Shalev took some amazing photos of Milken’s inaugural “The Event” in March, and we’ve since learned how amazingly eclectic his career has been! After graduating from Milken in 2007, where he was involved with the Jazz Band and the Visual Arts Department, Shalev earned a B.A. with honors in Philosophy from UCLA. While pursuing his degree, Shalev continued to cultivate his talents in the arts and became UCLA’s first student house photographer. He most recently began working as a Paralegal at Bocarsly Emden Cowan Esmail & Arndt LLP, a firm whose practice areas deal with low-income tax credit development in addition to other real estate and tax matters. Shalev plans to apply to law school for the 2019 academic year and looks forward to becoming a legal scholar and law professor. Shalev continues to work as a freelance photographer and designed the photography-based cover art for an EP by Trevor Sohnen, Milken Class of 2007.

Shalev has traveled the world exploring his many passions and developing his photography skills. He has visited 14 different countries including Italy, Nepal, Israel, Jordan, Greece, Vietnam, and Ethiopia. Shalev described some highlights of his two years abroad:

• Studying yoga for 6 weeks in Rishikesh, India.
• Co-founding founding a hostel and living and working in Jaipur, India for 4 months.
• Being on set as an extra for the movie Dangal, which turned out to be the highest-grossing Bollywood film of all time.
• Trekking for 22 days in Nepal’s Manslu Reserve  
• Volunteering for Global Family Initiative Betas Project in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where I taught yoga and English to orphaned children and photographed the various activities of the organization for their promotional materials.

Shalev continues to demonstrate the values of independent learning and the inquiry skills he developed while a student at Milken. He noted, “I can directly attribute my decisions in college to pursue independent study and graduate coursework to my Milken faculty mentors and positive experience participating in the WISE and Graduation by Exhibition programs.” Shalev recalls a few of his treasured mentors at Milken: “I am immeasurably grateful to Dr. Steinberg who, with the support of the administration, taught a music composition class with only two students. That course cadenced (pun intended) with our original symphonic pieces being performed by the Los Angeles Youth Orchestra. To the same extent, I am grateful to Melody Mansfield and Ken Lasaine—my WISE Mentor and “internship"/Jazz Ensemble instructor, respectively—for working with me on a one-on-one basis for an entire semester.  Alongside my three-student Graduation by Exhibition seminar, taught by Mr. Martin, these experiences helped me realize that the best learning environments for me are ones in which I can work in close quarters with an expert on a subject on a topic in which I am deeply interested. Heading off to college with this awareness propelled me to take the initiative when it came to selecting and creating coursework that vibed with my learning style.”