Our Spring Semester Resolutions

Hey Everybody! It’s great to be back in Morningside Heights. I am very much looking forward to getting started with this spring semester and to keep filling you in on the journey of the class of 2015. There is so much in store for the semester; I am going to have much to blog about. I am especially looking forward to List College formal, the List College retreat, Columbia’s Bacchanal concert, the Columbia Varsity show, and much more. Keep checking back this semester for more frequent updates about happenings around campus, pictures, and interviews with members of the class of 2015.

Over break I spent some time coming up with my joint program resolutions. I have no regrets from the first semester, but now having a semester’s worth of experience, I think there is much more I can pledge to do this year. While I am generally unhappy with the idea of New Year’s resolutions, since most people break them by February anyway, I am going to make some. Hopefully readers of the blog can keep me on top of them!

 

Columbia/JTS Spring Semester Resolutions

 

1.Get More Sleep- Elementary Hebrew starts at 10:20 am so I probably shouldn’t have an excuse.

 

2. Talk to strangers- I know my mom told me not to when I was younger, but there are so many people at JTS and Columbia that I do not know yet. I am looking forward to meeting even more unique people at both schools.

 

3. Eat more vegetables- now that my MSRH kitchen is fully equipped it is time to take full advantage of it and cook more meals. Anyone have any recipe ideas?

 

4. Exercise- It may be joining the List College boys for their weekly football game, or heading over to Columbia’s three story gym with a friend, but I hope to find time to be active.

 

5. Get out of Morningside Heights sometimes- there is so much of New York city I still need to explore. Looking forward to taking advantage of living in the most vibrant city in the world.

 

6. Go to Campus Events- There is so much going on at Columbia and JTS after classes end for the day. I am taking the first step on this one and going to see Supreme Court Justice Stephen Bryer as part of a lecture series at JTS. Just one of the many amazing opportunities to meet famous people in NYC.

 

7. See a taping of the Daily Show- Ok, this one is a long shot, but it is my favorite televisions show, and other List College students got to go this semester. Can it be my turn?

 

8. Smile More and remember to enjoy every day

 

Also for more Columbia related New Years Resolutions, check out our favorite Bloggers at Columbia’s, the Blue and White Blog. Their team posts regularly about all the happenings at Columbia. Check it out!

 

http://bwog.com/2012/01/01/bwogs-hopes-and-dreams-for-twenty-twelve/

 

jts

Starting Strong this Spring!

New York, New York

The City That Never Sleeps

Being a student in NYC is really amazing. Besides all of the activities, speakers, and events offered by JTS, Barnard, and Columbia there is an endless amount of things to do all over the city. Here are some things List College first years have been up to around NYC:

Comedy Shows: Many students have gotten to see sketch and improve comedy shows all around the city. I loved the show I saw at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre that included some of the funniest long-form improv comedy I have ever seen. For comedy lovers there are a few groups on Columbia’s campus that put on very funny shows as well.

Free Museums: Being Columbia and JTS students we have the privilege of free admission to many museums all around the city. I have gotten to tour the Museum of Modern Art and am looking forward to seeing the MET the Jewish History Museum and many others.

Parks: two beautiful parks border The Upper West Side and MSRH is only ten blocks from Central Park. The parks are such beautiful places to take walks, do homework, play sports, and have picnics. My roommate and I love playing frisbee on Columbia’s campus and in the parks.

Time Square: Want to spend time in the heart of the city that never sleeps? JTS/Columbia is only a fifteen-minute subway ride from Time Square. Take pictures, go shopping, and even listen to the street performers. Students also have the opportunity to purchase discounted student rush tickets to some of the best Broadway shows.

Special Events: This weekend NYC hosted the New York marathon. Ben Bromber-Gaber, a List College First Year ran in the marathon. Everyone stood on the sideline waiting for him to come by and cheer him on. There are so many events that happen in NYC, sometimes you only find out about them a few hours before but when you get to see something unique happening it can be a special moment.

Shul Hopping on Simchat Torah

Imagine hundreds of Jews singing and dancing with torahs on this plaza in the center of Columbia Campus. A night to remember!!

