I’ll never forget the first time I heard the term “experiential education.” Dr. Gabe Goldman explained the concept as part of a program at the Western Hillel Organization conference. Goldman taught that all experiences have the potential to be educative. The educator can make the experience engaging and interactive by creating the right setting, and asking questions that encourage and empower students to construct their own ideas based on the experience. As Goldman, who is the Director of Experiential Education at American Jewish University, began to explain this concept, my first thought was, “My work has a name!” My second thought was, “I want to learn everything I can from this guy before the conference is over.” Imagine my thrill…

Last year I was given an incredible opportunity when I was chosen to be part of the first cohort of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion’s new certificate program in Jewish Education. A year later, I have completed all of the courses, graduated from the program, and received a Certification in Jewish Education for Adolescent and Emerging Adults. I don’t think that HUC-JIR realized it, but the material we learned would be just a small part of what made the program so wonderful. Forty percent of the program takes place online and our first assignments were given through the website. I didn’t meet the other classmates at that point, but we began interacting in the chat room forums for our…