As the city coordinator for NCSY, Mordi Spero, 29, has influenced hundreds of teenagers in his six years involved in the Baltimore chapter.
Spero has been involved with NCSY since he was 20. He grew up in Baltimore and, after high school, decided to move to Israel for two years to study in a yeshiva. When he returned to the United States, he moved to Silver Spring, where his NCSY journey began. He lived there for four years before returning to the Baltimore area.
Spero has a bachelor’s degree in marketing from the University of Maryland University College (now the University of Maryland Global Campus), a bachelor’s degree in talmudic law from the Yeshiva College of the Nation’s Capital and a rabbinic ordination from the Dallas Area Torah Association.
Were you involved in NCSY in high school? How did you first hear about NCSY?
I was not involved in NCSY during high school at all, but my younger brother was heavily involved in NCSY when he was in high school. So when I came back from Israel, I became an adviser in Silver Spring. It was something I found appreciation for. I think it was probably similar to being a counselor at camp. I very much appreciated that aspect. Next thing you know, I’m here.
What is the most rewarding part of your job?
The ability to really help people every single day. I have so many friends who either don’t love what they do or unfortunately very much dislike what they do. And in my job, every single day I’m helping people, God willing, to grow in different areas of their life.
How has NCSY dealt with COVID-19? Was it hard to keep the teens engaged?
So it’s obviously been challenging because we had to make sure that all of our programming was outdoors when we were doing in-person programming, which was incredibly important. We had to make sure that everybody was keeping to the guidelines and policies put in place to make sure that everyone’s being safe and healthy. And we tried our best to make sure that we were offering programming to the fullest extent that we could.
Did you always know you wanted to work with teenagers?
I would say that I probably knew when I first got involved with NCSY. That’s when I knew. I really just loved it.
Where do you see yourself in five years?
Hopefully, still working in NCSY and, God willing, continuing to build up the Baltimore chapter. I want to be helping teens grow in any way that I can. I would ideally love to be in Baltimore and continue to do what I’m doing. I think that this is really what I’m meant to be doing.
Sports and working out. Those are my things. I enjoy doing those things very much in my free time.