List College students have a special tradition of “Shul-hopping” on the night of Simchat Torah. List college freshman explored the many Simchat Torah celebrations on the Upper West Side including those at Temple Binei Jesherun, The Carelbach synagogue, Chabad, Hillel, and JTS among others. There was much dancing and singing all around the city with first years traveling the city together. Simchat Torah is also a popular time for people to invite friends to visit them and experience the holiday in NYC. The celebration at Hillel included hundreds of Jewish students dancing and celebrating in the Columbia student building, Alfred Learner Hall. For the final Hakafah (procession), all students danced with the Torahs to the center of Columbia campus to celebrate and wave Israeli flags. Many Columbia students stopped to watch and even join in with the festivities. After the celebration everyone dance over to the Hillel building, called the Kraft center, to hear the very end of the torah. After shul-hopping List College first years came back to MSRH for snacks in the music room. Most of us were very tired from all the fun of the night!
On Friday morning, services (and obviously more dancing) took place at Hillel and JTS. At the JTS service, one of the Jewish Life Directors of the MSRH building, Ravid Tilles was given the honor of Chatan Torah. Many List College first years went to the service to show him support during his honor. Many first years went to Hillel for a special lunch organized in honor of Simchat Torah.

What is your favorite part of Sukkot/Simchat Torah at List College? Or if you are not a student here yet, what sounds most exciting? Post in a comment below!

Sukkot at JTS!

Art in the JTS Sukkah

With Sukkot and Simchat Torah come community gatherings, special events, and a lot of singing and dancing. List College first years had a blast exploring all JTS, Columbia, and New York City had to offer during these two unique holidays.

Sukkot is one of the busiest holidays at JTS. List College first years spent time eating, studying, and plain dwelling in three sukkot at JTS, the MSRH residence hall Sukkah, the Hillel building Sukkah, the Barnard Sukkah, and many others throughout the city. JTS famously hosts community Sukkot meals on the first and second nights of the holiday. This is an opportunity for the entire community to get together and observe the holiday. The food was amazing and it is really easy to feel at home when people having a great time surround you. During Kol Hamoed all students enjoyed eating outside in the Sukkot including a special List 101 lunch in the Sukkah. List College Student Council (LCSC) hosted a cookie decorating study break in the MSRH sukkah. Hillel hosted a unique “Sukkot flash mob” event, which ended in a pizza party. JTS participated in an interfaith “Justice in the Sukkah” where members of various faith communities on the Upper West Side gathered together in the JTS sukkah to discuss food justice and study sacred texts. MSRH residents hosted special dinners in the Sukkot and had a great opportunity to spend time with friends. Oh, and classes were cancelled so students had time to fully observe the holiday.

List 101 Helps Students Explore New York City, Jewish Identity, and JTS Cookies

The Reason Freshman Sprint to List 101 Each Week

It is so nice to be around JTS during the holiday time. The JTS Sukkot are up everyone is still talking about the high holidays and looking ahead to Simchat Torah. For List College First Years this means midterms are coming, lots of schoolwork, and much going on all over the city. This week has been especially nice because of the weather. High of 86 degrees in mid October? It feels like summer. With LC first year’s being so busy with school and everything JTS, Columbia, and the city has to offer, one of the favorite parts of my week is my List 101 class.

List 101, the seminar for all first year students is a great opportunity to spend time with other members of the freshman class. Every Tuesday all Joint Program and Double Degree students come together for discussion, activities, and food. List 101 is taught by Ruth Decalo, the Director of Student Life, Dean Rebecca Grabiner, Associate Dean of List College, and four amazing List 101 interns who are students from a variety of grades and backgrounds within the programs. The interns spend a great deal of time organizing each List 101 session and have tried to make each class engaging and interesting.

Each session of List 101 brings something new. In our first week we learned about getting around NYC and split up for NYC trivia. We spent two weeks discussing Jewish identity, and had the opportunity to hear from List College Dean, Dean Schwartz discuss the many flavors and identities of American Jews. We have spent time in each session getting to know the members of our class better and finding out what we have in common with each other.

