He may seem like a typical high school junior, but ask Jacob Nurick about his extracurricular schedule, and you’ll see why he functions on very little sleep. He takes three AP classes. He’s currently the historian of Rye’s Boy Scout Troop 2 and is working toward his Eagle Scout rank.

 

By Nancy J. Rieger

He may seem like a typical high school junior, but ask Jacob Nurick about his extracurricular schedule, and you’ll see why he functions on very little sleep. He takes three AP classes. He’s currently the historian of Rye’s Boy Scout Troop 2 and is working toward his Eagle Scout rank.

 

Nurick is also part of the Parson Street Players at Rye High School, where he is involved in many of the productions. He films RHS sports events as well as volunteering for the local cable network. Even though he no longer wrestles or plays football, he trains at Bruce Chung’s Tae Kwon Do in Harrison, where he’s earned a Second Degree Black Belt. He’s also a volunteer Nature Educator at the Marshlands Conservancy.

 

Along with these activities, Nurick embraces his spiritual life. He attends a Youth Torah Study Program at the Hebrew Union College in Manhattan on Sundays. There he is part of a group learning Torah, Jewish traditions and values, and leadership skills.

 

No stranger to service, both within his community and beyond, for the last three years he’s been actively involved with J-Teen Leadership. This community service leadership initiative for Jewish high school students provides a platform for teens to develop the characteristics of effective leaders. Participants learn how to channel their abilities to advocate for a better world.

 

Nurick was just a freshman when Laurie Landes, Director at the Community Synagogue of Rye, suggested he attend a J-Teen meeting. He brought some friends along, and has been going ever since.

 

“We are the ones advocating change, and we are actually making an impact,” he said.

 

This month Jacob Nurick is co-chairing a local service project at The Afya Foundation in Yonkers this month. He and his fellow students are sorting medical and humanitarian supplies to be shipped to Haiti. In February, he travels to Cuba to deliver supplies to the Cuban Jewish community.