Leah Klein

Albert A. List College of Jewish Studies

Tranquility and excitement? You can experience an intimate college community and New York City’s vibrancy and diversity at the same time. “You’re not secluded, like on an ordinary college campus,” says senior Leah Klein. “You see people of all ages, all the time, walking the streets just outside our gates. It gives you a worldly feeling.”

Leah knew all along that she wanted to come to List College. The tough part was choosing her other school—the Joint Program with Columbia or JTS’s Double Degree Program with Barnard? For a variety of reasons, including her passion for literature and a more intimate setting, she opted for Barnard.

“The first day of classes, I knew this was right for me,” she says. “Barnard’s English department is famous for good reason, they have amazing professors and students.” And Double Degree students also benefit from personal attention at Barnard. “For my first two years, my academic adviser was actually the dean of the College. She really takes care of all the Double Degree students, takes them under her wing. It was what I needed, what I wanted; it felt right.”

Leah compares her undergraduate experience to the layers of an onion. At the heart is JTS, with its rigorous Jewish Studies curriculum and its close-knit community. “You eat with your professors in the JTS Dining Hall, and you see a lot of the same people every day. Rabbinical students, cantorial students, graduate students, people from every school. I don’t even feel like an undergraduate there. And everyone is friendly with each other.” Classes and extracurriculars at Barnard and Columbia connect her to the world-famous Ivy League environment.

And the outer layer is a busy student life in New York City and a study-abroad experience in London. She’s worked at the List College Admissions Office and plans to get a master’s in Social Work. “But not right away—I want to work for a year or two first. I love being in the city, going out and meeting new people. My friends at other schools just don’t have these wonderful layers of experience.”

Leah graduated in May 2008 and is now the School Coordinator at the NYU Child Psychology Study Center.

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Leah Klein