Aardvark: Gap Year Program in Israel

Aardvark opens their arms to every type of student. The balance of freedom and programming provides a space for everyone to grow. Many Aardvark students came to Israel shy and self conscious and left Israel confident and fulfilled. The apartments are based in ideal locations in both Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. I often hear potential gap year students question going to Israel because they do not want to be “brain-washed”. Aardvark is unbiased. They showed us every opinion and allowed us to form opinions.

Signing up for Aardvark Israel was honestly one of the best decisions of my life. While the program wasn't perfect, the amount of personal growth I experienced throughout my short time in Israel was beyond my expectations. Aardvark provided me with an environment where I learned how to be self-sufficent, advocate for myself, and push past what I always perceived to be my limits. Although it can be overwhelming establishing a strong social group towards the beginning of the program, by the end of my second semester (which unfortunately only lasted through March due to COVID-19) I found myself with an amazing group of friends that I know will last a lifetime. Israel and Aardvark not only left me with an unbelievable gap year experience, but a place where I know I can always call home. Take the chance and sign up for Aardvark Israel - I promise you won't regret it.

I was on the program for 2 semesters and I had a great time. I cannot imagine doing anything else but this program for my gap year. The program really allowed me to grow as an individual and have a sense of independence I didn’t have before, I learned how to provide for myself and how to live with other people who had different lifestyles than me. I also had the experience of going on one of their many international trips which was an amazing experience and I definitely recommend, because some of these trips are a once in a lifetime experience.

Aardvark was the best 7 months of my entire life!

I spent a semester in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem which allowed me to experience the vastly different aspects of Israeli society. In both places I got to enjoy everything the city had to offer. In Jerusalem I chose to go to hosted shabbos every Friday and spend my weekends doing picnics in the park or walking around the Old City. In Tel Aviv I spent almost every weekend on the beach, exploring Yafo with my friends, and sometimes going clubbing.

The program allows for plenty of free time to explore the country and your city, while also having really interesting structured programs (especially Tiyul Tuesdays in Jerusalem).

The staff is beyond caring and provide you with the perfect safety net while you learn to live on your own. They check in to make sure you're doing okay but they definitely don't baby you.

Also, Aardvark offers AMAZING international trip add-ons. I went to China and Spain and had the absolute best time. This is a huge advantage to choosing Aardvark over another gap year program.

To summarize, I can assuredly say that I left Aardvark as a more confident and capable person, with a deeper appreciation for Israel, and best friends that I know will last a life time.

If you're even considering a gap year in Israel I highly recommend Aardvark and encourage you to call and speak to someone from the program!

I spent 2 semesters on the Aardvark Israel program and I look back at the time I spent there as truly the best year of my life to date. The program allowed me enough freedom to enjoy my time here to the fullest but also provided structure to keep me busy and on track. I was set up with an amazing volunteering opportunity working in a soup kitchen first semester and I was able to continue working in a kitchen with my internship in a restaurant second semester. I learnt so many valuable skills during my work and I’m grateful for the work that my internship coordinators put in to make sure I was being keeping myself happy and productive. The friends I made on the program are family to me and the environment that Aardvark created allowed me to form bonds with people from all walks of life that I would never have met otherwise. I’m grateful for the time I spent on the program and I wish I could come back for another semester

aardvark israel was the best year of my life. i was able to make israel exactly what i wanted to be and learn the things about myself i set out to learn. i gained independence, met friends, and learned about judaism and zionism. it was my first time in israel, and aardvark allowed me to see the whole country. the israel education comes from both sides and allows you to form your own opinions about the conflict, which is so important, and the classes teach you so much. i love aardvark and am trying to get my brother to do it i love it so much!

I spent a semester in Aardvark's Tel Aviv program and it left me feeling let down and lied to. The program looks great on paper - college courses, internships, and weekly trips around Israel sound like a thrilling and productive way to spend a semester or two. Unfortunately, this isn't true.

