Student of the week – Talia Szekely
Hi, my name is Talia Szekely, and I’m currently a student on Aardvark. Hailing from Sydney, Australia, I am lucky enough to be living in the vibrant neighbourhood of Florentine in Tel Aviv. It wasn’t until after a program in Israel during high school that I considered spending part of my gap year in Israel […]
Weekly Updates – Jerusalem September 1, 2018
Dear Parents and Students, Our first week in Jerusalem was a busy, eventful and exciting one. Here are some highlights: The week began on Monday with the students arriving, beginning to settle into their new apartments, and meeting their roommates and their madrichim. They have been enjoying getting to know one other and acclimating to their new […]
Student of the Week – Julianna Mallis
Hello! My name is Julianna Mallis, and I’m from Marietta, Georgia. I knew I wanted to do a gap year in Israel since tenth grade, and I spent my remaining years of high school convincing my parents to let me. I went to a gap year fair about a year ago, and learned about a […]
The Reforestation of Israel
Of Israel’s many accomplishments, one of the most impressive may be the reforestation of the land. From the turn of the twentieth century a huge amount of work has gone into planting trees and turning the land green. Since 1900 roughly 250,000,000 trees have been planted across Israel and it is the only county in […]
Weekly Updates – Jerusalem November 3, 2017
Dear Parents, Here are some of the highlights from our week. On Sunday we laced up our sneakers and headed to the Ulam to do some Zumba run by me (Natali). I lead us in an hour of Zumba that really made us work up a sweat and got our blood pumping. During the apartment meetings […]
Weekly Updates – Jerusalem October 27, 2017
Shalom Parents! We’ve had an exciting week! On Sunday evening we had an activity about Kibbutz life. The activity focused on kibbutz’s values and we asked the students where they could apply these values, such as mutual responsibility, in their daily lives in their apartments. On Monday we had a sushi workshop where we taught the students […]
From the Desert to the Snow in Israel
When thinking about your gap year in Israel part of you is probably visualising hot sunny days on the beach, hiking in the desert, bathing in Israel’s many natural springs and so on. However, you should also consider the fact that very often it will snow in Israel and when it does the landscape develops […]
The Last Weekly Update
Shalom Parents, I hope you are all excited to see your children again. We, the Tel Aviv staff, have had a bittersweet 3 days… It is so exciting to see the change and progress every single one of the students made during the semester! But right now the office is so quiet… it feels unnatural! […]
Weekly Updates – Jerusalem: The Last Letter
Shalom Parents! Today the Aardvark program officially came to an end. It was bittersweet for all of us. It has been a wonderful year, but it is sad to see the students leave.While a small number of our students are still strolling the streets of Jerusalem, most of our participants are already on flights home […]
Weekly Updates – Tel Aviv May 25, 2017
Shalom Parents, I cannot believe that there is less than a week left of the program. I feel like I met the students just yesterday. They were a little confused, very excited, and full of question: “Why am I not alone in a bedroom?” “Where do I do my laundry?” “Why do I have to […]
