The Galilee Foundation is proud of its student family. We are pleased to share with our own and other students interested in the programme, as well as our supporters, a chance to hear from some of our scholarship students their feelings about the programme – the importance of its financial support, as well as the workshops, lectures, and mentoring and volunteering components.
Shaden Hamed is an Architecture student at the Technion University in Haifa. She is three years into her five-year degree and has just finished her second year on the Student Empowerment programme.
How important is the financial support of the scholarship programme?
It is vital! The scholarship covers almost all of my fees for three years of my course. I still do odd jobs when I can to earn money to live, but the course at Technion is very intense and so I have to spend a lot of my time studying! The Scholarship means I do not have to worry as much about the financial side of studying.
I am the eldest of three sisters. One of them is now applying to university and she is searching everywhere for financial help. My parents do not have savings to support all three of us through university, and taking out loans is not ideal because of high interest rates. Without the scholarship I would have really struggled to do my studies.
How did you hear about Galilee?
I heard about the Galilee Foundation through social media actually. With the start of each academic year, you hear a lot about different scholarships, but I was really interested in applying for this one in particular as it has a lot of different aspects that don’t exist in other scholarships.
What elements attracted you to this programme over others?
Being raised in a Palestinian family in Israel, I want to be part of my heritage, so being part of an organisation that helps the Palestinian youth in many different ways was very appealing to me. I think the Galilee really contributes to educating the next generations of the community by keeping us attached to our culture, history and language through its vital projects.
As we are immersed in a culture different to our own, I feel that the younger generations may be starting to lose their sense of Palestinian culture and I don’t want this to happen. The youth around me are fading into this Israeli melting pot and losing their identity and language. Us as Palestinians have an obligation to preserve our legacy and heritage. These values are very important for me and that’s why I wanted to engage with a programme that nurtures our culture, heritage and language.
What activities and trips have you participated in so far?
I have participated in everything! My favourite things are the trips that we get to take around the country to visit different places linked to our history and culture.
A particularly good trip we had was a couple of months ago when we visited Ramallah. I was one of 40 students who went to a convention on the many programmes that students can partake in. The Galilee took five students from each university it works with, and we worked in teams to explore our own field of interest.
In my group, we established the Al-Ataa’rif Group to address the shortage of artistic activities in universities. We looked at many different artistic and cultural activities that could benefit young people in education and ultimately created a musical theatre performance about Palestinian’s and the circumstances of war. We were thrown in the deep end, so we had to be really independent and ended up learning a lot.
Did you feel these sorts of trips and activities contribute towards your studies?
I think it’s really relevant to what I learn. Architecture is about being part of the community, history and society. It’s where you merge engineering, arts and culture. So it’s actually really relevant. Other students who study things such as medicine or civil engineering, even though it is less relevant to their course, they still have so much fun and have the chance to do something that is otherwise missing from society.
The programme runs a mentoring scheme. Were you mentored or a mentor and could you describe your experience of this part of the programme?
In my second year of the programme I was a mentor in to an Architecture student the year below me. I helped by showing her round the university and with any questions about the scholarship programme or her course. It was great because she had my phone number and would call me whenever she had a question. I think it’s amazing that they offer this support because it isn’t necessary for them to do so. I feel the Galilee really invests in us as individuals to grow and learn.
Would you encourage other students from the Palestinian minority in Israel to apply to the GF scholarship programme?
Absolutely! I am actually encouraging my sister to apply. I hope that once I leave the programme she will be lucky enough to gain a place!
I also think I will be part of this organisation in the future even after my scholarship programme ends. I will stay in touch with the Foundation for a long time because they have been so helpful and kind. Whenever I ask a question, they, as individuals or as an organisation, have really helped me out. They make me feel at home. It’s like a family of people who care and encourage education! We really need more of these things here.
This isn’t just another university scholarship. The Galilee is contributing to our society. We’re going to be the next generation of leaders, economists, teachers, doctors, you name it! We need to continue to work with the younger generations like this for years to come.
