ערב הוקרה

In the best Afeka tradition, an evening was held in September ’23 to honor army reservists and social involvement activists

The event, initiated by the Dean of Students and Ofek – Skill Development Centers, was held at Tel Aviv’s Stuko event hall, with 150 students and faculty members who served in the IDF reserves during their time at Afeka, or who’ve been active in social involvement projects in the past year.

The event opened with a salutation by the dean of students Timor Zakai, who thanked participants for their activities throughout the year. Additional speeches were given by head of Ofek – Skill Development Centers, Adv. Keren Ben-Haim; head of student welfare Michal Landau; and head of the social involvement unit Dafna Wenger. The evening included a gala dinner followed by entertaining trivia quizzes with prizes.

Afeka believes it has an important social role not only in the world of academia, but in Israeli society as a whole. The Ofek social involvement unit engages 300 socially-involved students a year, who meet with about 1,500 schoolchildren.

The unit has made it its mission to promote students’ community involvement, with an emphasis on contributing to education, particularly science education, among children and teens from Israel’s social and geographic periphery.

Additionally, Afeka supports army reservists, and does its utmost to ensure that their studies will not be impacted in any way due to active service. Thus, the Dean’s office helps students who perform reserve service to make up missed lesson materials and reintegrate into their studies. Assistance is provided both before leaving for reserve service (e.g., submitting service adjustment applications) and after returning from active duty.

This evening marked our modest tribute to the extensive activities of students and faculty members. We are proud of our reservists and of those who take part in social involvement, and will continue to encourage their inspiring contributions to society.