I did not want to be a tourist- anything but the woman wearing the plaid shorts and striped shirt, camera dangling precariously from her neck, with a bag that held everything with various “Walking Tour” maps of DC dangling from her pockets. It’s a tough gig to avoid the tourist cliché during a summer in D.C. But, I had a job to do, a class to take, and lectures to attend. I was a Reform Jew, an activist, an intern and a student. I was one of 19 other participants in the Religious Action Center’s (RAC) Machon Kaplan Program.

Find out what Ilana Cohn from West Hartford, Conn. did to win this year's Aaron Goldman Young Jewish Activist Award.