 Pre-Atidim encourages excellence and advances the educational systems in junior high and high schools in the periphery.
The program strives to broaden the circle of high school graduates from the periphery whose personal achievements allow them to be accepted to the most prestigious and requested university faculties, by strengthening the participants’ feeling of capability and motivating them to pursue an academic education.
Pre-Atidim helps these youth to progress and is the basis for other Atidim programs.
The path to higher education begins with high matriculation grades
The goal of the program is to instill a dream of pursuing an academic education among those youth with a high level of abilities, but for whom pursuing higher education does not come naturally. The Pre-Atidim program helps them fulfill this dream by providing them with additional instructional hours in math, physics and English and by supporting activities encouraging personal empowerment, development of excellence and exposure to industry and academia. The program assists participants to obtain a matriculation certificate with high grades in science-related subjects and provides them with the skills needed to open doors of prestigious faculties within institutions of higher education.
The target population
The program focuses on youth, who are in the top third of their class, in terms of their academic achievements, who are studying for their matriculation exams with an emphasis on science-related subjects and who have the personal potential to succeed. These pupils are identified by the school administration and teachers and must pass a long and exacting selection process which includes personal interviews and discussions. As part of the process, we obtain each family’s permission and discuss the importance of their supporting and encouraging their child’s participation throughout the school year.
Our partners
Our activities are run in partnership with the Ministry of Education, local authorities, the Landa Foundation, the Jewish Agency, Bank Leumi, the Ethiopian National Project, the Sacta-Rashi Foundation, Mofet, Launching the Future (Heznek L’atid), the Branco Weiss Institute for the Development of Thinking, ORT Israel, Ben Gurion University, Tel Aviv University, Bar Ilan University, Hebrew University – Belmonte Laboratories, the Technion and Haifa University.
Activities Focus on Four Parallel Tracks
- Additional Instructional Hours
In most of the programs, these hours are provided after the school day has ended, either at the school itself or in municipal centers, in small groups or on an individual basis. The subjects studied by most of the pupils are: English (4 or 5 units), math (4 or 5 units) and a science subject at the 5 unit level. At the same time, assistance is provided in other subjects as well as assistance preparing for the psychometric exam, according to the needs of each pupil.
- Personal and Value related Empowerment
On the path to excellence and to realizing their innate personal potential, youth from the periphery must overcome obstacles. Many of those obstacles are psychological and are the result of growing up in an often vulnerable environment, lacking appropriate role models. One of the main challenges the Pre-Atidim program faces is the lack of faith the children and their immediate environment have in their own ability to succeed and to obtain high grades on their matriculation exams. In order to meet this challenge, Pre-Atidim has developed a variety of empowerment programs, focused on increasing the pupils’ feelings of personal capability, strengthening their self-confidence, acquainting them with personalities worthy of imitation and increasing their motivation to pursue a higher education - all of which are conditions for academic success.
- Developing a feeling of social responsibility
Pre-Atidim aspires not only to produce better pupils but people who strive for excellence in all aspects of their lives. The program, therefore, places an emphasis on social and environmental responsibility, believing that every outstanding young man and woman has an obligation and responsibility to the place they came from and, as much as possible, to assisting the youth who need extra help. As the leaders of tomorrow, the participants are equipped by the program with the tools needed to be social leaders, with an emphasis on pride and responsibility regarding the place where they grew up.
- Developing an extensive vision of the future and exposure to new horizons
Due to the geographical distance from the centers of academia and culture, youth from the periphery often lack exposure to a broad range of academic and cultural content. Pre-Atidim aspires to introduce these youth to as broad a range of concepts and visions of the future as possible.
· Exposure to academia and the most prestigious academic faculties – with the generous assistance of the Landa Foundation, the program enables participants to visit different universities, attend lectures and even participate in activities in different laboratories and faculties. This is done to help participants develop a vision of the future which is as far-reaching as possible and to help the pupils focus their academic and professional aspirations.
· Exposure to high tech and emergent industries – the pupils visit emerging industries and are exposed to high-tech and bio-technology, to acquaint them with key roles developing in Israeli industry.
· Meetings with personalities who are possible role models – the pupils meet with students studying in the Academic Preparatory program and senior officers from elite Israel Defense Forces units. Some of these people share similar backgrounds with the youth in the Pre-Atidim program and have overcome similar obstacles to reach where they are today. The pupils are given the opportunity to envision where they will be in a few years, when and if they realize their capabilities.
Pre-Atidim for Ethiopian Israelis
Pre-Atidim has built a special framework for Ethiopian youth, in cooperation with the Ethiopian National Project (ENP), whose goal is to encourage and integrate those Ethiopian youth who excel in the Atidim vision. Ethiopian pupils are rarely found in the top quarter of their class in terms of their achievements. A special framework was created, therefore, to meet the needs of this population, to increase the number of Ethiopian pupils who receive high grades on their matriculation exams, and to make higher education more accessible to them. Keeping in mind the special difficulties of these pupils, activities include additional instruction hours in the sciences, math and English, programming aimed at improving self-confidence and self-value and activities to increase their motivation to succeed and to achieve high grades. In order to achieve these goals, Atidim operates two principal models according to need:
· School-based excellence centers: operated within schools that have heterogeneous classes which include a high percentage of Ethiopian youth
· Municipal excellence centers which target mainly Ethiopian youth who study there after school in small groups
Did you know?
· The program began in October 2002 with 2000 pupils, in 40 schools, in 20 communities across Israel.
· As of 2006/7 academic year, there are 10,000 pupils enrolled in the program, from 130 schools and youth villages in 60 communities.
· Pre-Atidim is the largest program operating in the educational system.
· When the program began, there were no Ethiopian participants. Today the program includes more than 700 Ethiopian pupils.
· 20% of those accepted to the IDF academic reserve are Pre-Atidim graduates.
· Pre-Atidim pupils participate in special activities with members of elite IDF units of the Air Force, Navy and the Intelligence Corps who serve as role models for program participants.
· Every pupil in Pre-Atidim participates in at least three activities each year which expose them to higher education opportunities.
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