Hi my name is Taylor Schwartz and one of the two Avodah Unit heads at GUCI this summer. This is my tenth summer at GUCI and my 3rd year on staff. I was born and raised in Kansas, but moved to North Carolina to attend college. I recently graduated from East Carolina University with a degree in Family and Consumer Sciences Education. In the fall I will be moving to Overland Park, KS to teach high school subjects such as apparel and textiles, interior design, child development, and cooking.

Hi I’m David Reinhart. I started in GUCI in 1996 when my mother was on staff and have been coming back ever since. I am excited to be back for my 7th year as a staff member and extremely excited to be an Avodah unit head. I graduated from the University of Michigan with a B.S. in Anthropology. This past year I studied in Israel for the first year of rabbinical school at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion and will be continuing in the fall at Cincinnati.

So, what is Avodah? Avodah is a nine week long work study program for high school students going into their senior year. While in Avodah, which literally means work, the participants (Avodahnikim) are responsible for maintaining camp in many different areas including cleaning the bath houses and buildings, washing the dishes in the dining hall, sorting mail in the office, belaying on the climbing tower, and acting as counselors for the day camp (Camp K’ton). In addition to their work, Avodahnikim plan fun activities for their unit such as days and nights off and also some evening programs. They take part in Jewish educational programs and have plenty of time to form extremely close bonds with their peers.

Avodah is a unique opportunity to see GUCI from a new perspective. Every summer camp thrives on the spirit, hard work, and creativity of its Avodahnikim. The combination of crew work, free time, and programming lends itself to the most fun summer at camp. Though Avodahnikim have added responsibilities, they are able to have a larger impact on the great community that we create every summer. Throughout this summer they have the opportunity to get messy, plunge a bunch of toilets, mop the floors, lay in hammocks, learn and grow, have fun, and make that GUCI magic happen.