This spring, the Karsh Center was honored to host Marjorie Hunt as our corps member from Serve the Moment, a joint program of the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles and Repair the World. During her time with our team, Marjorie leant her expertise and creativity to a variety of projects at the Karsh Center. Read on for Marjorie’s culminating reflection on her time with us! 

 

Hello! My name is Marjorie, and I’ve been volunteering at the Karsh Center for the past few months through a program called Serve the Moment. Serve the Moment connects Jewish young adults and early professionals to service opportunities in their local communities for a 10-week volunteer fellowship. I decided to take the plunge, and I was paired with the Karsh Center as my service site. I did about 10 hours a week of volunteer service from April through May. 

Now that the end of the fellowship has arrived, I wanted to share some reflections on my experience volunteering at the Karsh Center. (Spoiler alert: I really enjoyed it!) Even though this fellowship is coming to a close, I hope this little interview with myself will help the Karsh Center community get to know me and learn a little about what I’ve been doing for these past 10 weeks.  

We want to get to know you. Tell us a little about yourself.

I’m proud to say I’m a fourth-generation Angeleno. That’s right, my Russian Jewish grandparents were born in Boyle Heights and Bunker Hill, respectively, back in the early 20th century. I grew up in Pasadena myself. Now I live in Highland Park, so I haven’t strayed too far from home. (Well, I have strayed a bit, actually…but I came back!) 

For the past few years, I’ve been working in digital marketing as a creative strategist (read: writing and producing social media ads). Like many people employed in marketing, I wouldn’t call it my passion. Some of my passions include: learning languages (Spanish, Portuguese, French, and counting), reading books (from Russian novels to cheesy romances and most things in between), making art (music, drawing, painting, etc.), and the oeuvre of Bruce Springsteen (blame my mother). I also love California native plants and talk about composting more than is probably socially acceptable. My latest and most exciting life update is that I will be starting an M.A. program in History at Cal State LA this fall! 

 

What led you to the Karsh Center?

As I mentioned, I came to the Karsh Center by way of Serve the Moment. I decided to join the program for two main reasons. Firstly, I’ve been hoping to make a career change (see: aforementioned lack of passion for digital marketing). I feel strongly that I want to use my career to make the world a better place. This fellowship seemed like a great opportunity to connect with local nonprofit organizations to gain relevant skills I can channel toward that career change. 

Secondly, I’ve been hoping to make deeper connections to the Jewish community in Los Angeles. I grew up in a Jewish household, but wasn’t too involved in the Jewish community in my early 20s. A few years ago, I started reconnecting with this side of my identity, but the pandemic threw a large wrench into that. Since Serve the Moment is aimed at local Jewish young adults, I thought it would be a good place to meet other Jewish people in my peer group. I also got lucky in being placed at the Karsh Center. Many of the service sites where Serve the Moment fellows are placed are not intrinsically connected to the Jewish community, but the Karsh Center was founded out of Wilshire Boulevard Temple and maintains strong ties. I even ended up chatting with several of the Temple’s rabbis as my part of my service hours.

 

What have you been up to at the Karsh Center? 

Initially, my main focus was on communications–gathering photos and videos, writing blogs and social media posts, and putting together content for volunteer newsletters. I also got my hands dirty with onsite volunteering, both as a chance to participate in the direct service of the Karsh Center, and also to meet other volunteers and take photos to use for my other projects. I got to take part in everything from sorting produce donations, to packing produce and dry goods bags for the food pantry, to helping out at Sunday food pantry distributions and monthly diaper distribution. 

About halfway through, my path took a turn, because around the end of March, the Karsh Center began a strategic planning process to create a road map for the next two years. To start this process, staff was working on a project called a SWOT Analysis. This meant interviewing a variety of stakeholders about their views on the Center’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. It’s helpful for someone who isn’t deeply involved in the organization to conduct these interviews–to get a more unbiased perspective–and I fit the bill. So I ended up interviewing 15 different people, from volunteers, to members of the board, to clients, to staff at Wilshire Boulevard Temple who work closely with the Karsh Center. As someone who hadn’t even known about the existence of the Karsh Center before I was placed here for service, I now know more than probably anyone who isn’t either on staff or one of the above-mentioned stakeholders. It was really interesting! 

 

So tell us… what did you learn from all those interviews? Any hot takes?

The community loves the Karsh Center! Everyone I talked to spoke highly of the variety and quality of services offered, between the food pantry, the dental and vision clinics. One thing I didn’t realize was how closely the Center works with a variety of different Collaborator organizations. For instance, the dental and vision clinics are offered by a partnership with KHEIR Clinic, another local nonprofit organization. Several of these Collaborators mentioned that the Karsh Center is unique in the way it brings together so many different organizations with different purposes to serve the community in new ways. 

People also love the staff, of course, and I’d have to agree with that based on my own experience. I had nothing but positive interactions with everyone on staff, but I’ll give a special shoutout to Lizzie Green, Director of Volunteer Engagement and my supervisor for the Serve the Moment program. She made me feel welcome and appreciated from day one! Thanks, Lizzie! 

 

Wow, sounds like you had an interesting and enjoyable experience. Any final thoughts on your time with the Karsh Center? 

I have genuinely had a wonderful time working with the Karsh Center. I enjoy writing, so being able to focus on communications felt like a good fit for my skills and my interests. The SWOT interviews were a new experience for me and I found them quite fascinating. On the whole, based on both my own experience and everything I learned from my part by way of the SWOT interviews, I would recommend the Karsh Center to anyone on any side–client, volunteer, collaborator, or supporter. I’m grateful that I was able to be a part of this work. 

Bye for now!