PARTNERSHIPS: COEJL on Campus

TEVA:
University of Florida

Contact UF Hillel: 352-372-2900; info@ufhillel.org

Figure 1:
Florida Hillel students enjoy a beautiful beach.

UF TEVA, begun in December 2004, is a fairly new club at the University of Florida Hillel. Despite its youth, the group has already gone on some amazing outdoor adventures and done some great outdoor environmental service projects. In just one semester (spring ‘05) TEVA went on an 8 mile hike in San Felasco Preserve and volunteered planting ground cover in Paynes Prairie State Park. Future adventures include canoe camping and caving. In Spring 2005 TEVA plans to go canoeing and hiking in O'Leno Park.

	O’Leno State Park, where TEVA plans to go canoeing and hiking in Spring 2005.
A boy marvels at a giant tree in San Felasco Preserve, where TEVA went on an 8-mile hike.
	Paynes Prairie, where TEVA planted ground cover in order to protect a fragile ecosystem.

Currently UF TEVA has 13 people on their listserve, including active members and environmental activists (one student is a zoology major, another is an environmental chemistry major). The group strives to find a happy medium between outdoor adventure and Jewish environmental activism, seldom tying in Judaism and environmental awareness into their programs while often allowing people to just enjoy nature. After all, simply enjoying nature is an essential Jewish value and environmental experience that everyone should have, especially college students.

TEVA’s main partnership with Hillel is through Million Minutes of Mitzvah, the UF Hillel’s commmunity service project. Million Minutes of Mitzvah often includes environmental volunteer programs, a great way for TEVA students to do environmental service projects in a Jewish context. TEVA’s ground-cover planting at Paynes Prairie is one example of this partnership.

UF TEVA is currently trying to come up with a constitution so that they can try to become part of the Jewish Student Union, and is also struggling to plan programs with no budget. But never fear, the TEVAlution has begun!

Figure 2:
Good luck with that constitution!

Rebekah Felicia Smith, the TEVA coordinator at UF, offers this quote as her inspiration:

"You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars. You have a right to be here and whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. Therefore be at peace with G-d, whatever you conceive Him to be. And whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul.”

-Max Ehrmann, Desiderata

For more information, contact UF Hillel:
352-372-2900; info@ufhillel.org