innovationisrael is comprised of a team of educators and a group of participating institutions. With its staff's many years of combined experience in education, science, the arts, and the challenges of multiculturalism, added to the astounding strength of education and creativity in Israel, innovationisrael puts together a model program that involves the whole individual, his/her community, and the resources of the environment. We are educators collaborating with scientists, artists, engineers, and other professionals, to give young students the experience of knowledge forged beyond the walls of the academic classroom. We look into the future with a new, multi-faceted educational model, opening the doors of existing facilities for young people to form their vision of knowledge application, workplace, and concrete possibility. 

innovationisrael is unique in that it is fully an Israeli program, created and developed in Israel. As such, it brings our participants to a total immersion in Israeli culture for a month. They experience the academic as well as the recreational, using the best resources Israel has to offer. They do so with Israeli peers in a program that takes them through the experiences of Israeli youth of similar age. All their activities are supervised by counselors and educators at all times. 

innovationisrael partners with Tel Aviv University via the University ’s  Unit for Science Oriented Youth. The Unit for Science Oriented Youth (Noar Shocher Mada in Hebrew) was established about 40 years ago. It was appointed by the University to develop and promote excellence in youth, and has been running extraordinarily successful unique and diverse programs ever since.
By working together we have designed a program that best responds to the expectations of American students (and those of students from other countries) as well as utilizes to the fullest potential the resources of the Tel Aviv University campus and beyond to the many places we experience throughout the country.

The program is conducted in English and it is entirely international. That means that, for a whole month, innovationisrael students from overseas (American and others) join with Israeli students to learn and enjoy together the many sites and activities the program has to offer.

Our director is Monica Cooper, PhD. Monica is a neurobiologist and cognitive scientist with extensive teaching and research experience at Yale University and Boston College. A graduate of the Greenberg Institute of teachers for the Diaspora in Jerusalem, she received her B.Sc. in Physics and Math from Hebrew University, her Ph.D. in Biology from Yale University, and her M.Ed. in Human Development from Harvard School of Education. She has three children. She works from innovationisrael’s headquarters in the Boston area.

Staff in Israel

A Head of Program: oversees and runs the month long program and is responsible for all aspects of implementation.

Guidance counselors, two American and two Israeli.

Course instructors at TAU are Ph.D. students, selected for the creativity they bring to the courses they teach, making each class a unique meeting time for ideas and cooperative learning. Instructors also accompany our students on their site visits to places of innovation such as high techs or science labs.

Tour guides for the many trips,  are highly trained professionals and have been selected for their knowledge and love of the land and of history.

Security and paramedic personnel accompanies the students at all times.

Participating Institutions

innovationisrael derives the high quality of its programming in great measure from the outstanding Israeli institutions that open their doors especially for our students. To gain a college experience, we bring our students to the internationally renowned campus of Tel Aviv University (TAU).

Academics are complemented with exposure to the world of creative application, which we do in our visits and workshops to a variety of fascinating sites of innovation in the technologies, science, and the arts. For innovationisrael’s participating sites click here.

We travel throughout the country, complementing visits to innovation sites with hikes in nature, beach time, river wading, camel riding, doing art various forms, singing, having fun, learning about the country past, present and future.

.
Most of all innovationisrael is an integrated experience. We don’t separate the learning from the fun. When we learn we do so with an emphasis on enjoyment. We truly believe that Summer is for Fun!

board of advisors