In February this year, I began the long process of applying to the Royal Society Te Apārangi for a ‘talented students’ travel award’. Here, science-loving kiwi students could apply to a large range of international science camps which were all 70-100% funded. The camps ranged from a one-week space camp in the USA to a two-week agriculture camp in Australia and everything in between. Several essays, teacher references and doctor’s notes later, and off went my application. It was in early April that I received the email: I had been accepted to the 51st Dr Bessie F. Lawrence International Summer Science Institute in Israel. This is a fully funded four-week science camp from the 1st of July to the 28th of July, which brings together 74 high school graduates from 16 different countries. The first three weeks will be spent doing research-based projects in a variety of subjects (including biology, chemistry, physics, and mathematical and computer science), getting instruction in the use of sophisticated lab equipment (such as electron microscopes, advanced computers, a high-energy particle accelerator, and lasers) and listening to lectures by experienced Weizmann Institute scientists. We will also get to visit other state-of-the-art facilities on the Institute campus. After three weeks, teams need to submit a written and oral report on their findings. The weekends include trips to Jerusalem and Galilee, which is in the north of Israel. In the fourth and final week, we will be going to the Sde-Boker field school in the Judean Desert and the Negev. Here, we will go on guided hikes to see and learn about Israel’s unique ecological and archaeological characteristics, which are unlike anything in New Zealand and in many cases the world.

Naturally, I am extremely excited and look forward to going, as it will without a doubt be the trip of a lifetime. I am confident that I will meet tons of amazing people, see stunning sights and learn many new things. Hence, I can’t wait to make the memories which I will never forget.

by Xenia Berger

Year 13 student

Article added: Friday 21 June 2019