Last week, as part of List 101 the freshman class elected its class president. Two students gave compelling speeches, really showing their love and commitment for the freshman class. I think I saw the candidates shaking hands and kissing babies the entire week before. When the final votes were tallied and all of the hanging chads were counted, List College Student Council President, Hannah Goodman announced that the elected freshman class president was Batya Franklin! We look forward to working with Batya and know that she will represent our class well this year!

Oh, one more thing I forgot to mention about List 101… we get free lunch! The List 101 interns especially enjoy picking the meals that we get every Tuesday, and we have been treated to some great meals including pasta, grilled cheese, specialty pizza, and more. A highlight for me so far was watching one of our guest speakers, Resident Director Eric Woodward throw grilled cheese sandwiches at every student who walked into the class late as he was speaking. Never a dull moment. The most important, and arguably most delicious part of the List 101 meal is the world famous JTS cookies. Honestly, my literary skills are not advanced enough to describe these cookies in a mere blog post. Guess you will need to get one in the JTS dinning hall to understand the obsession. The week there were no cookies was a very tense moment for all List 101 participants and Ruth Decalo has promised students that this would not happen again ☺.

Throughout the rest of the semester we will discuss many more issues, have lunch with the deans of all three colleges (JTS, Barnard, Columbia), speak about time management, pluralism and theology, and much more. While everyone is running in a million directions all week, it is really special to get to have List 101 as a full freshman class each week. I hope Tuesday lunches next semester will still include cookies. Maybe that should be your first action as freshman president Batya?

Having JelLo with Hillel

Great first weekend with List College

Being a List College student comes with the great benefit of being part of an amazing Columbia/Barnard/JTS Hillel. Last Friday, Hillel invited all of the LC first years to partake in their annual Jewish Life Orientation, more commonly referred to as JelLo (or when tweeting it #JelLo). All weekend we had a blast meeting fellow Jewish students and participating in a variety of programs. The weekend started off with a free bagel brunch and coffee. The Hillel board and special JelLo leaders were very welcoming and made everyone feel at home. Later in the day a special session was hosted for transfer students who had spent a gap year or studied in yeshiva. All day Hillel gave out slushy cups with reusable straws. It appeared they were trying to base their weekend off the hit television show glee, but no one was sporadically braking out in song, so it was a bit confusing.

As our first Shabbat as List College students approached, everyone was very excited. Many rooms made last minute trips to the supermarket to buy food for Shabbat. Some MSRH residence even showered for the first time all week. Shabbat is a special time for List College students because everyone has the opportunity to observe the holiday in their own way. Many LC freshmen went to Hillel and could be seen praying at the Kesher, Koach, and Yavneh minyans, all affiliated with different movements (reform, conservative, and orthodox respectively). After services everyone headed over to the Diana Center on Barnard’s campus for a communal Shabbat dinner. Hillel reported that over 300 people were in attendance. Each table at the dinner had a centerpiece with a unique word on it. We were all asked to sit at the table of something that filled us with “glee” (get it). This gave us the opportunity to meet new people who had similar interests. Hillel hosted an A capella concert which included two Jewish groups on campus. It was fun to see familiar List College faces in the two groups. The night ended with a dessert reception for everyone to enjoy. Have you noticed that the first week of college includes a lot of free food!

Saturday morning many LC first years had their first experience with services at Hillel. I attended the Koach service and enjoyed davening with a community of my peers. That evening Hillel hosted a Times Square scavenger hunt where participants were split into groups and spent the evening photographing themselves in front of Times Square’s biggest landmarks. My team came in sixth place, which is probably not something I should be bragging about, but I did have a great time downtown.

Hillel’s JelLo program ended with the Hillel activities fair. Representatives from Hillel’s forty groups, organizations, and clubs spoke to new and returning students about how to get more involved this year. Hillel’s president made slushies for everyone really putting the cups we got at the beginning of the weekend to good use.

