Hi, my name is Dovi Rosenberg, I’m from Sydney, Australia, and I have been granted the amazing opportunity to be a student on the Aardvark Spring Semester 2019. Having graduated from a Modern Orthodox School in Sydney, I have taken a natural step forward in coming to Israel for my gap year before beginning my university degree at UNSW Business School in 2020.
In deciding which program I wanted to do, I struggled to find one that truly stood out to me and resonated with what I wanted to get out of my time here. Until I found Aardvark. Aardvark offered internships and independent living in Tel Aviv, combined with weekly trips around Israel, a full Israel experience.
Coming into the program, I was lucky enough to have a few friends from home, which made it easy to settle in initially. However, I soon made incredible new friends from all over the world that I can’t believe I didn’t know only a few months ago. My time here has allowed me to fully experience living alone in Tel Aviv with a group of similar-minded young adults, as well as to engage in a foreign educational and working environment.
In deciding where to work for my internship, a company called ‘Fokoya’ caught my eye. Given my interest in financial trading, Fokoya – a leading Peer2Peer platform provider – seemed well suited to me. Their main platform, Blockium, an educational financial trading simulator, is where my work is focused, involving both designing and building websites, as well as conducting extensive market research and analytics. Currently, we are preparing to launch Israel’s first Initial Exchange Offering (IEO), which I am very proud to be a part of. Not only have I been able to add my work to my resume but also I have been fortunate enough to gain a greater understanding of the workplace and how to effectively function within one.
On top of this, Aardvark offers international trips which gave me the opportunity to visit Ethiopia on an incredible, once in a lifetime, 5-day trip in February. We were able to interact with a Jewish community, participate in their prayer service and even use their Mikvah.
Aardvark has provided me with an experience I will never forget, invaluable work experience and life-long friends. I am so grateful for this opportunity and am looking ahead to a bitter-sweet final month in Israel.
