YU grooms future leaders

(NEW YORK, New York – January 2, 2013) Yeshiva University’s Center for the Jewish Future announced today that it will be sending 91 outstanding undergraduate students on service learning, experiential education, and humanitarian aid missions across three continents during the University’s upcoming winter intersession.

From January 10-20, the student leaders will take part in an array of hands-on community building projects in Israel, the United States, Nicaragua, and Mexico while developing their own leadership, teaching, and advocacy skills.

“It is exciting to see that true partnerships are developing between Yeshiva University and communities around the world. As much as it is important to us that our students take part in these missions to expand their world views and hone their leadership skills, Jewish communities anxiously await our annual winter visits, seeing them as opportunities to involve our students in their supplemental education programming and Jewish identity and community building projects,” said Rabbi Kenneth Brander, the David Mitzner Dean of the CJF.

In Nicaragua, another 16 participants will volunteer with Servicios Médicos Comunales (SMC), an NGO that promotes community-based sustainable development in the southwestern district of San Juan del Sur. An outgrowth of SMC’s educational programming, the students will assist with the construction of a public library, a project started by previous CJF winter mission participants.