UJEB BBYO Leaders Elected College Captains for 2020 at Glen Eira College (GEC)
Noah Loven and Chloe Guss, who are both in year 12 at Glen Eira College, have just been elected College Captains for 2020. Both are leaders in UJEB’s BBYO (B’nai B’rith Youth Organisation) group in Melbourne.
Chloe Guss and Noah Loven
Chloe and Noah underwent a rigorous election process to become College Captains. They gave speeches in front of the whole school, followed by voting involving over 800 students and staff. They were also interviewed by the school leadership.
Over the past year, Noah and Chloe have both played key leadership roles in UJEB’s BBYO group. Since early 2019 this group has formed an active leadership team and held five events for local Jewish teens.
Group members have also been on exciting trips to the US to participate in BBYO international conferences, events and training. Noah and Chloe both travelled to the three-week International Leadership Training Conference (ILTC) in Pennsylvania in July last year. Both felt that this training and experience was critical in their successful campaigns to become College Captains.
Chloe said that “BBYO and UJEB gave me the opportunity to unlock my potential in leadership which helped me realise my passion for sharing guidance to others. ILTC opened my eyes showing me how many different possibilities there are in the world and that nothing is impossible. It gave me the confidence to push the boundaries and apply for school captain which I never expected to do.”
Added Noah: “BBYO and ILTC aided me immensely in realising that I can be a leader and I can make a difference.”
Noah and Chloe’s appointments are another indication that GEC is a truly inclusive school community. GEC also offers Hebrew as a LOTE (Languages Other Than English) and UJEB’s J-Lunch program runs weekly sessions for all Jewish students at the college.
UJEB and B’nai B’rith Victoria are proud to support Melbourne BBYO in developing future leaders like Chloe and Noah. This group is a vital addition to the local Jewish scene forsecondary school students attending non-Jewish schools, and is helping our teens to thrive, connect and grow into active and engaged members of our community.
Itzik Sztokman, UJEB’s Executive Principal, said that “BBYO is all part of UJEB’s strategic plan to engage more high school students at non-Jewish schools. We are excited to have just welcomed back the 2020 BBYO International Convention delegation of 6 Melbourne students from 4 different secondary schools. They learnt and experienced so much at this amazing international gathering of 5000 Jewish teen leaders from 50 countries. We can’t wait to see what they will achieve!”
