For my Health Science Scholars Capstone Project I interned during Summer 2019 at Nefesh B’Nefesh. Below is a little bit about my experiences, impact, and takeaways from my internship as well as the my presentation on the project.
Who: Nefesh B’Nefesh is a non-profit organization that helps to facilitate immigration from any English speaking countries to Israel. They assist by providing support through financial, professional, and logistical services. As well as providing social opportunities for immigrants to engage in.
What: I worked in Nefesh B’Nefesh’s Tel Aviv Hub Location. Which is right in the heart of Tel Aviv. The office is not only for NBN Staff but serves as a shared workspace for immigrants who are running their own business, are freelance workers, or job searching (kind of like a WeWork space but only for immigrants through this program). It doubles as an event space too!
So, what did you do? As an intern, I was assisting in daily office function, running their social media accounts (@nbntlv on Instagram), helping to plan social events, and creating a new campaign for a branch of NBN called NBN on Campus. NBN on Campus is a resource for college students who are considering immigrating to Israel and want to connect with individuals who went to their own institutions to learn more about the process. Through this campaign, I was reaching out via email and phone to immigrants around Israel to learn more about their stories to add to https://www.nbn.org.il/nbnoncampus/.
Impact: Through this internship, I was able to make an impact on the people who work at the TLV Hub. While there I helped come up with programming ideas that they are still using. For example, celebrating every day through the small stuff like national chocolate milk day or national daughter day! Through the campaign I was working on, I was able to create a more well-rounded database of college graduates who are willing to serve as a resource for future immigrants.
Takeaways: As someone who has a lot of family that has moved to Israel over the last few years, being able to see the insider side of the process was interesting. While immigrating to a different
country doesn’t always seem like a lot of work, there are tons of paperwork attached to moving over your citizenship, opening a bank account, finding a house/job, and then there is also a socioemotional impact that it has on a person since you are most likely nowhere near your friends and family, therefore, you have to start your life all over again.
My second takeaway was being able to see how the different programming had an impact on members of the community, on July 4th we decided to grill on the patio, invite everyone to join for a shared lunch, and set up a photo booth. While it was something simple and didn’t cost a lot of money, having a July 4th BBQ was something familiar for almost everyone in the room and was a nice break from our standard work schedules.
My last takeaway, throughout this internship I was living in Southern Tel Aviv and commuting to work every day, having the opportunity to work in a foreign country and learn more about their daily function is a once in a lifetime experience. In Israel, the work culture is causal in comparison to in the United States and their workweek is Sunday- Thursday!
