Finding Community

Reading the safety & inclusion, participation & involvement, and community sections of our text, I think I have a better understanding of these components and how vital they are to a student's success in college. A community is so much more than just having a place to hang out and people who think and act like you do. I understand even more so for the fact that the challenges a Jewish student would face in trying to find that sense of community I experienced as well. Whether it was making friends, enhancing my cultural experience, or just finding something to eat, the journey to find a sense of community takes the same path for many different types of students. Depending on what is being sought out to help build that sense of community, this journey can be more difficult for some than others. Caleb, as an involved and practicing Jewish student would, in my opinion, not be able to function properly without building a community for himself that reflected and supported his beliefs and practices and allowed him to congregate with others who feel the same. While I have never thought that BGSU would be an ideal place for Caleb to be, there are other students here that are searching for a similar experience. I think that amongst those students Caleb could find that community and help enhance the experience of his peers at the same time.

In my search for census information on Bowling Green, I found no information on a Jewish population in the Bowling Green area outside of college students for the most part. From what I have gathered, the Hillel seems to be the closest semblance of a Jewish community at BGSU. The facebook group had a membership count of 38. The national Hillel website reports an undergraduate Jewish student population of 200 and graduate student population of 100 at BGSU. The Hillel community at BGSU is described on the site as a "small and mighty" community, which is how they describe a small, emerging Jewish community on a college campus. I think this "small and mighty" description presents an optimistic approach to helping the students find the motivation and potential to expand into a stronger organization on the BGSU campus. However, obtaining information about the Jewish students that attend Caleb's institution was not as easy. BGSU Hillel's website is no longer active and the facebook group I found had not been updated in about two years (another facebook group has been established with more recent information; other than shabbat dinners there were no other events help by the Hillel and there was a Passover celebration recently). The information I found lets me know that while the Jewish community is small here, they find time to meet and support each other and to celebrate their culture. I think joining this tight-knit, committed community would be beneficial for Caleb's experience. This is a good place for Caleb to build on the safety & inclusion aspect of his community building. The better he gets to know the other students, the more likely he will be to participate in activities and take them up on offers to socialize and study.

While the aggregate is clear and present in this student population, the physical aspect is lacking. In the local are there are no places of worship. The nearest places of worship are in the Toledo/Sylvania area. The Bowling Green is majority Protestant, followed by Catholic and Lutheran. The lack of representation by the Jewish population is apparent in this case. For a student like my voice, that regularly attends temple, this would prove to be a challenge. It would be in a case like this where these students would need to depends on each other to get out of Bowling Green to attend temple since there is not any way out of here otherwise. Any events the students hold are done in the Union, which means that, unfortunately, it is only their space temporarily. In the case of the Hillel at BGSU, there is no physical component to complement the student group. This forces the student to be innovative in using the resources available to them on campus.

Finding community on a campus can be a great challenge but the reward is well worth the strife. Being a part of a small group of Jewish students and gradually expanding his circle will make it so Caleb is able to make real friends and not just acquaintances. The various hoops that the Jewish students have to overcome to provide themselves with a sense of community will only have to contribute to the closeness of the group and make the time they spend together truly gratifying.


Resources

http://www.hillel.org/HillelApps/JLOC/Campus.aspx?AgencyId=17236

http://www.bestplaces.net/city/Bowling_Green-Ohio.aspx