Cohort 19 officially reunited again in the usual spot at the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco. We kicked off our meeting by hearing from a variety of panelists that are all leaders in organizations working to help communities in the Bay Area and around the world. While some of our members were sadly absent, we still represented Diller well by asking good questions and engaging in interesting conversations with the panelists after they had finished presenting.
After hearing from those inspiring people, we exited the building and took a stroll around the Embarcadero to clear our minds and breathe in the fresh sea breeze. Along our walk, we happened upon a very pleasant surprise, Noosa Yogurt was having a give-away! We all helped ourselves to some deliciously creamy yogurt! After returning to 121 Steuart Street, we all shared our Impact project ideas, then split off into smaller groups to start planning. All of us began passionately conversing about feeding the homeless, better sexual and mental education for schools, helping hospitals, or pursuing environmental action. When it was finally time to end, we slowly regrouped and formed a circle to do a quick “word whip”. While some of us went home, others chose to go to the Ferry Building where we celebrated Vicki Maler’s birthday over dinner.
Chicken John's (yes, he really goes by chicken john)
eclectic warehouse in the heart of the mission,
was our humble abode for our final overnight! We all arrived at the warehouse
at around 9 and explored around the "Chez Poulet." We then did
Havdallah, and after had a Ma'agal Laila (led by the lovely Danit and Elana)
where we cut out things from magazines that reminded us of our cohort and our
trip to Israel and made collages. While cutting and pasting, we also talked
about our favorite memories from our trip!
After Ma'agal, some of us commenced
in a full-blown dance party. I can tell you our dance moves have really come a
long way... #thanksisraelis !!
Once the partay came to an end, we all got in
our PJs...some attempted to sleep (Levi), some stayed up the entire night
chatting (India) and others, held an SAT study sesh (Oksana and May'aan). In
the morning, chef Gavi cooked some bagels on the stove because the kitchen
lacked a toaster... they were perfectly golden brown -- thanks Gav! With
our stomachs full of yummy bagels and home-brought instant oatmeal (Gabi), we
had a workshop led my UpStart, a non-profit organization which "inspires
and advances innovative ideas that contribute to the continued growth and
vitality of Jewish life." We learned all about how we can jump-start our
own organizations and got a solid foundation and good inspiration for our own
impact projects.
After our 2 hour workshop, we ate some delicious pizza
and went on a walk through the mission to Mitchell's famous ice cream shop!
Their peach ice cream was a solid 10/10! Once we got back, we packaged a bunch
of bags with toiletries for "Lava Mae" and had an amazing presentation
by Hazel about her special experience in the West Bank.
The parents slowly
started to trickle in (my mom actually came 30 mins early--for those of you who
know my family, you know this was an extremely rare occurrence). After
Hazel's eye-opening presentation, we all got up and shared our experiences from
the ISS trip with photos to help picture exactly what we were describing. For the
grand finale, India made a super nostalgic slideshow with photos we submitted
to her from the trip--truly tear-jerking.
We then said "Lehitra'ot"
and all parted our separate ways! It was so good seeing everyone and can't wait for the next
workshop!
