Coming Home: Kibbutz Ketura

By taking a look at any 'what employers look for' list, you'll see an array of things that one can learn from study abroad: 'cultured', 'multi-cultured', 'good communicative skills', 'ability to work with people from around the world'. The job field wants this, thus colleges scramble to make it possible for their students in order that they get a job and represent said college well. Parents read the messages that the career and colleges send, and thus help apply pressure to the student to go abroad. Students, wanting the 'once in a life-time' experience that they hear from all the above plus their peers, jump on the 'study abroad' bandwagon.  You think you know what you're getting into. You think you know how you'll learn the skills employers want you to have. You're wrong. At least, I was. 

When looking for colleges I knew I wanted to study abroad.
My freshmen year at Allegheny I decided on the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies.
I can honestly say it has been among the hardest things I have ever done in my life. 

I didn't think I would learn communication skills by fighting with an Israeli student over how he treated me. I didn't know I would come to understand a lot about Jordan and South America while I was in Israel. I couldn't imagine that I would gain culture by walking through Jerusalem and having to turn down unwanted advances. I didn't assume I'd learn communication skills by working with peers who had English as a 2nd, 3rd, even 5th language. I didn't realize I'd learn how to balance the needs of individuals on a team whose views on work contradicted each other due to cultural differences. I could not have guessed that I would learn cultural awareness by being by many people who were not, and seeing how that effected those around them. But, I did.

A snapshot of my peers

Granted, I realize the program I chose was unconventional. The AIES attempts to tease out and inflame the disagreements between people as a way of learning how to cope with such disparities. Case in point- The Peace and Leadership Seminar (e.g. PELS). PELS is a 3 hour seminar once a week that brings up uncomfortable topics (Israel-Palestine relations, sexual assault, racism/sexism, ect) and show where viewpoints differ. Then, students must work through those differing views as you're living with the person you disagree with for over 4 months. It's harder than I imagined as you're not dealing with one or two new cultures, but rather a dozen-plus.

My research site

In being here, I have learned what I set out to learn, but moreover I've learned things I couldn't expect to learn in ways I really didn't expect to learn them. I've learned about myself through relationships. I've learned about religious views through spending holidays with Orthodox Jews. I've learned how other cultures view timeliness by my being early to *everything* only to have the rest of the crowd show up 15 minutes late. I've learned how to work with sexist colleagues through working on a research team here in the Middle East.

Kibbutz Ketura

By being in Kibbutz Ketura, at the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, I've been able to see how so many cultures are both alike, and different. How some needs and values are universal while others are hotly contested. I have been able to see how the misinterpretation of something said by the misuse of one word can spiral into a huge fight, and how understanding context can nip that fight in the bud. So perhaps I did not learn as much academically as I had wished by being here. But I walk away with this place knowing more about myself, about the world around me, and how to be a more tolerant and understanding person. I am now able to take the skills on how to be a tolerant person anywhere I am.

 And really, that's the best education anyone could hope for.