FEATURE SPOTLIGHT ABBY SANDERS

Abby took these pictures during field trips all around the country. Below: Hiking in the desert. Left: View of Jerusalem. Far Left: Abby's group she travels with. Bottom: Another view of the city. Photos courtesy of Abby Sanders.

ISREAL OR BUST

Junior Abby Sanders spends second semester abroad in Jerusalem to explore her heritage

BY MADELYN BARKER

Junior Abby Sanders is completing her school year in an unlikely place- Israel. Abby, a person of Jewish faith, is very involved in her religious community and, last summer, spent a majority of the break in Israel. While she was across the globe, she remained active on social media, frequently posting photos of herself and her friends doing different things like eating Israaeli food, going to the beach after a school day or going to the Jerusalem Wall.

She first decided that she wanted to do an exchange student program at the end of her sophomore year (the 2020-2021 school year), but after taking an extended trip to Israel over the summer, she was convinced that she needed to do a semester abroad in Israel. While many people choose to do a semester abroad in a European country like France or Italy, Abby chose Israel. “Israel and the environment here and it is so closely tied with Judaism, so I feel a deeper connection here than in any other country,” she said. She really wasn’t interested in doing an exchange student program anywhere other than Israel- it was Israel; or bust.

One of the trickiest parts of studying abroad was figuring out what kind of program she would be going with. Abby chose a Jewish program called Heller High, which, hosts a group of about 50 American and Canadian high school students each semester in Israel and live in a community called a Kibbutz. Everyone in the program attends school while traveling around the country.

Abby’s day-to-day schedule is also much different than a typical American student. In the morning she and the other students in her program have Hebrew and Jewish History class, and then from 1-7 p.m., they take general studies classes (all of the classes she would normally take back home). Then they have group activity and free time to study, workout, etc. Sometimes they take tiyuls (trips) where they go to different historical sites in Israel to see what they are learning about in Jewish History.

Unlike American Schools, many schools in Israel place a big emphasis on the student to teacher ratio being lower. While Abby typically has about 15 classmates in Hebrew and Jewish History, in her general studies classes, there are usually 2-5 students max, even going on a first-name basis with teachers and also texting them on their personal phone number with questions about the curriculum. In addition to the smaller class sizes, one of Abby’s favorite parts of going to school in Israel is “not getting much homework since the school day goes from 8 a.m.-7 p.m., which is pretty nice.”

In most study-abroad experiences, a student may stay with a family or in a hostel with the rest of their program but, for the students in Abby’s program, they stay in one of the Kibbutz Tzuba hotels, called Kibbutz Hotel. She and other students in her program room with up to four other people, creating a very close-knit environment.