New York City has so many resources to learn about Judaism and to be a part of a Jewish community. Hillel is just one of the many ways that List College freshman get to experience a pluralistic environment to study, engage, laugh, and eat with likeminded people. I enjoyed JelLo weekend, and I have heard from many first year’s that they hope to get involved in Hillel in the coming weeks.

Anything you want to know about the List College freshman experience? Comment on this post, and we will try to write about it ASAP!

Thanks Hillel Lehmann for Having Us!!!

The NSOP Rundown!

List College First Year Students on Governor's Island

It has been a really exciting and busy first week of classes for List College first years! I know you are probably really excited to hear about our week, and you will on Monday. But lets get you caught up on the rest of the New Student Orientation Program in ludicrous speed!

From the Top of the Rock

Monday: LC first years met with Columbia School of General Studies administrators, Dean Awn, Dean Halvorson, and some of their academic advisors. Here we learned about the General Studies core classes and how to thrive at Columbia and fill our requirements. Dean Awn was sporting flip-flops and rainbow socks, and without trying convinced most of us to take his class on Islam. We had dinner with our amazing Jewish Life Directors Ravid and Yaffa Tiles and spoke about Kashrut and Shabbat at MSRH. It is nice to be apart of a Jewish community where all members are free to observe in a variety of ways. The falafel they gave us was also superb!! At night we went as a group to the top of the Rockefeller Center building and saw the breath-taking view.

Tuesday: We found ourselves in the Columbia Center for Career Education eating pizza and learning about the resources and networks Columbia provides for finding internships and jobs while in college and after graduation. I was also informed that blogging for JTS will not make me any money, so I may have to visit the career center soon. Tuesday night we enjoyed our favorite NSOP meal, (please don’t say pizza) PIZZA, and participated in Columbia GS speed meeting. We met many new students in our three-minute heart-to-hearts and enjoyed hearing such unique stories from the members of GS. While a night of meeting ballerinas, entrepreneurs, high school drop outs, moms, and soldiers can be very overwhelming, it was really a privilege to meet incredibly intelligent people who have worked so hard to come and receive a Columbia education. It will truly be an honor to study with them over the next four years.

Orli Matlow and I in a more serious moment at NSOP

Wednesday: Wednesday morning began with an interschool breakfast with Chancellor Eisen and the entire JTS community. Getting to meet first years in all of the JTS programs was truly unique. Chancellor Eisen made sure to include his famous anecdote, comparing the JTS experience to the walk between Columbia University and JTS. We LC freshman are learning this walk well. After a student services fair and some relaxing time on Columbia’s sunny campus we enjoyed our List College welcome dinner hosted by Deans Grabiner, Hammerman, and Schwartz. The JTS Provost Dr. Alan Cooper spoke to us about the pleasure it is to be apart of the JTS community. Dean Schwartz ended the night thoroughly embarrassing us individually by highlighting some of the unique activities and accomplishments we listed on our college application. The night was full of laughs and pride for List College. We ended the night on the Low steps with the Columbia University’s community forum. We learned about the history of CU, and had a glow stick dance party on the Low steps. LC students were complimented on their crazy dance moves and got to meet students from all of the Columbia schools.

Alison and Ariela on Water Taxi to the Island! Cool!!

Thursday: Today was our last official day of NSOP sessions. We met with the chief of security at JTS and participated in Columbia’s Consent 101 program. After an hour of awkward laughing and conversation we did come out with a little bit more knowledge than we started with. NSOP ended with the NYC Event on Governor’s Island. All CU students took water taxis to Governor’s Island and spent the night dancing, playing beach volleyball, and making new friends.

More about Shabbat and the first week of class coming up!

LC first years: remember to check out the activities fair on college walk today from 11am: 4pm. I was so amazed to see how many clubs JTS students were involved in. I gave my email out to many many clubs, and expect to spend a good amount of time next week unsubscribing from many club listserves.

Shabbat Shalom!!

