The Upgrading Accessibility to Higher Education for Negev's Pupils Program at BGU enables over 1200 high-school pupils from the Negev region, Jewish and Bedouin, to participate in university courses, exposing them to the university and encouraging them to be ambitious and aim high - and pursue academic studies. This unique initiative of Ben-Gurion University is now in its tenth year. The Adenauer Foundation, Atidim, Leumi Aharay, the Ministry of Education and Madarom- Keren Rashi all partner with BGU to make it happen.

At the opening ceremony held recently, Program graduates Muhammad Abusailik and Meni Amran inspired new participants to reach for the stars, and take advantage of this fabulous learning opportunity. Here are their messages: 

Muhammad Abusailik:

“My name is Muhammad and I am 24 years old, from the Bedouin town Tel Sheva. I am a fourth year student at the School of Pharmacy at BGU, thanks to a special program called The Upgrading Accessibility to Higher Education for Negev's Pupils Program.

As a participant in the Program, every Friday me and some of my friends from school, who were also good students, would come to the university to study academic subjects in all faculties of the university. I chose to study medicine (introduction to medicine parts A, B, and C, over a three year period).

The Program introduced kids from all over the Negev to the idea of academic studies in the future. I learned that the university isn’t an ivory tower, its’ something that’s accessible to anyone who is interested and willing to make an effort. The Program reduced the gaps that existed between teenagers from the south and from the rest of the country, and especially gaps that existed between us Bedouin kids and our Israeli peers, and let us realize our potential, regardless of our social and economic background. It also increased our motivation to pursue academic studies in prestigious tracks in the future.

The Program runs two units – the school unit and the university unit. In the school unit, teachers at school gave us reinforcement classes in subjects we were studying for matriculation exams, thus enabling me to improve my matriculation grades. In the university unit, I studied courses in health sciences, enhancing my knowledge of science, letting me express my abilities and curiosity, encouraging me to aim towards academic studies, and, eventually, enabling me to get accepted to the School of Pharmacy. We gained access to research labs that we never would have been able to experience in high-school, such as studying the human body by conducting experiments on human cadavers donated to the pathology lab.

Today, I am in my past year of Pharmacy studies and am considering pursuing graduate studies and maybe even a doctoral degree. To close the circle, this is also my fourth year participating in the Open Apartments Program, teaching computers to kids in the Dalet neighborhood. The Open Apartments Program is run by the Community Action Unit, which enabled me to take part on the Accessibility Program as a teenager.

I would like to thank all the terrific organizations and people that support this Program that gives hope to the children of the Negev and makes their dreams come true.”

 Meni Amran:

“Hi, my name is Meni. In 2003, when I was in tenth grade, I joined the Upgrading Accessibility to Higher Education for Negev's Pupils Program. In the Program, I studied all different subjects like geology, encoding, veterinary medicine, oceanography and logic. After graduating high school, I began medical school at the Technion, in the reserve track through the Atidim program. But after three years, upon completion of my undergraduate studies, I decided to take a break from studying to pursue meaningful military service in a combat unit, and then return to medical school. I now serve as a paramedic in the Givati military unit, and am in my last year of military service. But enough about me.

When I was asked to speak at the opening ceremony of the Upgrading Accessibility to Higher Education for Negev's Pupils Program, I asked myself: What’s the connection between the geology course I took in tenth grade and the degree I’m pursuing in medicine? What did this Program give me? Seven years later, I would say that the main thing I got from the Program is that it made the world of academia and higher education more accessible to me, from a far away dream to reality, from something threatening to something challenging, from a strange world to a fascinating one. When I was in the Program, I remember how impressed we were by the idea of scoring study points in the Program. The truth is, seven years later, I would say that those study points were much less important than all the other things I gained: the ability to process material on an academic level, the ability to stand up to pressure and combine high school studies with university courses, exposure to topics that, were it not for the Program I never would have learned about, and gaining such a vast amount of knowledge. As I said, the study points are just the bonus, not the goal.

As for choosing courses – if anyone here thinks he’s going to be a mathematician, a physics expert or a doctor, and decides to take the right courses to start him on his way, I say go for it. But I would recommend the opposite. If you are strong in realistic subjects and enjoy solving integral mathematic equations in your spare time, take a humanistic course before you make that decision to become a mathematician. If you love literature, take a course in mathematical logic to see what you may be missing, before real life begins. You have a golden opportunity that not many pupils your age get. You won’t get another one, so take advantage of it.

Unfortunately, most of the subjects taught in high-school are decided on for you, and people study mainly to get good grades and do well on their matriculation exams. School is mainly a factory for grades. But at the university (in the Program and then as a student) the learning process is completely different – people study to really learn, they study out of curiosity, to acquire a profession for the future. This type of learning is of course more enjoyable and has obvious advantages. But don’t kid yourselves; it will be even harder for you to excel at university than it was at high-school, where the system expects you to get good grades. To excel at university, you don’t need a sky-high i.q. or “good connections” through your father, all you need is motivation, self-discipline and a lot of hard work, and the results will greatly affect your sense of capability and the satisfaction you derive from your studies.

In conclusion, I will quote the late Major Nadav Milo, company commander of Givati elite unit, who was killed in a military operation in Lebanon in 1997, on the importance of excelling:  “Make a decision to excel at everything you do. Every action you take, try to do it the best way possible, the hardest way, which will bring you the best results. Strive to do your ultimate best, so you can look in the mirror and say to yourself honestly: I have done the maximum. Standing in front of the mirror is the real test, because only you will be able to know if you’ve done all you can. Not your officers, not your friends, only you will know if excellence is not just a part of you, its’ simply who you are.”