Hi, my name is Joshua Pincus and I am from Johannesburg South Africa. Two year ago I spent my gap year in Tel Aviv on Aardvark. Little did I know that before I attended the program, that my life would be changed forever. After finishing school, it had always been my intention to take a gap year. When deciding on what gap year program I would take, my criteria included a gap year where I could live independently in a fast paced city and a program which provided a platform for me to meet new people from around the world. Aardvark had ticked all the boxes. I had initially went into the program with an open mind, not knowing what to expect. My five and a half months consisted of me working for a business incubator and later on working for a kindergarten with children with autism, taking a marketing class, exploring Israel on purpose and by accident (walking from Modiin to Tel Aviv as a means to tell a good story), eating shakshuka and Cofix microwave food and hanging out with friends from around the world.
Aardvark had given me the perfect platform to express myself through independence, exploration of new places, it allowed me to learn and most importantly I made some of my closest friends from around the world. Currently I attend the University of Johannesburg and I am studying strategic marketing communications. The Aarvark classes had allowed me to enter the university environment with a greater understanding of the degree I was about to take. Two years later I constantly look back at Aardvark and the abilities it has given me such as the ability to implement the independence I was given as well as the confidence to go out into the world with an even larger open mind. Still to this day, I regard Aarvark as the greatest year of my life.