Student Profile: Rachel Binderman

A proud native of Atlanta, Georgia, Rachel Binderman is a sophomore in the Double Degree Program between Barnard College and the Jewish Theological Seminary. Rachel’s majors are Jewish Gender and Women’s Studies at JTS and  Human Rights and Gender Women and Sexuality Studies at Barnard. She chose JTS because she was so excited about the JGW major and thought that the classes and major itself are so unique! Rachel chose the Barnard program specifically because it was a better fit, and she also loved the energy of an all women’s college and what it means to be around gender diverse people, instead of having classrooms that are geared towards men’s learning.

Over the summer, Rachel worked at Harlem United, a nonprofit in central Harlem, whose goal is to advance health equality in Harlem and Manhattan in general. They provide housing, healthcare—mental healthcare, physical healthcare, dental care—harm reduction services, and more. One of their priorities is to provide a safer way of using drugs. They understand that it is unrealistic to just stop people from doing drugs when living on the street. They want to provide safer ways of doing so, so users are respected and humanized the way non-drug users are.

Rachel worked as an intern for both the strategic advancement team and the population and evaluation team. For the strategic advancement team, she did a lot of administrative work. She also helped run a canvassing campaign where Harlem United staff members went around to different establishments in Harlem, explained the nonprofit’s mission, and asked if the businesses were willing to put up advertisements for them. The nonprofit wanted to make sure that those who needed Harlem United services knew they were there and were also looking for donations to keep the nonprofit able to run.

For the health evaluation and population team, Rachel conducted surveys for a study that Harlem United is running on HIV adherence and medication adherence for those in poverty. It was a quantitative study to research what people adhere to their medication regimens.

When I inquired about how Rachel got involved with the nonprofit, she said that she really values client-facing work. She wants to work in a domestic violence shelter and believes that working with that population is really important to learn about and have connections to the people who are not living in the most economically stable situations. Rachel chose to work with Harlem United specifically because they valued humanizing people where they are currently at in life instead of imposing someone else’s views on them, the same way she does. She also shared that as a Barnard student, she believes it is her responsibility to get to know the Harlem neighborhood because of its proximity to her.

It was very easy to see that Rachel has internalized a lot of Harlem United’s values from working there. She explained how she thinks it is really hard to connect with people different from you, but working with the nonprofit has solidified their understanding that there is something to connect everyone, despite their differences. Rachel said, “No one is beneath you, no one is higher than you on a human level, and I think it’s important to show people that you feel that way and that respect. Not just think it, but actively show it in every interaction that you have.”

Similarly, Rachel said how she worked with people from tons of different backgrounds and situations, and that does not mean you can’t respect them like they’re the most successful person in the room. Rachel chose Barnard/JTS because she was excited about the majors she was planning on taking at each school and knew that they were so unique and not offered anywhere else. She loved the energy of an all-women’s college and the opportunity to be around gender diverse people. Similarly, Rachel also shared with me how having a Jewish education always emphasizes the concept of tikkun olam, something really important to Rachel. Especially at the collegiate level, she really started to understand what that meant and how she could contribute to it, as she is starting to think about their place in the world as an adult.