Fall 2017 - Site Visit - Harvard

1. IACT Site Visit
Fall 2017
Harvard Hillel
Lauren Cohen Fisher

2. IACT at Harvard:
Three Big Pictures
BIRTHRIGHT TREKSTENSION STUDENT LEADERSHIP

3. Winter Registration:
Building on Success
6
15
11
25
21
33
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
Summer
2015
Winter
2016
Summer
2016
Winter
2017
Summer
2017
Winter
2017
Harvard Students on Birthright

4. A Closer Look at Harvard Demographics
Freshman
34%
Sophomores
31%
Junior
19%
Senior
16%
Freshman Sophomores Junior Senior

5. Jewish Engagement
28%
72%
Regularly Engaged with Jewish Life on Campus Not Engaged

6. Impact of Trekstension on Recruitment
85%
15%
Signing up for Harvard BRI because of Trekstension
Would have joined regardless
“I was deciding between Israel Outdoors and the Harvard Trip, because it
seems like a lot of people like Israel Outdoors. But then I heard about
Trekstension, and I ultimately decided that I could hike and rapel in Israel
on my own if I really wanted to – but getting to meet politicians and civil
society in leaders is something I will only be able to do if I go on the
Harvard trip.” –Sarah Lipson, Class of 2019

7. Impact of Trekstension on Engagement
Winter ’17 Trekstension Winter ‘17
Birthright
Summer ’17 Trekstension Summer ‘17
Birthright
Students who met
engagement metric
the semester
following their trip
100% 75% 88% 70%
Students who took on
leadership roles upon
returning to campus
75% 38% 88% 44%
Students engaged in
Israel Learning
75% 42% 56% 11%
“The Trekstension provided me with an amazing opportunity to explore Israeli/Palestinian politics, my
relationship with Israel, and my Jewish identity. […]I began to learn how to confront the tensions that had
previously kept me from engaging with Israel, Palestine, and my relation to the conflict as an American
Jew.” –Gabe Hodgkin ’18
“The soul of the land cannot be illuminated without touching its tipping points.” – Amitai Abouzaglo ’20

8. Birthright Alumni Spotlight
Allen Liu ‘20 Sarah Lipson ‘19

9. How We Got There:
Recruitment Strategies

10. How Did we Get There?
Recruitment Strategies
• 20+ Coffee dates with students
• 3 Israel Interns leveraging personal connections
• Posters in bathrooms, hallways, across campus
• Social media
• STOPPED doing lots of recruitment “events”
• TREKSTENSION

11. How We Got There:
TREKSTENSION

12. PRE-TRIP PROGRAMMING
4 REQUIRED ORIENTATIONS
• Logistical – What to Pack and Questions Like This
• Geopolitical - Jewish and Arab Historical Narratives
of 1948
• Social/Cultural – Street art in Tel Aviv
• Trekstension – Asking strong questions in complex
situations

13. Post-Trip Engagement:
A story of student leadership

14. Post Trip Programming
Israel programming
Jewish programming
Student Leadership

15. Israel Programming
• Wexner Fellows – Undergrad Programming
• Michael Leitner with HII
• Elisheva Goldberg with Trekstension alum
• ROOTS with Trekstension alum
• “One of Us” Film Screening with Trekstension alum
• Hebrew Conversation Table
GOALS FOR 2017-2018
• Israel From the Ground Up – non-credit course in spring semester
• Improve Israel programming for Birthright (dedicate more hours during my week to educational
development)

16. Jewish Programming
EAT. TALK. LEARN.
1) Human Evolutionary Biology
2) Yiddish in the Modern Age
3) Hebrew Bible
Jewish Outing Club: Heschel and Radical Amazement

17. Sustaining Success
• Leading TREK
• Dedicating time to building strong educational
programming
• Specailized training for interns
• Ensuring longevity of Trekstension