Eighteen-year-old Sophie Goodwin recently went to court for the first time.
She attended the trial of a woman trying to regain custody of her three kids in foster care. “It was really hard to watch,” Goodwin said. But it was all in a day’s work for this intern at Shalom Bayit, a nonprofit working to end domestic violence in the Bay Area.
Goodwin is one of 28 teens working as a Kohn intern this summer. In its 21st year, the Kohn program continues to match qualified college students with internships in Bay Area Jewish agencies, exposing many to their first professional job setting, and some to their first Jewish setting. Every Friday the teens meet as a group to discuss professional development skills, along with issues within the Jewish community.
“The Friday seminars allow all of the Kohn interns to expand their horizons and develop that Jewish sense of self, regardless of where each of them is in the spectrum of Jewish knowledge and identity,” said Mara Kassoff, director of the Kohn program and Jewish community programs manager at Jewish Vocational Service.
Another first for many interns is their placement at nonprofit agencies. Thanks to the Kohn program, administered by JVS and funded by the Jewish Community Endowment Fund, the nonprofit world has become accessible and exciting for these teens — and opened them up to a new potential career path.
“In terms of nonprofit, I didn’t really know what it was before I came to Shalom Bayit,” Goodwin said. Now it’s a likely career choice for her. “What Shalom Bayit’s really taught me is that, for my work, I want to be helping people.”
Goodwin works with three other women at the Oakland-based nonprofit, where she focuses on its youth program, Love Shouldn’t Hurt. The educational program explores building healthy relationships to fifth graders through college students. For her internship, Goodwin completed 40 hours of training to become a certified domestic violence counselor, which has “opened up a lot of opportunities,” she said.
Goodwin has always been interested in women’s and gender issues and plans to volunteer at a nearby domestic violence agency when she returns in the fall to Pitzer College in Claremont, Calif.
Like Goodwin, Ariel Toran has the “inside scoop” at his nonprofit, BlueStar PR, which produces visual media to rouse support for Israel and Judaism. “I could see myself working at a nonprofit. It’s measured in helping people more than dollar signs,” he said.
Toran is working on a number of projects for BlueStar, a new addition to the Kohn program. Executive Director Jonathan Carey said, “His presence has been critical here.”
“The last thing I want to do is be checking [Web sites] MySpace and Facebook the whole day. So it’s good that they’re giving me work that’s also interesting,” the New York University sophomore said.
Using a self-made “Styrofoam contraption” of mini posters, Toran polled college students to gauge the effectiveness of BlueStar’s pro-Israel images.
Though Gavriel Elkind has more than a three-person office at her nonprofit agency, JVS, she enjoys her work environment just as much: “I’ve never even really considered working at a nonprofit before this. It’s a pleasure coming to work every day, and this may be something I’d really like to pursue in the future.”
The Wesleyan sophomore’s main projects include helping develop a four-week professional training class aimed at low-income San Francisco residents. And she’s organizing a user-friendly, up-to-date disability resources manual.
Her supervisor, Emylene Aspilla, nonprofit sector manager, said Elkind’s energy is infectious and motivating: “She’s reminding me why this is all so important.”
As for her business casual dress code, Elkind said, “I miss wearing jeans, but there’s always the weekend for that.”
Other Kohn interns are: David Ben-Israel at Israel Center; Raphael Bivas at JIMENA; Evan Bloom at AIPAC; Joshua Bourne at the Holocaust Center of Northern California; Ilana Butrimovitz at the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation; Jessica Davis at JCF; Igor Grinberg at JVS, Johanna Gruen at Congregation Sherith Israel; Lauren Hoover-Gordon at the Jewish Community Endowment Fund; Sarah Koplowicz at the Bureau of Jewish Education, Brian Levenson at the Jewish Partisan Education Foundation; Rachel Levin-Epstein at Camp Tawonga; Amanda Ogus at j. the Jewish news weekly of Northern California; Akimi Palitz at the Jewish Community Federation of the Greater East Bay; Shoshana Pierce at Jewish Family and Children’s Services, Palo Alto; Shoshana Resnikoff at the Anti-Defamation League; Rachel Rosenberg at the Koret Foundation; Maya Rossin at the East Bay federation; Yelizaveta Ruzer at the ADL; Rachel Schlessinger at JFCS in San Francisco; Sheyna Sears-Roberts at the Jewish Home; Eliezer Sherman at the Jewish Community Relations Council; Yelena Shuster at j. the Jewish news weekly of Northern California; Elizabeth Stull at the New Israel Fund; Elyssa White at the Ritualist.