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Research is Research Even in High School AND While Studying Abroad in Israel
For Milken sophomores, traveling to Israel as part of the Tiferet Israel Fellowship is a way to make the world their classroom – to broaden their horizons and build critical life skills. It is also an unrivaled opportunity to gain hands-on experience that can burnish their resumes and put them on a path to long-term career success.
The fellowship takes a select group of 10th graders for a semester abroad in Hod Hasharon, 20 minutes outside of Tel Aviv. They study at the Alexander Muss High School in Israel (AMHSI), learning and living with other students from across the globe as they immerse themselves in Israel’s rich cultural and historical offerings.
During their time at AMHSI, Milken students have a chance to benefit from another unique aspect of the program, as well: participating in high-impact scientific research. AMHSI provides access to key resources and support but, says Michael Shterenshis, head of the Science Research Department at Alexander Muss High School in Israel (AMHSI), it takes a special kind of student to succeed in the work – the kind that comes from Milken.
“AMHSI welcomes about 1,100 students each year. Of them, about 10-12 students – that is, about one percent – are selected for real-world research activities,” he notes. “Most of those are Milken students.”
When it comes to research readiness, Shterenshis says, Milken exists on a level above other college-prep schools. “Milken students are very creative, coming up with numerous ideas. They are also taught how to conduct in-depth reviews of existing literature, which is essential to producing original research. And they are extremely career oriented; they understand the importance of adding a ‘publications’ section to their resumes, and they are willing to invest their time and effort in doing it.”
As a result, Milken students often return from their time abroad having published articles in prestigious, peer-reviewed journals – something extremely uncommon for high schoolers. Focused on topics ranging from adolescent psychology to environmental studies to human genetics, their studies have appeared in publications including Current Psychology, International Journal of Adolescent Medicine and Health and Journal of Thermal Biology.
“Our slogan at AMHSI is simple: Research is research and cannot be divided into ‘high school,’ ‘undergraduate’ or ‘post-doc,’” Shterenshis says. “We feel strongly that students who significantly contribute to our research projects should be co-authors of whatever papers we publish. Since we started our research activities in 2017, there have been 15 AMHSI alumni from different US and Australian schools with academic publications in scholarly journals. Nearly half are students from Milken!”
Among Tiferet students from 2019 were Sarah Lande and Kaitlyn Nickfardjam, who arrived at AMHSI with a research project they had formulated before their departure from Milken. The topic was e-cigarettes. “Even before the first vaping death was reported in the US, the girls expressed their deep concern about the issue,” Shterenshis recalls. “We worked together to design a suitable research project in the form of a survey, which we then performed. We then submitted a paper with our results, and it was accepted for publication almost immediately because the topic was so timely.”
When they leave Israel and return to Milken, Shterenshis says, Tiferet researchers like Lande and Nickfardjam come back with a tangible skill set that will serve them well into the future. “Our approach to research problems is very practical,” he says. “We teach students never to hypothesize just for the sake of hypothesizing, but instead to concentrate on results.”
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