A Little More Background on this Season

I realized I haven’t spent much time telling you how Ben at Teva originally came to be. In mid June, I contacted Nili Simhai (director of Teva), Noam Dolgin (associate director), and Adam Berman (director of Freedman). First I offered some background about my current environmental activities at the time. For example, I commented about my participation in a workshop hosted by the U.S. Partnership on the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development and the United Nations Environment Program. At the time, I was also unsure about the length of my future at the DC Energy Office, where for two years I’ve been working on faith- and non-faith-based environmental programs. That feeling changed once new staff came on board and I felt I had work to look forward to every day and exciting people to share it with.

Then, I offered a handful of skills and possible responsibilities, given up front that I was not interested in being a Teva Educator. I followed up with phone calls to both Nili and Adam within a couple weeks and started a correspondence with them to develop a position for me. Long story short, Nili was reluctant to hire me into an undefined space for which she could not pay me, but I persisted, practically insisting that I would be spending the fall here regardless. So, with basic expenses of room and board covered, a small stipend, and the beauty of this awesome community, she and Adam have accepted me and, so far it seems, found me hard to be without.

I have called my position “Staff Support,” however informally, I think “Ben” covers it. I’m here to keep people productive, happy, and having fun, in pretty much any manner that works for them. In exchange, I get to eat and sleep and socialize with a most amazing and special team of Teva educators and Adamah farming fellows. I think this life is hard to beat and I’m willing to consider how Teva might fit into my life in the future.

In Nili’s words, said with a smile, of course: “Are you good at grantwriting?, because if you can find the money to pay yourself, you can come back and work for me again.” Sounds good to me!