Tag: israel

Julianna: My Journey to Israel

An Open Letter to My Fellow Travel-Hungry BU COM Kids

Shalom BU COM Class of 2016!

Quick re-cap of my summer away from BU: I returned to my summer office job for two months, cranked out a story a week for the college news section of NextGen Journal, got hooked on HBO’s The Newsroom, warmed up to the new cast members on the Real Housewives of New York City and prepared for my trip to Israel.

Now I am Stateside again after participating in the Anti-Defamation League’s Campus Leaders Mission to Israel with 17 other college students from across the country. It was a whirlwind eight days of touring and learning first-hand about Israel’s domestic issues, the Arab-Israeli conflict and Israel’s relations with nations outside of the Middle East. I met journalists, political analysts, new immigrants at an absorption center, IDF soldiers, a world renown professor of Holocaust studies, university students, among others.

The mission to Israel was most definitely the best experience I’ve had in my 20 years of living. Dramatic? Totally. But, I really mean it. Since returning I’ve perused my 600+ photos countless times, daydreamed about zatar (the most delicious spice ever) on everything and reread my notes to further absorb everything that I learned. All this nostalgia and post-travel blues has me longing for another adventure. I want stamps on stamps on stamps in my passport book. I want more culture, another foreign language in my ears and new (or some more ancient) roads to conquer.

I know that I am one of many college students with an endless hunger for travel and adventure. If you find yourself with the very same desire, think about how that aligns with why you chose BU. Speaking for myself, I was completely won over by BU’s location in the heart of Boston. You’ll see that with living in Boston comes constant adventure, whether it be taking the T to the last stop of a particular line, exploring the quaint South End or meandering through the famers’ market at Haymarket. So get ready for the adventure that awaits you in Boston, and along your path to graduation you’re bound to make some stops in near and far places whether through educational or volunteer missions, study abroad or trips for pleasure. Check out www.bu.edu/abroad to begin mapping out your study abroad options for junior year or keep Alternative Spring Break in mind for spring 2013.

Julianna: Summer Begins

Hey BU COM 2016!

Now that you’ve graduated (or graduation is right around the corner) you will come to realize that the next two and half months will culminate to be one of your most significant summers. Look at these next few months as the introduction to the newest and best chapter in your life. Not only will you start college in September, but you will also begin to “put yourself out there” in the world. And so in this introductory phase you will learn more about who you actually are as you experience orientation and say goodbye to family, friends and your hometown.

I guess you can say that I am in quite the reflective and inspiration-seeking mood. It happens to be that just as you are going through an exciting and life-changing summer, so am I. In August I am going on a 10-day trip to Israel through the Anti-Defamation League, an organization that works to combat anti-semitism, bigotry and anti-Israel sentiments. I will tour the country and attend seminars about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Now until I leave for Tel Aviv, I am working at my summer job in Manhattan and staying up on the news in Israel and the Middle East. I am filling up the shelves in my Nook library with a journalistic must: Dan Rather’s recently published memoir as well as literature on Israel and its history.

Enjoy your summers and check out my next blogpost in mid-August where I’ll be writing love notes to Israeli falafel and giving all of you important advice for navigating through freshman year.