Being in Israel during the school year is an experience I have always dreamt of, but never truly thought it was a reality. I have been talking to my parents and every possible contact person I could get a hold of to get more information about studying abroad in High School. This program just checked off each and every thing on my list.  I couldn’t even ask for anything more than to just be living in Israel for these incredible eight weeks. At home, I had a typical school day every single day for the past three years. It’s the same, wake up at 6:30, get to school by 7:20, go to my four class periods for an hour and a half each, go home at 2:15, do homework for the rest of the night, and go to sleep. That was my everyday life. Boring, yes I know, and this was when I knew I needed change. I needed something new in my life that would allow me to love learning and involve myself in being a more well- rounded knowledgeable person.

Core is the class that we take that is our Jewish History and Culture class. We have this class everyday because we travel through history extremely quick. With this class, we travel to all the historical sites that are relevant throughout history. For example, we were learning about agricultural techniques of the ancient Jews. We took a tiyul, field trip, to this mountain called Sataf, where we looked out on the top of the mountain and sat down to learn about terrace farming. Our teacher then goes, “look up and down this mountain, this is a terraced mountain”. I thought this was amazing that I was literally standing on my textbook. I was being told “look around” instead of “turn to page…” Personally, I learn so much more from touching and seeing things in person, rather than listening to a teach talk AT me. I love this program because it allows me to really learn things the best way I possibly could.

The teachers here are very accommodating, meaning they shape the curriculum to fit you best. They understand that you are extremely busy here and that you don’t have school like you would at home. Here, we have school like 3-4 times a week. It sounds like nothing, but we have class for the entire day when we have class. On my schedule on class days, I have Core from 8am-12pm and then my General Studies classes from 1:15- 6:15pm with an hour break in between. It is a lot, but it’s the only way to get everything done with the time we are given. I love this schedule so much better than my home schedule, because it is always changing and bringing something new. I don’t want to do the same thing every day, so I like to change it up.

Overall, I am happy with my general studies teachers and my Core teacher. They are very intelligent and are good at keeping an open line of communication with my teachers at home. I was skeptical at first when I came here because I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to keep up with my school’s curriculum. I was texting my friends and I would stress out because I wasn’t at the same spot as them, but then I realized that my teachers here have made their own schedule and told me not to worry. I was reassured that I would get everything done in time, just it will be done at our own pace.  Now being halfway through the program, I am confident that I will be done by the end of the program and be ready for all my finals and exams. The school part of this program is what makes it so special, it’s not a typical High School. It meets all of my needs academically, and I couldn’t be happier.