The classes:
Most of the classes are taught poorly with seemingly random structure, and all of the classes are basic to the point where it is insulting to call them college level courses. They are freshman year of high school level.
The Hebrew classes are the most atrocious - regardless of what level you are in, you will be faced with Hebrew teachers who spend only about half of the allotted class time teaching Hebrew, while the other half is spent on lessons that are simple and meandering, and the end result is a bunch of students who walk away without having learned little (if any) new Hebrew from when they began. Also, three teachers for Aardvark quit during the fall 2019 semester, which in itself is concerning.

The internship:
The internship aspect of the program is a bit like a lottery. There is one internship coordinator for the whole Tel Aviv program and one for the Jerusalem program. They are hardworking and really care about all of their students, but not all students will land good internships. They only hired one person for this job per city, and while Aardvark boasts that they have a large quantity of internships to choose from, this is misleading. When the semester started, many of these options declared that they would not be accepting any interns this term, and several dozen students were left without an internship for the first 1 to 4 weeks of the program. Some people were very happy with their internship, but be warned that the results vary greatly.

The weekly trips (tiyuls):
The weekly trips were hit or miss. Some were truly wonderful, most were incredibly boring. It is worth noting that not all of the tiyuls are field trips, I'd say only about a quarter of the total trips fit this description. For the most part, these consist of visits to nearby museums, or a day of lectures, or simply a day off - meaning no activities planned whatsoever. I'd say there were about five trips that were genuinely fun and engaging. You could possibly have more fun trips packed into a ten day birthright program if you haven't done birthright yet (this program will invalidate your ability to since it is 4+ months in Israel).
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Here's the main bright spot amidst an otherwise abysmal program: The madrichim (counselors). All of the counselors in Aardvark Tel Aviv genuinely care about their students and work hard to try and help their students have fun. I love all of the Tel Aviv madrichim. It is worth noting that there are more mixed reviews for the Aardvark Jerusalem madrichim. There is one madrich in particular who many find unprofessional, inappropriate, and cruel. People tend to dislike most of the others as well.
Other than the madrichim, the other staff members clearly care about bringing the best program possible to the students. The director of education is a really really great guy who is trying his hardest to patch up all the holes of the sinking ship that is Aardvark.
I really like talking to all the staff members I've interacted with, they're wonderful people and they're doing their best, but this can't fix the fact that the experience provided to students is substandard at best, and false advertising at its worst.

If you care at all about having educational, engaging, or meaninful experiences during your gap year, this is not the program for you.

A gap year for a parent can mean one of two things, firstly it could be a bank balance sucking mechanism where your darling parties around the world spending your money and coming back with limited life experience or alcohol poisoning, on the other hand, it could be a life changing experience whose value is worth many times more than the currency you paid for it.

Our daughter Hannah chose Aardvark and the indelible mark it has left on her could not be paid for in hard currency. Like everything in life, you are given opportunities, how you choose to utilize them is up to you. The Aardvark programme gives the young people some structure, but freedom as well, what they choose to do with the freedom is up to them and they sometimes don’t realise the impact that it has on others. You can choose to go to your Internship, but should you miss regularly it will have an impact when Aardvark approaches the companies to take on interns again, as well as, the opportunity to learn about a potential career choice. If you want to skip the Hebrew classes your ability to integrate with the society will be compromised. There is no one telling you to get up in the morning and make your bed or eat, if you party hard the night before (you are a young adult) that decision is yours, if you are legally allowed to drink there is no one to tell you not to overdo it, however if you choose to follow the system you will definitely grow.

You will experience the culture and the peoples and the food and pretty much everything else Israel has to offer, if you choose to go on one or more of the add on trips, you will get an opportunity to meet people and see places that you would otherwise never get. You will learn what it is like to live with at least 4 other people who may be very different to you, you will learn about conflict resolution, you will learn to compromise, you may even learn what your limits are and how to push them, and all the while have an awesome, fun, raving time. You will meet people from all around the world, and you will learn what it is like for a short period of time to live in the amazing land of Israel.

As a parent if you are looking for a gap year for your young adult to grow or grow up in, then I highly recommend Shay-El, Idan and the team at Aardvark. Warning; you may just lose your child to the beautiful land of Israel.