College Guidance Office Program Offers Insight into Jewish Life on Campuses Across the Country

by Mendel Weintraub (’16)

On Wednesday night, the Junior and Senior classes were privileged to hear from 15 MTA alumni currently attending various colleges and universities across the country discussing Jewish life on their respective campuses. The program kicked off with Mr. Sragow, Director of College Guidance at MTA, introducing each student individually, and culminated with a huge Lion’s roar from the students and their parents. Mr. Sragow also discussed his own experience while visiting a number of the represented colleges and presented his take on the matter before the attendees split into four groups to hear first-hand accounts of Jewish life at the college of their choice. The event proved to be uniquely informative, as the MTA graduates who participated had just finished at least one semester on campus, and were able to provide up-to-date information. They were able to discuss what goes on in school a daily basis, and because they are MTA alumni, to share concerns with the students at the event. There were MTA alumni from schools such as YU, Princeton, Columbia, Cornell, Maryland, CUNY, and many more.

The second portion of the program consisted of Mr. Hart Levine, a graduate of the Ramaz School and The University of Pennsylvania, addressing the students about his organization, Heart2Heart. Heart2Heart is an organization bringing Shabbos to over 10,000 Jewish college students across the world. Mr. Levine still directs this organization now as an affiliate of the OU. He has won numerous awards for his work, including The Jewish Week’s “36 under 36” last year, he was a Community Heroes National Honoree, earned Penn Hillel’s award for Innovative Jewish Leadership, a NYC PresenTense Fellowship, and others. The program proved to be both informative and insightful in its presentation of the facts. Special thanks to all of the MTA graduates, Mr. Levine, and Mr. Sragow for making this event possible.