Olive Tree Initiative at UCLA, The

The Olive Tree Initiative’s goal is to promote educated dialogue on campus through empirical and experiential learning. A diverse cohort of students from Jewish, Muslim, Christian, and non-religious backgrounds with different perspectives on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are recruited and eliglible to apply to be part of The Olive Tree Initiative at UCLA. Students will cooperatively fundraise for an experiential educational trip and decide together on a balanced itinerary, spending half their time in Israel proper and half their time in the Palestinian territory. Crossing physical and mental borders daily, students will be constantly confronted with diverging impressions, narratives and perspectives. Each night the group will gather together to discuss, reflect and debate on the day’s experiences. The students will return to campus more educated, nuanced and open in their thinking; empowered to catalyze change through education and action. The Olive Tree Initiative brand is answering a thirst for a new type of hands-on education, preparing foreign policy experts for the future. Already, we promise to streamline scholarships to world-renown PhD programs in International Relations and Conflict Resolution, as well as funneling into jobs at the UN and the US Dept. of State. OTI accepts true leaders from all different perspectives and campus organizations to have a truly holistic, life-changing study of regions of conflict.

http://www.otiatucla.com
ucla@olivetreeinitiative.org

Signatories: Brad Fingard, Natanel Almany, and Anne Marie Alwan

Advisor: Michael T Cohn