I’m from Brooklyn, New York. When people today picture Brooklyn, they think of hipsters living in converted warehouses under the Williamsburg Bridge, craft breweries, and Michelin-star restaurants.

But the part of Brooklyn where I grew up hasn’t changed. It's called Mill Basin, and it looks exactly as it did 30 years ago. It isn't easily accessible by public transportation, so the hipsters haven't found it yet. It's got the same stores with the same people running them, even the same ice cream truck. Every summer, we take our California-bred kids to spend a week in Mill Basin, where we love sharing our nostalgia for this little area frozen in time; the scents, the sounds – the feeling of home.

Where is home? It’s a rare commodity in today’s fragmented and lonely world. The grad students we work with have usually left their hometowns, uprooted their lives and borrowed ungodly sums of money to pursue advanced education. Until they finally establish themselves years later, many of them describe their status as “floating” – i.e., without a true feeling of home.

JGSI has a lot of supporters who aren’t heavily involved in the Jewish community and often ask us, what is the value in supporting our organization? Why help Jewish grad students? Aren’t these adults who can take care of themselves?

The answer is that grad students are at a reflection point in their lives. Grad school is where they will make key decisions about how, and whether, being Jewish will matter to them in the future. What JGSI does is provide them with an outlet, a home, to comfortably explore their Jewish identity. Whether through Shabbats or holidays on campus, inspiring executive speakers, or leadership training, JGSI provides the portal through which grad students access Jewish culture and community.

Most importantly, it’s that moment when a grad student walks into one of our events and encounters the familiar foods, customs, and values and of their roots and upbringing alongside their Jewish peers. Instantly, they’re not just in grad school anymore – they’re home.

Back from Brooklyn, I and the rest of the JGSI team are giving our all toward building that Jewish home for the thousands of students at 125 grad campuses around North America relying on us. Please join me in welcoming our grad students back home to campus this semester!