I Graduated Machon Lev!

I graduated college in Israel!

First of all, I would like to apologize for posting so infrequently lately. I've been quite busy the last few weeks, but I hope to start posting a lot more often now. My excuse (among others): I graduated college last week! And my parents were in town to celebrate for the last week and half so I was busy with them.

Since I graduated from a college in Israel, I thought it was worthy of a Kumah post. The school I graduated from is a college, not a university, as it only offers undergraduate degrees at this point. It offers a variety of engineering and business majors. However, it is a very unique institution in that the school requires at least 3 hours of Judaic studies in the Beit Medrash with a choice of a number of Rabbis in the morning, in addition to the secular classes in the afternoon. Think Yeshiva University in Jerusalem.

My school is located in the Givat Mordechai neighborhood of Jerusalem. It is called Machon Lev (Lev Institute) and is only for men, but it is under the umbrella of The Jerusalem College of Technology, which includes Machon Naveh (night school on my campus), and campuses for women called Machon Tal in Givat Shaul, Jerusalem and another called Machon Lustig in Bnei Brak. My degree is a Bachelors of Technology and Applied Sciences in Computer Science. The school also has an English Speakers' Program for the first year (which I started in and became madrich of for a few years), which includes an Ulpan to help you learn Hebrew so you can integrate into the school and life in Israel, and it also provides tutors to help you when you move into Israeli classes.

If you have any questions about the school, please feel free to ask me. The website for the English Speakers' Program is: http://esp.jct.ac.il and for the school itself is: http://www.jct.ac.il. I highly recommend it for the 1st year to any English speaker (during the post-high school year in Israel or after some time in Yeshivah in Israel or even as a transfer/study-abroad student from America), and as a college for any religious student interested in a major it offers. Here are some pictures from the ceremony:

Diverse crowd of family and friends fill the amphitheater on campus
Ethiopians, Americans (my parents, 2nd row), Israelis, and more

Marching in (not quite as organized as a fancy American ceremony)

Some graduates wear white and blue, others are in a special program in the army where they work in the fields they studied. Those people come to the ceremony in uniform. No caps and gowns.
The Valedictorian speaks. At the dais are the president and Rosh Yeshivah among others.
My fan club - all English speakers (most from America) who have moved to Israel and are studying or teaching at the school or other colleges in Israel.