This past school year, after attending CLTC, I became much more internationally involved. For starters, CLTC introduced me to the International Leadership Network (ILN), where my journey with the Shofar started roughly one year ago. From the relationships I formed at CLTC, my network expanded to include Jewish youth from around the world. Throughout the 2023-2024 school year, I kept in contact with my friends from around the Order and continued to make new ones. When I was traveling in Argentina with my family, I met more international BBYO teens who were there participating in the Maccabi games in different sports. I even wrote an article about the solidarity I felt with them after October 7th.
This past year I attended BBYO's 100th anniversary International Convention (IC), where I was on the press corps team. This is where I would share the opportunities I had as a BBYO Insider. After IC, I signed up for another BBYO summer experience, Kallah, which I attended in Pennsylvania this summer. There, I met Jewish teens from diverse communities around the world like Kazakhstan, Latvia, Turkey, Moldova, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Ecuador, France, and so many other countries. Also, this summer I visited Cape Town and South Africa where I attended Shabbat services and spent the day with the BBYO Chapter N'siah there. It was cool being able to discuss our common experiences after October 7th.
I am proud to be a bridge between my chapter and the International Order. Now that I have been in BBYO for nearly four years, I am feeling the magic of BBYO as a whole, which connects me with the Jewish world.
Camelia Schwartz is a BBG of Oakland BBG #2 from Central Region West and loves to ski.
All views expressed on content written for The Shofar represent the opinions and thoughts of the individual authors. The author biography represents the author at the time in which they were in BBYO.