Position on Maz: Social Action Programmer.
Hi, I'm Seth Harris and I'm this year's regional
social action
programmer for WPA. That basically means that I
program social action
activities for conventions and coordinate regional
social action events
throughout the year. I very excited about this year
and hope that my
ideas work well. But rather than bore you with my
plans for this year,
I'll bore you with a brief history of me and Y.J.
I got started in the movement in third grade through
my sister,
my cousin Jon, who is something of a legend amongst
Young Judaea
veterans, and my best friend. They had all done Y.J.
before and finally
convinced me that it wasn't for religious freaks who
didn't like sleeping
comfortably in their own beds. So I went on my first
shabaton. The
impression that was first made was that this was a
wonderful place to
meet and hang out with friends. However, I wasn't the
ideal participant
for the leaders, who I didn't acknowledge were real
people until later
into my Y.J. career. Then when I was given a job as
the newspaper editor
along that same friend in fifth grade things started
to come to light
for. I started to notice who did what in order to
make things work.
That's when it really hit me that we were peer lead,
and that the people
running things, for the most part, were just older
kids. Slowly but
surely, it sunk in that they were young members of
Young Judaea once too
and that if they could become leaders, I could become
a leader. In
seventh grade I helped program a meeting for kids in
grades 3-5. Then in
grade I received leadership training and I began
leading 3rd-7th grade
events. Last year, when I was in ninth grade, I
headed the pittsburgh
club of Young Judaea and held successful bi-weekly
meetings and
activities for kids my age and older. All in all, I
have had an amazing
time with Y.J. and can honestly say that I love this
movement and am
proud to be an active part of it.
Click here to email Seth.