The UJA Federation of New York Partners with the Feuerstein Institute
The
Feuerstein Institute is proud to acknowledge our newest project with a
senior partner in education; the UJA Federation of New York. Following
the success of the first class of our Ethiopian Israelis enrolled at
Hebrew University sponsored by the Harvey and Gloria Kaylie Foundation,
the UJA Federation of New York has pledged to sponsor a second class of
students.
The
Feuerstein Institute's University Program began three years ago. The
program's goal is to make available to Ethiopian immigrants and other
children from disadvantaged backgrounds a first rate education at a top
Israeli university, that would not have been otherwise available to
them.
For
a millennium, the Ethiopian culture has been based on an oral
tradition. Therefore Ethiopian youths have a significant disadvantage in
the traditional psychometric tests administered by the universities and
consistently under perform in them. Their low scores make them
ineligible for admission to the better universities. Professor
Feuerstein, who throughout his career staunchly argued that traditional
IQ tests are not an adequate measure of intelligence, proposed an
alternative. He requested that instead of these universities using the
students' psychometric scores as a basis of admission, to accept them
based on LPAD testing. Bar Ilan University was the first to agree to try
out a class of such students; this fall, the third class matriculate. A
year later, Hebrew University agreed as well, and now the UJA
Federation of New York will sponsor this fall's incoming class, who will
begin the first year of their three year coursework.
We
are proud to report that through our program, Ethiopian students have
been placed in a wide variety of university departments, including
(among several others); Medicine, Law, Electrical Engineering and
Computer Science.
Due
to the success of this program, Ben Gurion University in Be'er Sheva
has announced that they will take part in this ground breaking program
as well, and plan to roll the program out as of the 2013/4 academic
year.
