Or l'Derekh: Ideas That Illuminate

Friendship is one of the great joys of childhood – and sometimes one of its hardest parts.

How can we help children build strong, healthy relationships while giving them the skills to navigate conflict, exclusion, shifting friendships, relational aggression, and other social challenges?

Join Smith Jewish Academy for the second annual Or l’Derekh: Ideas that Illuminate event, featuring school counselor, author, and friendship educator Julie Rainer, M.Ed., in conversation with Nina Badzin, SJA alumni parent and host of the acclaimed Dear Nina: Conversations About Friendship podcast.

Together, Julie and Nina will explore the social world our children inhabit: what healthy friendship looks like at different ages, when to step in and when to let children work through conflict themselves, and how we can equip young people with the confidence and skills to build meaningful relationships.

Part of SJA’s Or l’Derekh speaker series, the evening invites parents, educators, grandparents, and community members to learn together and consider an essential question: How do we help children become the kind of people who can form and sustain healthy relationships?

Help shape the conversation! Submit a question for Julie and Nina in advance, and your question may be featured and addressed during the program.

About Julie Rainer

Julie Rainer, M.Ed., is a school counselor, educator, author, and parent with more than 20 years of experience working with students from Pre-K through 12th grade at Benjamin Franklin International School in Barcelona, Spain.

In 2017, Julie began studying relational aggression and covert bullying, work that grew into IMPACT Kids Coach, a platform that teaches healthy friendship skills to students from elementary through high school. She is the author of the children’s books Eva Eats Bugs and Everybody is Somebody, as well as Healthy Friendships Made Simple, a guide designed to help students recognize and respond to unhealthy friendships, recover from difficult experiences, and build stronger relationships.

Julie works bilingually in English and Spanish and brings the perspective of both an educator and a parent to her work with children and families.

In Conversation with Nina Badzin

Nina Badzin is an SJA alumni parent and host of the top 1% podcast Dear Nina: Conversations About Friendship. She also writes the bestselling Dear Nina newsletter.

Nina’s practical, warm friendship advice has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Time, NPR, Real Simple, The Skimm, and elsewhere. Through Dear Nina, she has interviewed hundreds of authors, therapists, and thought leaders about friendship and social connection, becoming a nationally recognized voice on how we create, maintain, repair, and sometimes let go of relationships.