Where Behavior and Brain Intersect

Int’l program
From left:
Mohamad
Ismail, David
Ickowicz,
Tanja
Kisseleff,
Nomo
Khumalo
and Martin
Niyomwungeri
Bringing
the World
into the Classroom
By Sara Lubelski
TAU’s new
international
students prove
the educational
value of a
culturally
diverse campus
When Nomo Khumalo, a South
African, was looking for an MBA
program that could give him international
exposure, Israel quickly captured
his attention. “If you look at the
start-ups and inventions that come
out of Israel, the stats just jump out at
you,” he says. “It seems like a place I
could learn more from than anywhere
else.”
Khumalo is a student in the new
Sofaer Family International MBA program
at the Faculty of Management—
Leon Recanati Graduate School of
Business Administration, which,
along with the International Master’s
in Conflict Resolution and Mediation
at the Gershon H. Gordon Faculty of
Social Sciences, is one of two new
English-speaking international programs
at TAU. Eighty-seven students
from 30 countries enrolled in the
2009-2010 academic year.
The new programs join the growing
catalog of TAU’s English-language
degree offerings, such as the MA
program in Middle Eastern History,
the Adler-Buchmann International
Program for Outstanding Foreign
Students at TAU’s Buchmann-Mehta
School of Music, a planned graduate
program in law at the Zvi Meitar
Center for Advanced Legal Studies,
and planned international master’s
programs in trauma and crisis studies;
diplomacy and security; Israeli
politics; and environmental studies.
In addition, the highly-reputed
School for Overseas Students at TAU
runs semester, year-long and summer
programs for students from around
the world.
“International programs demonstrate
how education builds bridges,”
says Vice President for Development
and Public Affairs Dr. Gary Sussman.
“Having students from countries such
as South Africa and India helps to
produce goodwill ambassadors for
Israel in these countries,” he adds.
Diversifying the learning
environment
David Ickowicz, a Costa Rican-
Israeli with a background in industrial
engineering, says that as part of the
Sofaer IMBA, he is learning things
just by watching people approach the
same problems from different perspectives.
“In a globalized economy, you do
business with people from practically
every country in the world,” he says.
“It’s easier to understand a nation’s
culture once you have met someone
from that country.”
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