Rotem Fellus
Internship placement: Association of Canadian Jewish Studies (ACJS)
Personal Statement
Hello! My name is Rotem Fellus. I am originally from Israel, but lived in Canada since I was eight years old. I am currently studying Communications and Political Science at the University of Ottawa. I am passionate about work in communications, Israel, learning, politics, and giving back to the community. I am very excited to be a part of DFL this year, as I have the opportunity to work with a dedicated, scholarly, and enriching organization, the Association of Canadian Jewish Studies (ACJS). I am very excited for the year to come as I can already feel that we will do great things this year!
Blog #2
March 24, 2019
This past year I was fortunate to work for the Association for Canadian Jewish Studies (ACJS) as the Social Media Officer. I worked with a great group of people as I took on the communications aspect of the ACJS. My mandate and goal as the Social Media Officer was to increase the visibility of the important work the ACJS does. Throughout the year, this position highly exceeded my expectations. Writing posts, blogs, and emails had more people engage with the ACJS, and learn about the scholarly work on Jewish studies, relevant events, and conferences. Through writing and creating the blogs and posts I myself learned so much about the amazing scholarly work that many conduct in Jewish-related topics. One of my goals, other than creating blogs for their website and posts on social media was to create an Instagram account in addition to the Twitter and Facebook that were already in place. I made sure to follow similar groups on Instagram that the ACJS follows on other platforms such as archives organizations, jewish organizations and scholarly institutions. I also created the ACJS social media gmail account so that everyone could get in touch with us to get their research and events disseminated on our social media as well. In order to increase visibility of such work, I would filter though all the posts and emails I got and write blogs about them and social media posts. One of the highlights in this position is seeing the change in regards to the visibility of ACJS online. We had an increasing number of people liking, seeing and following the ACJS social media, sending me materials to create posts about, and, in turn, increasing engagement and higher interest. My role also involved meeting with my supervisors–Rebecca Margolis and Hernan Tesler-Mabe. Working with them, I got the opportunity to attend the ACJS conference, which is happening in a few months. I look forward to meeting the various people that I was in contact with posting information about their work and research. I’m looking forward to learning more about their research and to become more involved in the scholarly world, something that has always interested me. I am glad to say that my experiences greatly exceeded my expectations through the guidance and mentorship of my supervisors, the directors and organizations at DFL, and the people I met through this position.
Blog #1
December 18, 2018
My name is Rotem Fellus. I am currently a third-year student studying Communications and Political Science at the University of Ottawa. Within my program of studies, I work on media-related topics. I am passionate about politics, communications, learning, and giving back to the community. This is why I am very happy and grateful to have the opportunity to be a part of the Developing Future Leaders (DFL) program this year. DFL gave me the opportunity to work, hands-on, in Communications as I am doing my internship placement at the Association of Canadian Jewish Studies (ACJS). ACJS publishes scholarship on the pan-Canadian Jewish experience. At DFL this year, I have the chance to work with a dedicated, scholarly, and enriching organization, where I have the incredible opportunity to be a part of their executive, as the Social Media Officer.
The part that I play in this agency is to manage, run, and orchestrate the ACJS social media and blog. The overarching purpose of these responsibilities is to raise awareness and increase the visibility of ACJS through social media. What I do specifically is I run the ACJS social media platforms by posting content on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter as well as on the ACJS blog, a new initiative that we have started this year. This work is corroborated by my managing the ACJS social media email, where I receive various content for posting general content from all across Canada, that can be shared on the ACJS social media platforms and blog.
When I post on social media platforms, I craft about 200 words to go on the blog and to accompany the post. I also link the blog to all the social media posts so that the blog entries can be easily accessed.
I consistently increase the reach, likes, and followers on social media. During these past four months, the views and likes on the ACJS Facebook increased. The ACJS Instagram, which I have introduced to the ACJS social media presence only four months ago, has already gained 100 followers and this will increase in future months. The likes on the ACJS Twitter have increased as well and will continue to do so.
I also post regularly so that readers can expect new content. This position allows for freedom in creativity in writing. I am very grateful for this placement because I get to do something that is connected to the communications aspect of my studies and interests. I have learned so much about the amazing Canadian-Jewish events, scholarship, and literature across Canada that our community generates. My future goals with this position are to continue increasing the visibility of ACJS. This can be done in these next four months by getting more followers on Instagram, more posts retweeted on Twitter, and more posts shared on Facebook.