"I was raised Jewish in an interfaith household, and I didn’t grow up in a particularly Jewish community but I think that through my dad’s religious Catholic experience, I learned a lot. I went to Georgetown University my freshman year and while it had a really small Jewish population, it was a school that had a huge reverence for and respect for religion, and I think the combination of those two things yielded me getting fielded a lot of questions I realized I didn’t know yet how to answer about my Judaism. So I started my learning freshman year and got close to the rabbi. When I ultimately transferred to Brown sophomore year I was confronted with the first really rich Jewish community that I’ve seen with people who have strong Jewish upbringings and different upbringings and practices than I had. I think what I started to ask and feel freshman year really prompted me to jump right in here. I got close to staff member Sara Miller and she helped me start leading reform services and not feel any longer like I didn’t know enough and I realized that I knew more than I thought I did and could keep learning. I did the high holiday internship and worked with Rabbi Rick Jacobs which was awesome, and I led J-Street on campus for two years and Rick was actually a Jewish leader we were trying to influence so it came full circle engaging with people and ideas in political and spiritual and personal capacities. I think my life is definitely changed by my Jewish experience at Brown because I didn’t seek living in a huge Jewish community but by living in one it has made me think more deeply about my Judaism and become more proud. Brown doesn’t feel like a particularly religious campus, and while there’s a large Jewish presence because of Hillel and the number of Jews it’s not a tangible theme the way it was at Georgetown. I went through the cycle of being less proud of my interfaith household, thinking other people knew more and I didn’t feel accepted, but then I came to feel that I’m making the community better in some way and providing a different perspective. I think the transitions I had through college make me feel ready to keep transitioning in my life and keep Judaism a part of it and continue to learn and ask questions and be a part of exciting and different communities."
Next year Shelby will be in Boston doing a Business Rotational Program at Putnam Investments.
Next year Shelby will be in Boston doing a Business Rotational Program at Putnam Investments.
