Seventeen years ago, I lived in Athens, Ohio, with a total Jewish population of 200 people. Having moved from Southern Florida, this was a significant adjustment, and my parents wanted to supplement the lack of a large and vibrant Jewish community. So, we began attending services at our local Hillel, where my mother struck up a conversation with a college student, asking her about her Jewish experiences. This college student went on to talk about a Jewish camp in Morgantown, of all places. We all went home that night, logged onto the website, and the rest is (my camp) history.

In June 2007, I began my adventure at Emma Kaufmann Camp, and thankfully, it’s still happening. Eventually, our family and I moved back to South Florida, which, despite the distance, strengthened my love and desire to be at EKC. In the years following, I became a constant member of the pool staff, then the Pool supervisor, Teen Unit head, Boat Driver, Red truck Driver, Horse groomer, and anything I could check off my ‘I did it all’ list for EKC.I even drove Camp staff back from the Taylor Swift concert last June, so they could be at Camp for Opening day!

I will admit it was not a straight line to get to my new job at Camp. After earning my bachelor’s degree, I began working at a hotel and convention center in Dallas, Texas, called Deloitte University. I was thriving, enjoying work, loving Texas, and everything it had to offer. I started this job in September 2019, and my great time in Texas came to an eventual stop due to COVID-19. Like others, I moved back home to Florida, and decided to attend grad school for Hospitality Management and Real Estate Development. I thought this was it for my EKC career, I had a master’s degree. It was time to move onto bigger and better things (or so I thought “bigger and better”)

After graduation, I went back to EKC for one ‘final’ summer in 2022. After that summer, I got a job at a hotel in downtown Pittsburgh and began my life here in Pittsburgh. It became clear that this job was not what I wanted. Everybody always says your 20s are your time to figure out what you want to do, and I have really taken that to heart, but let’s be honest, I always knew I wanted to be at the JCC of Greater Pittsburgh at Emma Kaufmann Camp. Every step of my professional career I have tried to tie it back in some way to camp. Regardless of where I went, I was unable to capture that feeling of excitement that comes with a job at EKC. It was clear there was only one logical next step, and I am now the Director of Growth and Strategy at EKC.  It turned out that EKC was always the “bigger and better” that I had been looking for.

On December 8th, 2023, my first day in the EKC office, I woke up that morning not knowing what to expect but going through every possibility in my mind: where do I park? (I took the last possible spot on Darlington Road). Then, I walked into the Camp Office, and it was go time.

Entering the office, I was excited, and my excitement was matched by the EKC team. I came in, found my fancy new desk, and set my stuff down. Then with Aaron, Sarah, and Laura looking at me, all I could think was okay, let’s get started. Camp had arranged a lunch with everyone who works with children where I got to meet everyone I would be working with. Meeting everyone was awesome, but after 16 years of wanting to be someone who had a say in everything we did at camp, I wanted to get to work. I got my desk arranged in the first of many arrangements to date.

In my role as Director of Growth and Strategy at EKC, I am excited use my passion for Camp to help create a best-in-class program with SITs, creating the future staff for camp, and finding new ways to improve and foster connection with Israel and Judaism for our teens. My goal during my time here at EKC and the JCC is to help others feel the excitement and love I have for Camp. There really is nothing like it, I am now proudly a full-time member of the EKC and JCC of Greater Pittsburgh Team.

See you this summer!