Panther learns outside the lines

According to several scientific studies, today’s teenagers often lack independence and are too dependent on their parents. Senior Hannah Weinstein got a taste of independence last year while studying abroad in Israel for five months. Weinstein was given the unique opportunity through her a Jewish summer camp she attends.

Leaving her home, school, friends and family for Israel was an entirely new experience for Weinstein.

“I kept in contact with my mom every day and tried to calling them as much as I could,” Weinstein said. “It was also really hard keeping in contact with my friends because it’s a ten hour difference, but I think it strengthened my friendships.”

Despite the anxieties of leaving home, Weinstein’s desire to learn more about herself and the world helped her gather the courage to travel.

“I’m Jewish, so I thought it’d be amazing to learn more about my culture and about everything that happened over there more in depth,” Weinstein says.

During her time abroad, Weinstein took classes Sunday through Thursday for twelve hours each day. Along with keeping up with usual high school subjects, Weinstein learned 3000 years of Jewish history and became nearly fluent in Hebrew. In addition to academic knowledge, Weinstein feels she has learned many life lessons and experience.

According to Weinstein, her social skills greatly improved after coming home from Israel.

“A big thing I learned was how to interact with people [from] living with three other girls in a dorm [and] switching roommates,” Weinstein said. “It definitely helped to think about what college is going to look like.”

Weinstein also became self-reliant while spending time on her own.

“I learned how to get work done on my own, and not have my mom or dad there telling me to do my homework and get myself organized,” Weinstein said. “I had to learn to cook my own food and how to clean. You get to make your own choices, and you definitely get to learn how to do your own thing and not have someone on your back.”

Senior Jordan Karpin studied abroad in the same program two years ago. She was there for only four months, but took away similar life lessons.

“I think it definitely taught me how to be more independent. I see that a lot now too.” Karpin said. “You do not have to do things the conventional way. There are a lot of ways to learn. I mean, I chose to leave school for four months and still got all my credits, and it all worked out.”

The culture shock of being in a new country surprised Weinstein in particular.

“You definitely get to learn how different other countries are from the United States,” Weinstein says. “I thought it was very different. The people are more laid back. You can see how different European cultures are, especially when I went to Poland. That was different from the United States and from Israel. Just seeing how everyone interacts with each other. Even how parties are, they’d be held at a bomb shelter instead of someone’s house.”

Different from Weinstein’s surprise of the new culture, Karpin knew much about the culture before going.

“I didn’t have a lot of culture shock because I know a lot of Israeli people,” Karpin says. “They’re really fun people, so I was ready for that. I do really like the culture there. The food there especially is really good. It’s just a fun place to be young.”

Because of the common threat of war and violence in Israel, Weinstein and her group were put through a simulation of an army boot camp.

“When you are eighteen in Israel,” Weinstein explains, “you are sent to the army. You don’t have a choice. It is [about] four percent that don’t go, so we got to do a boot camp to see what army life was like. Being in the tents and having to wake up at 5 A.M. to have to shoot guns was intense, but with our commander it was really nice because they were supportive. At night time our commander would take us and play music for us. They taught us how simple and meaningful life could be.”

While studying the Holocaust, Weinstein and her classmates were flown out to Poland to tour the concentration camps.

“When we went to Auschwitz, [it was] breathtaking. It was so incredible being there, knowing everyone that you are with had one family member in the Holocaust,” Weinstein said. “One camp they took us to, which was called Majdanek, if you set up [the gas chambers] correctly, they would be working again. When I went through the chambers, I felt death on me and felt sick, but being able to see that was so incredible. It was so emotional.”

Weinstein learned many different things about herself that she will help her for the rest of her life. She encourages anyone and everyone to take a chance and study abroad and experience the incredible journey that she got to.