Student to Student, the awareness and advocacy program that brings Jewish high school juniors and seniors to classrooms in their community to talk about Jewish lived experiences, is already setting its sights on next year.

Rachel Nelson, the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland’s Chief Planning Officer and the coordinator of Portland’s Student to Student program, said that the programs presenters reached nearly 500 students in area schools in the last academic year. Its biggest successes were a presentation to the Jewish Student Union at Davinci Middle School in Portland and two days at Oregon City High School.

“A lot of the students there have never met someone Jewish before,” Student to Student presenter Eliana Yoken said of Oregon City High School, “so to be that first window into our culture and our people is pretty cool. It feels like sort of an honor to be able to represent a community that’s so diverse.”

“There’s always kids that ask questions, that want to learn more,” presenter Ben Luria said. “I remember one of my first presentations, there was a student that came up to each of the presenters and gave us a hug. I thought that was very sweet.”

The program began in St. Louis; Nelson brought it to Portland two years ago. While presentations to fellow Jewish students have long been a staple of Student to Student programs in other communities, this year’s visit to DaVinci was Portland’s first example.

“For those students specifically, it was an opportunity to see those slightly older than them displaying what they can accomplish and what they can do when they’re older,” Nelson said. “It also gave them a feeling of ‘we’re not alone. We’re here as part of a larger community.”

One of Student to Student’s calling cards are the packages of single-serve Oreo cookies that come with each presentation – it’s an example of a very common food that many don’t know is kosher and marked as such. Connections like this help open up the world of Jewish life to peers in places like Oregon City.

“It’s both enlightening to hear that these are just teens just like they are - They play basketball, they do lacrosse, they go swimming, they’re doing a lot of the same activities - but on the flip side, these are teens who are experiencing marginalization that many in the Oregon City community might not have experienced in the same way,” Nelson said. “So they’re hearing both these commonalities and also the things that are unique and challenging to these teens.”

It’s also been an enlightening experience for the students at the front of the room.

“I’ve always gone to Hebrew school, and this has been stuff that I’ve been around my whole life,” Luria said. “We’ll get a lot of questions about, ‘Why don’t you eat pork?’ Or ‘Do you believe in Jesus?’ This stuff that we get taught from an early age but doesn’t really apply to everyone. It was a very eye-opening moment of the power of simple conversation and not assuming and meeting people where they’re at.”

The students at Davinci had different questions, Nelson recalled.

“We had students come up to us afterwards saying, ‘What age do I need to be to register? When can I start presenting?’” she said.

The answer is that rising juniors and seniors are eligible to participate. Applications are open now with a training program set to occur later in the year.

“If a student wants to go and talk about their Jewish identity and they don’t feel like they can do that in their day-to-day life or at their school, this gives them that opportunity,” Yoken said, “and I think that can be very important, especially in empowering Jewish youth for the future.”

Learn more and apply online at jewishportland.org/ourcommunity/studenttostudent-application.