Dana C. – Cincinnati, Summer 2016

“I am interning in Tel Aviv at Operad, where I am in charge of many social media websites for different companies.

My group has been in Israel for nearly one week and we already love it! We landed Tuesday morning and headed to the Jerusalem hostel where Onward Israel orientation was held. Since we arrived one day before orientation, we had the ability to explore Jerusalem before things began. In Jerusalem, we either journeyed on a train to the Old City to see the Kotel or took a taxi to a nearby mall. It was nice to have a break before orientation because some groups had to go straight from the plane to programming.

Next, we traveled to Tel Aviv to move into our apartments for the rest of the summer. The 14 of us are split into 2 different apartments. Both are not only near each other, but also minutes walking from the beach, stores, markets, and nightlife. We have taken full advantage of our close proximity to the beach and have been every single day.

After a few days of getting to know our neighborhood, we began our internships. Our jobs range from health care to marketing to technology to art. Working in Israel really immerses us into Israeli life. We take a bus to work, which at first was challenging, since some of us had to go out of our comfort zones and ask strangers for help on how to navigate the system. Luckily, we quickly learned Israelis do not have a great sense of time, so if a bus is late or if we get lost, they will not mind if we are a few minutes late.”