December 9, 2009
Daniel Schuval, MASA's Director of Academic Program at the ICC Fall Consultation
The State of Israel was the twenty-second most popular study abroad destination for American students in the 2007-2008 academic year. That year 2,322 students studied abroad in Israel. With an increase of 4.3%, from the 2006-2007 academic year, Israel as a study abroad destination is increasing as a viable choice in the minds of American students. These numbers, and a variety of questions surrounding study abroad in Israel, set the tone for the ICC’s Study Abroad in Israel Task Force meeting that took place last Thursday, December 3 at the semi-annual ICC Consultation.
Unlike the other task forces that met last week, the ICC’s Study Abroad in Israel Task Force has been in existence for a number of years. Consisting of representatives from nearly 10 ICC member organizations, the Study Abroad Task Force has been a place for fruitful collaboration over the years. During the most recent meeting of the group, task force members laid out tangible, measurable goals for the upcoming spring 2010 semester.
In an effort to improve methods of marketing study abroad in Israel, the task force put forth the goal of selecting up to 25 trial campuses to serve as informational models for intense research about the study abroad campus environment, marketing techniques, student populations, etc. This will allow the task force to effectively target specific campuses and provide information about studying abroad in Israel. Additionally, the task force agreed to update the ICC’s “
List of 100 Schools’ Study Abroad Policies” in order to make sure that our resources are as up to date as possible. Furthermore, efforts to integrate the study abroad experience into the everyday experiences of college undergrads is an idea that the task force intends to think more about in the coming semester. Finally, the ICC Study Abroad Task Force will continue its primary purpose of making sure that students on all campuses are able to study abroad in Israel. Several key campuses that the task force will continue to monitor and aid in any way that it can are the University of Virginia, the California State University system and the North Carolina state system. The Study Abroad in Israel Task Force is looking forward to a productive spring 2010 semester.
Task Force members include representatives from: BlueStarPR, The Israel University Consortium (IUC), MASA Israel Journey, The David Project, The Zionist Organization of America, Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life, USD/Hagshama, The Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation and YJ Impact!. The task force is chaired by Janet Alperstein, Director of the Office of Academic Affairs for the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (a member of the IUC).
If you are interested in participating in the ICC’s Study Abroad in Israel Task Force please contact
Andrea Sorin at
asorin@israelcc.org or 202-449-6583 for further information.