After attending CLTC this summer, along with many of my friends applied to steer International Convention (IC). We ended up spread across many different committees, but one of my close friends, Ariella Frommer, landed on the same committee. We got assigned to lead a Friday Night service together, Time to Respond to Antisemitism, and have had a very meaningful experience throughout the planning and scripting process. Early on, I also volunteered to take on a Saturday Morning Service. I was partnered up with Violeta Higuera, who has been amazing throughout the entire process, to lead Time for Summer: Camp-Style.

In the months leading up to IC, there has been a tremendous amount of time and effort put into every individual service. Leading two services with very different central themes has been amazing, as I have been able to focus on two things I care very much about and am interested in. The opportunity to lead and plan services at IC has allowed me to learn and connect with Jewish Educators and teens across the world.

During IC, our fantastic admins and staff have been doing the behind-the-scenes logistics for our services such as: organizing the rooms, setting up our decorations and printing scripts. We had a meeting with our members of the Jewish Enrichment Team and our Songleader, before the service, as a final check to make sure everything was set and ready to go.

One piece of advice that really helped us execute the service was people in the room for the service were the right people to be there, no matter if there were many or few. We needed to go in without a preconceived notion because IC is so large, and we cannot control who ends up where and in what program.

Overall, I would definitely recommend the IC Steering Experience to anyone who is even thinking about it. All the committees are amazing and essential to creating the best IC possible.

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