Class of 2015 Takes List College by Storm

Brightest minds of LC '15 enjoying NSOP week

As I mentioned in the last post, I am going to try to post all week to get you up to speed on move-in, and the entirety of the last week. NSOP week was packed with so many activities and sessions that it may take a few days to put up all of the posts and pictures. So get in your time machine and join me on a trip to last Friday:

With Hurricane Irene looming from the south, most LC freshman moved belongings into their rooms. With the help of pink-shirted orientation leaders and one of the slowest elevators in Manhattan, first years started to unpack their rooms and put some finishing touches on their new homes. Many parents and guardians were seen making their child’s bed and forcing them to pose for pictures everywhere around campus. Among the parade of stuff that entered MSRH on Friday, two soda makers, a few bed bug covers, and a fire extinguisher could be seen. It is good to know that we will be kept safe in the event of any residence hall emergencies, and if not, that we will have seltzer.

Most freshmen returned home for the weekend or stayed with family who would be in the city through the weekend. A small group of incredible “super freshmen” (full disclosure: I was one of them) bared the storm at MSRH and enjoyed meeting a small portion of the JTS community, attending Shabbat meals and services, and beginning to explore their new neighborhood. All residents were given emergency glow sticks over the weekend in case there was a loss of power. Electricity did stay on, but that did not stop the glow- stick- filled techno dance party from commencing.

On Monday, as Upper Manhattan observed the wrath of Irene in the form of puddles and small fallen tree branches, the entirety of the List College Freshman class moved into MSRH. The students were greeted by their RA’s and orientation leaders and began the weeklong process of meeting, ice breaking, and schmoozing with their new classmates. Parents were sent to JTS for a special session, probably about what to do with their student’s rooms at home now that they have left for college. I am not sure though, since the details of the meeting have not been disclosed.

As both sessions concluded, parents had the opportunity to say goodbye, give long hugs, take more pictures, and begin to give a list of endless reminders including wearing a coat, eating a good breakfast and vegetables, and to call or text home everyday. Next, the freshmen listened to panels of older students discuss their experiences at JTS and in New York City. With much excitement building up for orientation, all first- years filed into the MSRH music room for a pizza lunch!

It did not take long for us to realize that we are part of a very unique program. The quality of the students and faculty alike was so obvious on our first day. Monday morning was clearly a sign of great things to come. And as the List College Dean, Dean Schwartz would say later in the week, LC first- years will always remember the hurricane they had to endure to get to this incredible school.

Meet the Blogger/ Getting Ready for First Day of Classes

Picture from the roof of the Rockefeller Center. So exciting to be living here!!

Before we get this show on the road, I thought I would take the inaugural post to introduce myself and let you know what to expect from the List College First Year Experience Blog this semester. Hopefully you will subscribe to the blog on the right side of the screen to get these whimsical updates in your inbox each and every week.

My name is Tyler Dratch, and I will be giving you a unique insider view of the experience of first year students at List College. I come from Bucks County, Pennsylvania and am thrilled to be living at the Mathilde Schechter Residence Hall (MSRH). I hope to study Political Science at Columbia University and am still undecided regarding my JTS major (there are just so many great ones)! I have two siblings, including a twin brother who is starting college in Boston this year. In my free time I love to read, bike, blog, and spend time with friends.

Over the next few days I will be posting as often as possible trying to catch you up on the amazing NSOP (New Student Orientation Program) that we have had all week. After that the blog will give you weekly insights into studying at JTS and Columbia University, participating in clubs, activities, student groups on campus, and living in one of the most active and vibrant cities in the world. If you ever have any comments, questions, or suggestions for the blog, feel free to post them below or to email me directly at tydratch@jtsa.edu. Looking forward to hearing from you.

Classes start tomorrow for all first year students! Everyone is getting their books and supplies ready, “first day outfits” picked out, and preparing for a good night sleep before classes begin. First year students will also enjoying a cupcake break with student life around lunchtime. I hear they are also giving out apples. I wonder which will go faster? Or, here is a nice compromise ☺

By the way: I tend to include very random and/or witty links in all of my blog posts. If you are looking to read this blog on a whole new level, start clicking away. If you are not into humor, that’s cool too. Enjoy the read!