Embracing Israel’s Surge in Summer Interns
Source: eJewish Philanthropy
Last week, 221 of America’s brightest and most ambitious college students landed in Tel Aviv. During the school year, these students – and 1,500 of their peers – spend their free time participating in a program run by TAMID Group – working on consulting projects for Israeli startups or researching Israeli investments. And now, instead of high-paying opportunities on Wall Street and in Silicon Valley, they are spending the summer as interns in Israel’s high-tech sector.
Perhaps the most remarkable thing about this group is its diversity. TAMID runs its program at 41 campuses, with a group of students that runs the gamut – American and non-American, Jewish and non-Jewish, urban and rural. What unites them is their talent and their thirst to learn from Israeli innovation.
TAMID Group, whose summer program is run under the Onward Israel umbrella, is not the only organization using career development as a vehicle to connect students to Israel (as a board member, it is the one I know best). Thanks to funding from the Paul E. Singer Foundation and the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation, outstanding programs like Birthright Excel and Israel & Co. have catalyzed a surge in young people from abroad visiting Israel to learn about business.
A report from the consulting firm Stax indicates that 2,185 overseas students will come to Israel for an internship program this year. That is a whopping 2700 percent increase from only 79 students in 2011.
Read the whole article at eJewish Philanthropy.