By Amanda Leifer
From January 13th to the 23rd, the Frisch school joins six other Jewish schools in sending their engineering students on a trip to Israel. The trip is funded by the Center for Initiatives in Jewish Education (CIJE). Founded in 2008 and created by the Israel Sci-Tech network of schools, CIJE-Tech is a biomedical and scientific engineering curriculum for students in high school. It focuses primarily on educating students in STEM: science, technology, engineering and math.
“Israel is far ahead much of the world in leveraging STEM capabilities in new business startups. We’re providing unique access and activities that will significantly enhance our CIJE-Tech students’ education,” said Judy Lebovits, vice president and director of CIJE.
The program is taking place in Israel, where students will be given the chance to develop products, technology, and meet entrepreneurs who will give them insight into science in the 21st century. They will also be able to pitch their ideas to Venture Capital executives in Israel, as well as learn about the “Silicon Wadi” from Saul Singer, best-selling author of Start-Up Nation.
Seven schools from New York, New Jersey, and California will be participating. They are: Davis Renov Stahler Yeshiva High School for Boys, Hebrew Academy of Five Towns and Rockaway, Stella K. Abraham High School for Girls. The Frisch School, New Community Jewish High School, and Yeshiva University of Los Angeles High Schools for Boys and Girls.
Two sophomores from The Frisch School, Daniel Koenig, and David Lifschitz, are going on the trip. The school has been using the CIJE-Tech curriculum for its engineering courses since the beginning of the school year. Its engineering program is funded by “CIJE,” who recently bought a 3D printer for the school’s engineering lab. “CIJE is the mother company for our engineering course. They supply the curriculum and notes on how to do projects that we undertake,” Lifschitz said.
“In addition to the CIJE curriculum at Frisch, where students learn about engineering and technology, the trip will give them an opportunity to learn about entrepreneurship as well as bringing items to market. This is the first trip for students, however the teachers have had teacher training in Israel,” said Rivkie Silverman, head of engineering at Frisch.
“I am looking forward to an amazing experience that only happens once in a lifetime, and I am very excited to learn more about electrical engineering, circuits, and learning the whole business aspect of engineering. What I like about CIJE is that is gives young minds a chance to learn about engineering and be interactive in building different circuits and machines. CIJE is helping us learn about engineering because it’s not like any other class where you just sit down and the teacher stands in front of you and teaches, but we get to learn by doing, by writing codes and making circuits. It’s really my favorite class,” Koenig said.
Amanda Leifer, in addition to being a junior in The Frisch School, is a musician, photographer, and journalist. You can reach her at [email protected].
