The Excellence Center’s Summer Internship in Palestine is an incredible program for students, volunteers, teachers, or travelers to have the opportunity to learn about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict first hand. Moreover, the Center provides in depth Arabic instruction at your level. No matter if you are a beginner or almost to fluency, these teachers know how to teach you. I have experienced events and places I could not have imagined. I have interviewed and met with people hosting indescribable experiences. From refugee camps to the governor’s office, I have notes upon notes filled in my notebook with valuable information. I will never forget meeting with a Palestinian woman who’s husband was murdered by the IDF. Her testimony was one that gave me the chills and truly opened my eyes to what is truly happening on the ground here — something unseen in western media.
The Palestinian people are what I will truly miss the most. Their hospitality and respect is incomparable. I was invited to multiple homes where I met amazing friends and have established my place in families all over Palestine. I have more brothers and sisters here than I ever will have in the United States.
This place is completely safe and I feel more safe in Palestine than I do in the streets of the United States. The people here look out for one another and protect their own. Living, learning, teaching, eating, and enjoying life with Palestinians make you apart of their family, and with that, you will be safe at all times.
This has been my greatest choice and experience. The Center is so flexible and catered to my every need. I am using this for university credit and university research and they set up the proper interviews, trips, and opportunities to research as much as I needed.
