Campus Update: Michigan State University

By Samantha Dresser
KOACH Intern

Shalom to everyone out there reading the KOACH E-Zine! December finished off a fantastic semester of KOACH at Michigan State University. We had a great time and had some really meaningful experiences together as a Conservative community. Some of our highlights early in the semester were making paintings on apple slices with colored honey, representing what we wanted from our new year at Rosh Hashanah, a discussion about several midrashim based on the Adam and Eve story with Conservative rabbinical student Yonatan Sadoff, and a Simhat Torah experience.

In November, we had an absolutely wonderful KOACH Shabbat with KOACH Midwest fieldworker Becky Adelberg. Every student who participated enjoyed the Friday night services and dinner, alternative morning service, text studies, prayer yoga, and havdalah candle-making. Following the huge success of KOACH Shabbat in late November, MSU KOACH purchased and decorated 54 teddy bears to be donated to the MSU Student Foodbank which provides supplemental food to MSU students and their families in need of assistance.

In December, the bears were distributed and the children loved them! The program had a huge turnout and was such a success! It was a great way to finish off the semester. For next semester, we're looking forward to our first program: KOACH is doing a make-your-own-salad dinner and going through some text scenarios of friend, parent, sibling, and romantic relationships in the Torah to learn some things about our own interpersonal relationships. Looking forward to seeing everyone at KOACH Kallah in February

[Posted 01/19/07]