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Penn Hillel to Launch Inaugural Peer
Mental Health Partnership With BBYO
SASHA ROGELBERG | STAFF WRITER
I t’s no secret that the challenges of an
Ivy League college, exacerbated by an
ongoing pandemic, have brought a host of
mental health challenges to students.

A cluster of student suicides last
academic year at the University of
Pennsylvania was a turning point for
Rabbi Gabe Greenberg, Penn Hillel’s
executive director. Every week, about
600-700 students, Jewish and not, walk
through Steinhardt Hall, Penn Hillel’s
on-campus home; Greenberg saw the
space and Jewish community there as
the foundation for an intervention.

top-down and a bottom-up approach,”
Greenberg said. “Th e top-down is having
a therapist who could just individually
connect with students, and the bottom-up
is empowering students to bring this out
to their friends and communities in a real
grassroots way.”
BBYO-CAW’s fi rst training for Hillel
leadership will take place this spring, with
a second training scheduled for the fall
of next academic year. Forty students are
expected to complete the training.

Founded in 2019, BBYO-CAW, part of
the larger BBYO Jewish teen movement,
has worked with youth-serving organiza-
tions across the country to provide policy
Courtesy of Penn Hillel
Penn Hillel and BBYO Center for Adolescent Wellness’ peer mental health
partnership will train 40 students in its pilot year.

On Oct. 25, Penn Hillel announced
a partnership with BBYO Center
for Adolescent Wellness “poised to
train students at the University of
Pennsylvania to be prepared to support
the mental health needs of their peers,”
according to a press release.

In addition to hiring a culturally
competent therapist to provide coun-
seling to students in Steinhardt Hall,
Greenberg plans to work with BBYO-
CAW to develop a curriculum geared
toward Hillel leadership, who will be
trained to provide resources and sup-
port for peers experiencing mental
health challenges.

“Th e biggest picture for how we’re doing
this is trying to approach it from both a
and procedure change and support to
promote mental health awareness and
advocacy. Th e center’s partnership with
Penn will be its fi rst time working with a
college or Hillel.

According to BBYO-CAW, 60% of stu-
dents are living with a mental health dis-
order, and about half of young adults have
reported an increase in stress, anxiety and
depression since the pandemic’s onset.

“In the post-pandemic world, we’re see-
ing increasing controlling behaviors, so
we’re seeing a lot of disordered eating,
a lot of substance use disorders, a lot
of nonsuicidal self-harming behaviors,”
BBYO-CAW Director Drew Fidler said.

“A lot of that is about control and trying to
take control back from places in their lives
where things are out of control.”
Greenberg added that attending a high-
ly-ranked school such as Penn mounts
additional pressure on students.

“Th ere’s a high degree of competition
and focus on achievement, and that leads
pretty directly to high degrees of anxiety
and worry,” he said.

Student leadership at Penn Hillel knows
this fi rsthand. Th e incoming Hillel lead-
ership team has navigated COVID for the
entirety of its time at college.

“COVID has had a huge mental impact,
not just in the ways that you would expect
of isolation, feeling alone, but also, these
trickle-down impacts,” said Lilah Katz,
a junior and co-student president of
Penn Hillel.

See Hillel, Page 31
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