The Boston Onward group started our summer by all meeting up at the beach for a bonding day. None of us could believe that we were all together in Tel Aviv sitting at one of the most beautiful beaches. We were all truly astonished by how amazing Gordon Beach is and we all felt so lucky to be sitting there together. At night we watched the sunset on the beach as we ate our first falafel of the summer. We spent the next few days adjusting to the time change and preparing for our internships.

Our internships began that following Sunday and everyone ventured off to their jobs. I have friends working for biotech startups, nonprofits, at day cares, at sports offices and even at hospitals doing research and taking people’s blood. I am working for a nonprofit, the Jaffa Institute, and I will be doing social media and marketing for them.

Later I got a group of eight Onward participants together and we went for a beach hike in Herzliya. It was definitely an experience trying to figure out the bus system, but nonetheless we got to our designated starting point and went on a four-mile cliff walk on Gaash beach. We had a great day and ended our adventure by going to the Tel Aviv shuk for lunch. This upcoming week I will be diving further into my internship and I am excited to learn about my responsibilities here at the Jaffa Institute.

Natalie Hallagan, Lehigh University ’24, is a public health major from Needham interning at the Jaffa Institute nonprofit through the Boston Onward Israel program. 125 students from Massachusetts colleges have professional internships in their fields of interest in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Haifa this summer. Visit onwardboston.com for more info.

This post has been contributed by a third party. The opinions, facts and any media content are presented solely by the author, and JewishBoston assumes no responsibility for them. Want to add your voice to the conversation? Publish your own post here. MORE