By Jaxie Pidgeon | Contributor

Anne Frank once said, “How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.”

University of Texas alumna Ruth Suzman has always taken the bull by the horns when it comes to finding ways to improve the world. Originally from Long Island, New York, Suzman came to UT in 1985 and graduated in 1990 with a double major in humanities and physics. As a dean’s distinguished graduate at UT, she later earned an MBA from Yale University School of Management in 1996.

At UT, in addition to her studies, Suzman was resourceful in her desire to create a college experience that included all of her interests. She joined clubs and organizations that involved volunteerism, science education and Judaism. One of her favorites was The Physics Circus, a traveling science show that is still active on campus today.

“My extracurriculars were always as important, if not more important to me than my actual classwork,” Suzman said. “I was always running, running, running trying to do more of that stuff because I thought it was so fun.”

Among her favorite pastimes was her involvement with Texas Hillel, where she served as president. Some memorable events included the Israel Block Party, which drew thousands of students, faculty and community members together to learn about Israel’s culture, government, diversity and innovation. The most meaningful event to her was Holocaust Remembrance Day, in which students went to the Capitol and did an overnight vigil, reading the names of each person who perished in the Holocaust.

“That was actually pretty powerful,” Suzman said. “It was always very meaningful, peaceful, solemn and reflective.”

During her time at UT, Suzman said Texas Hillel offered her a platform to be able to do a variety of things.

“It wasn’t a huge campus organization, but it had a lot of reach, a lot of depth and fun people,” Suzman said. “I always liked clubs that had some structure where you could get together with a lot of different people to do a lot of different things.”

After leaving UT, Suzman’s strong passion for community service, her love of science and her desire to help end poverty guided her professional career. She worked at Discovery Hall, a hands-on science museum in Austin, from 1990 to 1992; with El Centro del Muchacho Trabajador, a development center for boys who live in poverty in Quito, Ecuador, from 1993-1994; and then moved on to New York Cares, the largest volunteer network in New York City in 1994.

Suzman currently lives in New York with her husband, Andrew, and their three children: Evan, 22, Abigail, 19, and Jeremy, 16. She is relentless in her dedication to serving others and has made a career being a full-time volunteer in Westchester, New York.

Organizations related to food insecurity, poverty, education and Jewish life are still of the utmost importance to Suzman. She has served, and continues to serve, on numerous nonprofit boards that all come full circle with her passions.

The current position that she is most enthusiastic about is board chair of BBYO, the leading pluralistic Jewish teen movement, because the nonprofit reaches pre-college teens. In addition to her role in BBYO, Suzman currently serves on the development council for the College of Liberal Arts at UT and the board of the Jewish Deaf Resource Center based in New York.

Recently, she stepped down from her role as vice chair of the board for Repair the World, a national organization dedicated to making volunteer service a defining part of Jewish life, an organization she is proud to have been a vital part of. She has also previously served as chair of the board of the Westchester Community College Foundation and chair of the Wisdom Council of Greyston Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to helping the homeless and hard-to-employ adults find gainful employment.  Suzman serves on the board of directors at Vanderbilt Hillel, where her son Evan and daughter Abigail are in school.

“Organizations like Hillel can be a place for anyone to connect and do what is important to them and be with people who will support them and help them grow,” Suzman said. “I have pretty clear and warm memories of what it’s like to be part of an organization like BBYO or Hillel. I feel lucky to get to be a part of supporting that now.”

Emphasizing the importance of volunteerism and community service, Suzman said, “It’s just imperative that you do it. Not just because it’s fun and you meet people and you feel good, but also because you get more from it than you put in every single time.”

She hopes that students today make engaging in Texas Hillel a priority.

“A lot of clubs and organizations tell you how to be and what to do and what the agenda is going to be, and at Texas Hillel you can make it your own,” Suzman said. “Go out there and grab it!”

Texas Hillel is grateful to UT alumna Ruth Suzman for her steadfast commitment to improving the world.