Learning The
ROPES

EMU's Jewish students
get an exercise
in community building.

JULIE WIENER StaffWriter

BILL HANSEN Photographer

A

s a member of
Eastern
Michigan
University's
Hillel steering committee,
Beth Ansell has watched
the small Jewish student
organization get off the
ground in the past year.
Last Sunday, she
watched Hillel literally get
off the ground at a high
ropes course at Camp
Tamarack.
Ansell, a senior from
Farmington Hills, coordi-
nated the event at which
25 students overcame rain,
snow and fear of heights to
master a series of high
ropes activities.
Protected by headgear
and cables, participants
walked across balance
beams, climbed webs and
took on similar challenges,

10/31
1997

26

with coaching from part-
ners and fellow students.
"My goal was to get
people to know each other
and bond and have a sense
about what Hillel is," said
Ansell.
Taron Tachman, EMU
Hillel campus services
director, said the course
was not only a social event,
but a vehicle for developing
community and leadership.
"We want to be able to
build a community here,
and a community that sup-
ports each other," he said._
"A lot of these activities
require a group effort to
make them work."
The course was funded
in part with a grant from
the Foundation for Jewish
Campus Life, the national
umbrella organization for
campus Hillels. El