This year’s Pathways cohort, the eighth cycleof the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland’s next-gen mentoring program, wrapped up its 10-month run in June and preparations are already underway for the ninth cohort.

The 10-month run was the longest in the program’s history; a conscious change, JFGP Associate Campaign and Engagement Director Laura Jeser explained.

“Last year, the biggest feedback we got was that it was too short,” she said. “They wanted more, so we gave everyone more.”

The group first gathered for an introductory event at the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education in September, then gathered again in Jeser’s sukkah in October. The full cohort met monthly, with smaller groups of participants, mentors and “next-gen mentors,” many of them former program participants, met separately throughout the year.

The longer format, Jeser said, “made space for more connectivity within the smaller mentor groups. But more so, I think it just allowed us to do more programming.”

Part of that programming was a DISC Assessment led by Pathways Mentor and former Portland State University Business Professor Alan Cabelly.

“it’s a behavioral assessment of our preferences. ‘How do I do things? What’s my behavior in different situations?’” Cabelly explained. “What it does is it helps me to understand you. It helps you to understand me. so that we can do a better job communicating.”

Cabelly was paired with next-gen mentor Abbie Barash; a perfect match, Cabelly thought.

Abbie knows the Jewish community inside out. From the beginning, she knew how to support our proteges with what they needed Judaically,” he said. “Having taught in schools of business for more than 50 years, I know the mentoring, I know the careers, I know the leadership, I know the career search piece. That’s my thing.”

Noah Rosenberg, the Oregon Jewish Community Foundation’s Director of Nonprofit Impact, served as a next-gen mentor for the second time this year, paired with KGW-TV President and General Manager Greg Retsinas.

“We had a great dynamic in our group this year,” Rosenberg said. “Creating that environment where we really gave the mentees an opportunity to connect with the Jewish community outside of their work, that was that was like a really big part of our group this year.”

One of those mentees was Elliot Cherkas.

“I was looking to invest in myself in terms of leadership skills and community and team building,” Cherkas said of what drew him to Pathways. “The experience was really positive. I had an incredible time kind of meeting different people, and I would say actually one of my closest friends here in Portland came specifically from this.”

Cherkas recommended the program strongly.

“I took away a lot of community from it, but also I grew as a leader,” he said. “I think no matter what a person is looking for, as long as it’s kind of in that realm, there’s a lot to gain from this program.”

In addition to the Sukkot gathering and assessment with Cabally, the full cohort participated in a Krav Maga class, a Community Education Evening where Jewish community groups presented their work and Federation staff made “Shark Tank” style pitches for community connection with their work, and an event with Enlightened Philanthropy’s Deborah Goldstein.

“I think people inherently get involved in this program because they want to be a part of community, like finding friends and finding their connectors. but inherently because they have this drive to be involved in the greater Jewish community,” Jeser said.

The payoffs are already showing up.

“We had a mentee who, with his mentor’s help, got a new job,” Jeser explained. “Another mentee, the trajectory of her life has changed; where she’s sending her kids to school and what she’s getting involved with and who she’s connecting with.”

“You can meet someone you wouldn’t have otherwise met who maybe has like a complementary skill set to like a business idea or just like having that connection to have that creativity come together,” Rosenberg said. “I think this is an ideal place in the Jewish community for that to happen for young professionals in Portland.”

Applications for the ninth cohort open this coming Wednesday, July 29, until Wednesday, Aug. 26. The kickoff event is set for Oct. 21.

“What Pathways is doing is building community,” Cabally said. “What we’ve seen is that in the few short years that Laura’s been doing this is that the people who have been through the program are building something.”

For more information, visit jewishportland.org/ourcommunity/young-adults/pdx-pathways.

PHOTO: PDX Pathways participants join in a Krav Maga class during one of the next-gen mentoring cohort's monthly sessions this winter. (Laura Jeser/The Jewish Review)