World ORT’s New International Scholarship Program Seeks Candidates
The search is on for talented teenagers to join World ORT’s new engineering and technology scholarship program now that it has secured $50 million in funding.
Named after the Swiss town which hosted World ORT’s Central Training Institute for three decades after the war, the Anieres II program will pluck promising young people from low socio-economic backgrounds in the Diaspora and provide them with a world class education in Israel.
Candidates for the initial group of some 25 students are being sought at ORT schools in the former Soviet Union, France and Argentina; the net is likely to be broadened to include Bulgaria and Italy and beyond as time goes on. Those who pass the rigorous selection process will join a residential educational program which will see them through from 9th grade to the completion of their academic studies at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. This year’s intake will merge with a matching number of Israeli students in 2014 as another similar number of Diaspora students enter the program.
Other partners in the program, which is due to start in September, include the Ministry of Education and the Na’aleh residential high school program in Israel for academic high achievers from the Diaspora.
The anonymous donor whose $15 million investment started the ball rolling was one of the Central Training Institute’s thousands of students. He went on to become a successful technology entrepreneur in the United States while many other graduates became instructors in ORT programs.
The search for candidates will focus on ORT students in the FSU, France and Argentina and also Bulgaria and Italy. However, individuals may apply independently – in France and Argentina through their local Na’aleh representative and in the FSU through The Jewish Agency. Interested candidates in other countries may apply through the Na’aleh website.
Alternatively, all interested can contact World ORT directly through the Kadima Mada office in Israel, km.office@kadimamada.org.