Alumni
Over 75% of Arava Institute graduates are working in the environmental or peacebuilding field. The Institute has created an alumni network to continue supporting alumni by providing personal and professional contacts as well as seed money for alumni projects that demonstrate cross-cultural cooperation. Several alumni of the institute have gone on to work in cross-cultural projects.
- Hashem Shahin, a Muslim Palestinian alumnus, is part of a joint Israeli-Palestinian project to discover the genetic basis of deafness.
- Tamar Keinan, a Jewish Israeli alumna, joined a Jordanian alumnus to create the "Good Neighbors Water Project" for Friends of the Earth Middle East.
- Laithi Gnaim, an Israeli Arab alumnus, established a nonovernmental organization called "Arrasid" (Bearing Witness) which trains Arab farmers in the Beit Netofa Valley in sustainable farming techniques. He has used connections made at the Arava Institute to offer training in sustainable practices and bui Arab-Jewish partnerships in the agricultural sector.
Maya Negev, a Jewish Israeli alumna, working at the Herzog Center for Policy in Tel Aviv University
others are working in NGO's working on solutions to hygiene and energy in rural and poor areas, working on environmental education and awareness, activists in peace related activities and more.
The Arava Institute has recently added a new network to build more connections between alumni. Called AAPEN or the Arava Alumni Peace and Environmental Network, AAPEN brings together alumni from all years of study during an annual conference (most recently held in Aqaba, Jordan), as well as an online presence on Facebook, a private online network (NING), updated pages on the Arava website for alumni, a newsletter, and more.
Read more about this topic: Arava Institute For Environmental Studies