Dancing into Diller–and beyond

Like many people, I spent all of 2021, my sophomore year of high school, learning virtually. Every weekday I woke up and made myself get ready for the day by making my bed, eating breakfast, getting dressed, and brushing my teeth. I need that sense of normality, of routine.

I was lucky enough that my extracurricular–dancing–was able to happen in person for most of the year. But that didn’t take away from how lonely I felt. And as someone who is mostly introverted and shy, making friends can be a challenge.

I was nominated by two friends for the JUF Teens program called Diller Teen Fellows, which I had never heard of. After an interview process, I was fortunate to join Cohort 8 of Diller. I remember first meeting the rest of my cohort, and noticing all their smiling faces. I was nervous and shy, but so happy to be meeting new kids my own age during the pandemic who weren’t related to me!

There were only two things we all had in common going into Diller: First, we are all teens around the same age. And second, we are all Jewish. But the program turned into so much more than a place for a group of 20 Jewish teenagers to meet up, talk, and learn about other Jewish Chicagoland teenagers.

It turned into a community where we all got to learn how to take initiative through programs we created and ran, to give back to our community through a mitzvah project, to feel welcomed and accepted for who we are–and to have fun, too.

In times when the pandemic enforced stricter social distancing protocols, there were Zoom meetings, texting, and posting between each other to learn, build, and grow our leadership skills. When pandemic restrictions eased enough to gather in person, we got to freeze our bodies but warm our hearts and minds, meeting for a few hours in what turned out to be very cold and windy weather.

Near the end of the program late in the school year, even though we were not able to visit our sister cohort in Israel, we got to gather for awesome Zoom meetings with people literally halfway across the world from us, and learn about their experiences, strengths, weaknesses, and Jewish practices.

I learned to connect and cooperate with so many different types of people, personalities, and styles–such a valuable lesson, especially as I reacclimate to human interactions in person at my high school.

I’m thrilled that I gave Diller Teen Fellows a chance, and now I’m proud to be a part of another JUF Teens program this year called RTI–Research Training Internship. This is a paid internship in which a cohort of 10 Jewish female identifying and non-binary teens address critical social questions through feminist academic research, and use the research to pursue social justice.

I am so excited to start researching our topic, which we recently finalized. It is–wait, I can’t tell you. That would be a huge spoiler. I guess you will just have to wait and see in May when RTI publishes Cohort 8’s research on our awesome topic!

Both programs, Diller and RTI, offer entirely distinct curriculum and goals, and are fostering in me unique skillsets. I’m so grateful that the JUF Teens department offers such varied opportunities for teenagers, and I feel so fortunate to participate and learn so much.

Mayrav Bader lives in Chicago and is the oldest of six siblings. She is a junior at Lane Tech High School and loves to dance.