By Shira Kramer, Features Editor and Social Media Manager
Jordan Stecker, originally from Long Island, came to Yeshiva University this school year to work for the Shevet Glaubach Career Center for Career Strategy and Professional Development. Now, he is the assistant director of career advising.
What would someone be surprised to learn about you?
I am Jewish and I consider myself religious. I’m actually Baal Teshuva, I don’t know everything about Judaism. My goal is to learn, and I think that through being part of this community, it’s kind of connected my personal goals and my professional goals. I love working side by side with the various educators and rabbis. It’s become a very important part of my work here because I feel that as someone who is helping students figure out what they want to do, it’s an important mitzvah to help the next generation. That’s something that really resonates with me.
Do you feel like the Shevet Glaubach Center is a family?
Absolutely. I’ve bonded with every single one of the people who work in this office. Everyone’s been welcoming and I think that because of the dynamics of the Shevet Glaubach Center, everyone has different perspectives. I really like having my own office at Wilf and [the office at Beren] is kind of a shared space. So, we kind of go back and forth. I love going back and forth between campuses. When it comes down to advising, I think that there is an important connection that we have to proxemics [to the students].
Do you feel like people are hesitant to come to the SGC?
I hope not. I think people can sometimes find places to be daunting regardless of where they are.
As someone who’s often one of the first points of engagement for students who don’t know what they want, that’s disappointing, but it’s understandable at the same time. I find our office to be incredibly warm. I think that’s part of my role and everyone’s role on the team is to make people feel comfortable with our office. I think sometimes it takes a very big step for people to come to our office for the first time if they’re not ready for us just because we are a lifetime service, which I think is amazing. We don’t come with the expectations that students need to know their career before they come to us. They don’t need to have the idea of what exact Graduate School they want to go into, or they don’t have to know where they’re going to live. I’m the undecided advisor. So, a lot of students don’t have any idea what they want. One of the things I really encourage people to do is embrace not knowing. I understand some students have anxiety about not knowing what they want. I really encourage them to explore.
Do you have any hobbies?
I’m actually a public speaker, so I do different workshops and different speeches for a number of different organizations. I’ve done speeches and workshops in Manhattan for the Manhattan Jewish Experience and for the Moishe House. I just did an event last week for the Upper West Side JCC. Part of my training was actually through the National Speech and Debate Association.
I was a finalist a couple of times in speech and I learned the intricacies of how to entertain and connect with people. That’s a little bit of a different type of tool that I use a lot when it comes down to class presentations.