from New Voices (national Jewish student magazine):

“It Wasn’t a Conference For Us, But We Were There.”

At the General Assembly of the Jewish Federations of North America in New Orleans, one in four delegates was a student. Over 600 students came in total – a high for the conference – … Though attendance was clearly high on the student front, students were frustrated that the conference did not speak to their interests or concerns.

… [Mia Jacobs, incoming president of the University of Pittsburgh Student Board at Hillel] attended a panel – along with about 65 other students – called “The Innovation Imperative: New Ways to Build Jewish Community to Engage the ‘Next Generation.’” Although this was a forum where student involvement would have been more than appropriate, Jacobs felt frustrated “because the way that the Federation and the Jewish professional world was approaching the problem of engagement of the younger generation is that it was a problem. And they don’t know how to handle it. Who knows better about engaging Jewish college students than the Jewish college students who are there, who are the leaders at Hillel?”

You can read the complete post on newvoices.org along with reader comments.