2011 Summer Program Recap

Thanks to the hard work of our staff, MIT instructors, volunteers and supporters, the 2011 MEET Summer Program was a huge success! The summer program brought together over 100 Palestinian and Israeli students for 5 intensive weeks of advanced technology and business education, led by an impressive team of 14 MIT instructors. Highlights included an exciting field trip to Google, an “apprentice” business challenge hosted by Hewlett Packard (HP), and presentations of impressive, student-led technology projects, including the Y3 project with external start-up client called MuseTrek.

At the start of the summer we welcomed our new class of Year 1 students. The 44 students who began MEET this summer are an exceptionally strong group of individuals who were selected from a pool of over 600 applications. By the end of the summer these students, who began with little or no Java programming knowledge, had completed fully operational computer games with impressive functions and graphics. Year 1 students also took field trips to Animation Lab and the HP Headquarters. We are very impressed with our new students and can’t wait to see all they accomplish with MEET over the next two years.

As expected, Year 2 students excelled. Year 2 students proved themselves as young businessmen and women during this year’s Apprentice Event where they presented marketing plans to sell HP TouchPads to 50+ year-old Israelis and Palestinians. We would like to thank our topnotch panel of judges: Sandra Ashhab, MEET board member and Environmental Consultant; Assaf Harlap, MEET board member and Smart Brand Manager at Comobil Group; Eva Kedar, Management Consultant and author; Rahul Pasarnikar, Management Consultant at McKinsey & Company; Roi Carmel, Product Manager at HP, and Nechama Greenberg, a youthful representative of 50+ consumers. Click here to view pictures of the Apprentice Event.

Another highlight of the summer was a visit to the regional Google office! Along with Year 3 students, Year 2 students toured Google’s work and leisure spaces, spoke with staff, and sampled as much of Google’s famous free food as possible. Quote of the day: “Google is Disneyland for nerds!” (Marina Boursheh).

Year 3 students worked with a real world client called MuseTrek for their final project. MEET students developed applications that allow users to curate their own “treks” (tours) through cultural sites, cities, museums and other physical spaces. In addition to programming the technical back end of this project, Year 3 students also added content to the site by creating treks in places important to them in the region. Rounding out their summer, Y3 students organized a commencement ceremony at The Hebrew University attended by MEET staff, students, family members and MEET supporters. Click here for pictures of the 2011 Graduation. As alumni, our Year 3 graduates are excited to remain an active part of the MEET Network.

Huge thanks to our Summer Instructors from MIT: Anna Premo (who served as Head Instructor), Christy Le, Derek Stein, Eirik Bakke, Elena Agapie, Eva Khan, Emily Davidson, Evan Iwerks, Justin Sharps, Lorenzo Brown, Mark Wittels, Matt Landreman, Selim Temizer and Shelly Manbar. Check out their impressive bios here. We would also like to thank Dan Ramage, a former MEET Instructor, and Janet Zhou, who dedicated valuable consulting services to MEET staff and delivered excellent lectures at the summer Alumni Conference.

Finally, we would like to recognize our 2011 summer staff for their outstanding effort and professionalism: Talya Swartz, Mustafa Hussein, George Khoury, Liel Greenberg, Rafat Nd, Sadek Jabr, and Yohanan Hruschev. This summer the MEET Tenure Award, a new award given to individuals with three or more years of service to MEET, was presented to Anna Premo, Mustafa Hussein, Yohanan Hrusvhev, Rafat Nd and Ted Golfinopoulous. Congratulations and a big “thank you” to these five remarkable individuals!

Check out all the summer photos on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MEET.education?sk=photos.