I saw a headline yesterday that according to some random survey, half of Americans believe 2021 was the worst year ever!
Without ignoring the vast number of challenges the past year has brought, I’ve got to say that this headline really bothered me. Yes, 2021 (like 2020 before it) was certainly not a walk in the park, but worst year ever?
Rather than dwell on the negatives which are plentiful and easy to find, our approach at JGSI (and mine personally) has always been to count our blessings and seize the moment with all of its opportunities. Since the pandemic began, we leveraged virtual engagement tools to nearly double our organization’s reach. And since our students returned to in-person classes in August, the massive demand for JGSI programs has brought us not our worst year ever—but our best!!
As we say goodbye to 2021 and hello to hopefully a much better year for everyone, I’m excited to share what you helped JGSI achieve over an incredible Fall Semester!
Some quick numbers since August 2021:
- 112 grad campuses (up from 67 just one year ago)
- 301 events
- 4,766 individual students
- 7,168 total attendance!
Some exciting highlights:
- We welcomed the following new campuses to our roster:
Chicago Kent Law | Cornell Law | Cornell Johnson | DePaul Law | Drexel Law | Duke Law | Emory Goizueta | FIU Law | Florida State Law | Georgetown McDonough | Michigan Ross | Northwestern Medicine | Ohio State Law | Ottawa Law | Penn State Law | St. John’s Law | Suffolk Law | Tulane Law | UGA Law | UIChicago Law | UIowa Law | Pitt Law | South Carolina Law | UW Law | Vanderbilt Law | Vanderbilt Owen | Wayne State Law | York University
- Our campus leaders started off the year with our Miller Partners Summit gathering 116 JGSI student presidents in Los Angeles (both in-person and virtually) for leadership and best practices training, bonding, entertainment and inspiration!
- From there, we helped these student leaders execute 221 Campus Events! Creativity award goes to NYU Stern for “My Big Fat Jewish Wedding,” a mock Jewish wedding belatedly celebrating five couples who got married during COVID, with 175 students in attendance! Honorable mention for creative programming also goes to UNLV Boyd Law ("Erev Shabbat Goat Yoga"), UVA Darden ("Rosh Hashanah Tailgate"), Columbia Business ("Night at the Jewish Museum") and Stanford GSB ("Interfaith Festival of Lights")!
- We made a huge push to host Shabbat and Jewish Holiday Events to make up for missed opportunities last year, and curated 123 Shabbat or Jewish Holiday themed events nationwide drawing 3,036 individual students! We also hosted large scale inter-campus Shabbats in six cities - LA, NY, Chicago, DC, Atlanta, and Philly.
- Our #Z48 online speaker series welcomed a total of 51 VIP speakers almost nightly including Scott Frisch (COO; AARP), Josh Kraft (President; Kraft Family Philanthropies), Nancy Laben (Chief Legal Officer; Booz Allen Hamilton), Leonard Schlesinger (HBS Professor, Former COO; L Brands), and Stacy Siegal (GC; American Eagle).
- During our recent annual #JGSICommunity #WeAreJGSI Crowdfunding Campaign, you helped us raise a record 127% of our original goal of $800,000! (check it out at charidy.com/JGSI) We are proudest of the 330 student and alumni donors who stepped up to pay it forward and spread the word.
- SAVE THE DATE - Don’t miss our annual Redstone Family JELCONs (Jewish Executive Leadership Conferences) this Spring 2022, showcasing executives in LA (1/31), Chicago (3/6), SF (3/27), and NY (4/10). Events will be held live or virtually, COVID permitting.
Fundraising Update - As of December 27, 2021, we have raised $1,057,955 (56%) towards our total 2021-22 goal of $1,900,000, fiscal year ending Aug. 31, 2022. If you haven’t yet contributed please consider JGSI in your year-end giving!! thejgsi.org/donate
So, worst year ever? No way. Yes, there are difficulties, but I love my life, I love my job, and I’m grateful to you for giving me the opportunity every day to serve the Jewish People through thick and thin. Best year ever, here we come.
Happy 2022 to you and your loved ones!
