Our student of the week comes to us from down under!

Hi! I’m Ofir Zeevi from Sydney, Australia. Long before I graduated from my Jewish day school, Moriah College in November 2015, I knew I wanted to spend an extended period of time in Israel. Having spent a long time looking through all the programs that were on offer I came across Aardvark and realized it would be the one for me. I saw for myself an incredible opportunity to gain experience in the workplace, become more independent, improve my Hebrew, pursue my interests and most importantly – to meet new people.


I did my internship at Tel Aviv University’s Entrepreneurship Centre, StarTAU. Throughout this time I was involved with writing a syllabus for one of their programs and writing proposals to businesses, inviting them to invest and collaborate with us. My experience was incredible, having taught me to work independently, communicate with businesses and collect data efficiently. I was even lucky enough to sit in on a number of meetings with delegations from all over the world including China and the US Embassy. The internship definitely changed my perspective on Israel as a startup nation as I witnessed first-hand the country’s latest innovations and developments and their impact on the society.


Aside from my work, I’ve learnt a great deal about independent living, budgeting, Israeli culture and cooking (my shakshuka recipe has improved, dramatically!).


My favourite aspect of the program was definitely meeting new people and building lifelong friendships with people from all over the world and these relationships are both powerful and inspiring. I have promised myself to stay in touch with as many people as possible and hopefully meet up with them in Australia or abroad in the near future. I am definitely going to miss chilling with everyone, jamming with my roomies and going out to all the awesome events in Tel Aviv!