When Noa first started college she wanted to connect with the Jewish community on campus, but was not sure how. Now? Noa is one of our most involved students. A Child and Adolescent Development Major in her 3rd year at CSUN, Noa is a first-generation Israeli-American student from Los Angeles. Both her parents are from Israel, and Noa grew up speaking Hebrew and English fluently at home. When not at work or school, Noa enjoys hiking, being outside, baking and hanging out with her friends. At Hillel 818, Noa serves both as a Hillel Council student leader and our Mishelanu Kehillah (community) intern.
Noah credits her initial involvement in Hillel 818 to Ariella Melnikov, Hillel 818's previous Israel Fellow, whom she first met on campus at a Hillel tabling event! It was at tabling that Noa first learned about Mishelanu; for Noa, being able to be around other Hebrew speaking Jews and meeting other Jews on campus helped pull Noa into the Hillel 818 community and keeps her coming back.
Noa is motivated to give back to the Jewish community that has given so much to her. On the most basic level, Noa relies heavily on the support that the Jewish community has given her socially, culturally and in education. Staying connected to any community in college can be difficult, especially during a worldwide pandemic, and Noa believes that Hillel 818 and the Jewish community in the Valley have played a major role in helping her stay connected. Noa believes in the connection that Jews feel with one another, no matter their background. Additionally, Noa feels grateful for the material support that she has received from the Jewish community. The Jewish National Fund (JNF) provided Noa with financial support for her semester abroad to Israel in high school as well as the opportunity to attend the JNF Conference in Washington D.C. a couple years ago.
Noa is very excited for her opportunity to be on the Hillel Council. Not only is she excited for the leadership skills and professional development, Noa is looking forward to further developing her skills in project planning and development. Noa really appreciates the community that comes with the Council and is really looking forward to working with a group of people that are going to push each other to present their best selves in work and in life. As part of her time on the Council, Noa wants to create something that gives back and helps build the community that gave so much to her and being on the Council will give her all of the best tools and support to do just that. Her goal is to create a community for freshmen and transfer students to meet each other before school starts so that they might have the same community and support that helped Noa so much in her freshman year of college.