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Message: <br /><br /> If you are having trouble reading this email, you may view this article online at: http://www.jweekly.com/18241/full/18241/kohn-avodah-interns-gain-job-experience-in-jewish-setting/ <br /><br /> <b>Kohn, Avodah interns gain job experience in Jewish setting</b> <br /> Friday, August 9, 2002 | by <p>STEVEN NEUMAN </p> <br /><br /><p>The usual student spends summer break flipping burgers, folding clothes or pouring coffee.<br /><br /> But thanks to two longstanding internship programs in the Bay Area—the Kohn and Avodah internships—25 college students and 21 high school students are doing something more this year. The Kohn internship is in its 17th summer and the relatively newer Avodah internship program is in its third summer.<br /><br /> Rebecca Bassin, Jewish youth programming coordinator at Jewish Vocational Services in San Francisco, hand-picked the 46 interns from an applicant pool of about 75 students.<br /><br /> "It is incredibly difficult, and you're looking for a variety of things," she said.<br /><br /> "You're looking to create a diverse class. You're looking to couple skills with the right office, and also ensure that the people you select can handle being in a workplace most often without other interns."<br /><br /> The internship requires that one of the applicant's parents reside in the Bay Area and be Jewish, but previous affiliation with the Jewish community is not necessary.<br /><br /> Alison Shapiro, an Orinda resident entering her junior year at Brandeis University, has been working on the fledgling Jewish Multicultural Project in San Francisco.<br /><br /> The JMP works to develop curricula, which can be used in religious school and camp settings to educate students about diversity within the Jewish community.<br /><br /> "[The diversity within the group] made for interesting discussions and experiences because everyone was coming from different affiliations, different levels of religiousness and different homes. It de-homogenized the experience a lot," said Shapiro.<br /><br /> Interns also must be in the right age group to qualify. For the Avodah program interns must be juniors and seniors in high school; for the Kohn program interns must be at least entering their sophomore year in college.<br /><br /> Ariel Churnin, a sophomore at Dartmouth, has been working with Shalom Bayit, a Jewish organization devoted to helping abused Jewish women in the community.<br /><br /> Churnin works on its youth program, aimed at aiding teens in abusive relationships.<br /><br /> "I feel a little weird helping out teens [in abusive relationships.] I mean, I'm still a teen myself," she said.<br /><br /> Shalom Bayit was founded by Jewish women who felt "since abuse [occurs] in every group of society, why shouldn't there be support for abused women who are Jewish?" said Churnin.<br /><br /> "Now we've been around for 10 years, for nine of them the organization was in the houses of all these random women working in the organization, now we have an office."<br /><br /> Churnin completed several weeks of training in order to understand the nuances of dealing with abused individuals and just how to define abuse.<br /><br /> "It was very intense…You came out of the class and you looked at relationships differently," she said. "That's something I'll take with me my whole life."<br /><br /> Though the main focus of Churnin's work has been to add her own perspective to the teen program, she has also helped staff the hotline and direct calls in the office.<br /><br /> While Churnin has seen much of her work in the nitty-gritty of social work, some interns have found themselves in some very cosmopolitan organizations.<br /><br /> Avodah intern Monica Stein will be a senior in the fall at the Menlo School in Atherton. For the summer, Stein has been working at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival.<br /><br /> "I was never really interested in film," she said. "I always looked at it as you go to the movies, you watch a great film and you enjoy. I just didn't consider all the work that went into it."<br /><br /> Stein has stayed on with the program to help keep things running while the festival is in progress, even though the internship ended the last week of July.<br /><br /> "It was expected. I knew going into it that I would have to stay after the program ended," she said.<br /><br /> Stein was pleased to find herself easily integrating into the organizational framework. "I was taken seriously, just like any member of the team and that was really a surprise—that these adults were treating me so maturely."</p> <p> </p>

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