icnext

Target Population

Jewish teens in grades 10–12

Jewish Knowledge/Engagement Level of Participants:

Participants come from a wide variety of Jewish backgrounds, engagement profiles, and exposure to Israel.

Primary Goals

The primary goals of this program are twofold: to educate students about Israel in a deeper way than they are likely to experience elsewhere, by delving into Zionism, Israeli borders, Jerusalem and its challenges, and Palestinian refugees; and in doing so to prepare teens for the next phase of their lives in college.

Brief Description

icnext is a two-year, cohort-based program that includes a number of components. The first year involves eight monthly sessions focused on the topics above, including both learning and time for small group reflections on that learning. There are also monthly writing assignments designed to sharpen writing and journalistic skills, and a week-long mifgash (encounter) with Israeli teens in the spring. Next, the cohort travels to Israel for ten days over the summer between the two years, where they experience a second mifgash with the same Israeli peers they hosted in the spring. The second year of the program is focused on helping teens bring their learnings to others in the form of blogs and a photo exhibit of their trip, curated by the teens (with the help of their advisor) around a particular theme. Lastly, each teen must complete a project of their choosing that draws on their learnings and trip experiences. While the trip to Israel undoubtedly serves as a draw to participation and a kind of culminating experience, the emphasis of the program is more on all that happens before and after the time they spend in Israel. The structure serves as a way of integrating their trip experiences into a deeper and more sophisticated educational experience that prepares them to face and proactively respond to the criticisms of Israel they will undoubtedly face in college in a way that other teen trips typically do not.