intern and Cantorial Assistant at Congregation Shir Shalom in Williamsville.
In addition to her role on the Hillel staff team, she will be part of the cohort of Springboard Fellows serving campuses across North America. The Springboard Fellowship is a Hillel International program to recruit innovative and talented young professionals, provide hands-on training and mentorship and deploy them to campus Hillels for two years.
The new position is funded in part through the Hillel Talent Grants program, designed to infuse all campus Hillels with the resources needed to recruit, train and retain talented professionals, as well as generous donations by the Beacon and Shapira Foundations and Mosaic United.
This year will be the first time ever that Hillel of Buffalo will have three full-time staff members. With Alexa on board, we will increase our capacity to engage more Jewish students on campus, in keeping with Hillel’s vision of inspiring every Jewish student to make an enduring commitment to Jewish life, learning and Israel.
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