The First Year of My Life

The nine months I spent in Israel on this program were the start of my life. The friends I consider family, the sites I explored and the memories that will stay forever with me all happened because of Aardvark. I have befriended and engaged in other Israel programs and through all of my first hand and online research, I still cannot speak higher of any experience other than aardvark.

When the war broke out during my stay there, one would expect an eighteen year old girl to flee home to her parents. However, because of the support and love this program provided for me, I reacted in the exact opposite fashion. I couldn't leave my newfound home and I knew in my heart it would be harder to leave than to stay.

The courses I took and the teachers that led them guided me to the college I am at now. Through my creative writing class specifically I ended up at an arts school in Savannah, Ga. Because of the diversity and popularity this program holds, I now have friends merely a bus ride away here in the south when I was raised halfway across the world in California.

I thank Aardvark everyday for the individual I've become and they couldn't have offered me anything greater.