Some of the most powerful leadership lessons happen far from home.
Brawerman Fellows Sophie Berman and Griffin Joseph recently traveled to Guatemala to support local Indigenous communities impacted by environmental and political challenges. Along with financial support, mentorship, and lifelong community, Brawerman Fellows volunteer abroad, which expands their perspectives and helps them grow as compassionate Jewish leaders.
Sophie Berman
Following my graduation from UC Berkeley in May, another Brawerman Fellow, Griffin, and I traveled to Xela, Guatemala, to participate in a social justice-oriented Spanish immersion program at Proyecto Lingüístico Quetzalteco (PLQ) and to volunteer with Asociación de Guías de Turismo Explorando el Valle (ASOGTURC), an environmental nonprofit organization in Valle de Palajunoj, Quetzaltenango. We spent three weeks partaking in daily Spanish instruction in the mornings and direct engagement with local organizing work in the afternoons.
Through PLQ, I studied Spanish while also learning about Guatemala’s political history, the impacts of U.S. intervention and civil conflict, and the grassroots movements that have emerged in response. Volunteering with ASOGTURC gave me a chance to put that learning into practice, supporting local Indigenous efforts to protect natural resources through reforestation and push back against environmental destruction from stone mines and political corruption in the region. Together, these experiences were transformative in broadening my understanding of the world, particularly how grassroots initiatives like these work to preserve heritage, generate opportunity, and advance social and environmental justice from the ground up.
My Jewish identity has always been fueled by the practice of tikkun olam, and I felt that value come alive throughout my time in Guatemala. Participating in organizations fighting political corruption and environmental destruction felt like a direct expression of that value. In Judaism, repairing the world means showing up for communities beyond your own. Continuing to develop my Spanish skills was essential to this practice, as it allowed me to be present with and learn from people whose experiences are different from mine. This process was uncomfortable at times, forcing me to give up expertise and control. It required patience and humility. Moreover, that discomfort showed me how language becomes a tool for showing up and listening to people, which is the foundation of advocacy movements and progressive transformation.
That lesson has shaped how I think about effective leadership and what kind of leader I aspire to be within my own communities. Guatemala reinforced for me that global responsibility, especially from a Jewish lens, means earning the trust to listen first and engage with humility rather than authority. I want to take these perspectives with me as I aspire to lead in my career in public health, advocating for health equity and access to care for disadvantaged communities.
In between hours of practicing verb conjugations and tending to greenhouses full of baby trees, I was lucky to experience rich culture, beautiful nature, divine food, but most of all profound connection with people who have contributed to my growth in ways I am still processing. My experience here was a wonderful culmination of what I have learned from the past four years as a Brawerman Fellow, and I am grateful beyond words!
Griffin Joseph
Tikkun olam has always been at the center of my Jewish identity, but volunteering in Xela and learning at the PLQ was an opportunity to put the value of tikkun olam into action in an extraordinarily real way. The physical act of replanting trees and helping grow saplings wasn’t just doing a good deed for the community. We were physically repairing the world.
This experience was transformative for me. The process of volunteering and learning in Guatemala reshaped the way I view leadership. It was incredible to see the responsibility that those around us had taken on for their community. There was a palpable sense of regional pride, and a feeling that the people were capable of pushing back against the government and corporate interests to preserve their communities. As I return to the U.S., this is the leadership quality that I hope to practice myself. It feels like a scary and uncertain time in the U.S. and in the world, but it’s also an incredible opportunity to double down on my community, and my commitment to the people around me to do the physical work of improving the world! I am so grateful to Brawerman for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that truly reshaped the way that I see the world!
My experience with the Brawerman Fellowship has been life-changing. I am so grateful for JFEDLA, the Brawerman family, and to Orly Frank for the opportunity to grow as a Jewish leader and as a person. When I first began the Fellowship, I remember arriving bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at the Federation building (BAR Center) on Ocean Walk in Venice, the week before my first week of college. I remember feeling both inspired and deeply connected to my peers in the program. I have found this duality of experience to be the most beautiful thing about Brawerman. Over the course of the four years with the program, you get to experience being a young college student, while being mentored by the older students in the program. You also get to be an older student who mentors the younger students coming up through the program. To get the opportunity to both give and receive mentorship with the context and grounding of Jewish identity is a reassuring and invigorating experience. To be led by your peers in discovering your Jewish identity, and then to get to help foster that search for identity in others is such a full-circle journey. I feel so blessed to have gotten the opportunity to be a part of this development, both for myself, and for everyone I got to know over the course of my four years as a Brawerman Fellow.
Brawerman has also been a place where I met some of my best friends. I feel so lucky to have been a part of a cohort in which three students all attended the same university! Going through college with a consistent group of people that I felt comfortable turning to and sharing my experiences with was such an amazing support system. Overall, Brawerman was exactly what I needed to push me these last four years to become a leader I never thought capable of being and the person that I am today.
