Tivnu Blog

Connections is a New York Times word game where players have to connect words into four groups of four. Over the past few weeks my roommate and I have been creating TIVnections, a Tivnu version of the popular NYT game.

This winter, Tivnu's 10th cohort traveled to Mt. Hood and built an igloo from the ground up. Watch the time lapse video and hear "We Built This Igloo"

Suffice it to say, we were immersed in a starkly different environment than we had been in just an hour before. The concept of immersion is nothing foreign to Judaism.

A camaraderie develops when doing chores together, and there is the motivation to do them since we are all doing our part for the T9 community.

Separated from us by only a brick wall, a black fence, and a bulwark of elite education, the folks who sleep on Mass. Ave. benches are just as much my neighbors as my friends down the hall.

Before coming to Tivnu, it was a big goal of mine to prioritize sustainability and environmentally conscious behaviors in my daily life.

Tivnu is a gap year program with purpose. Each educational exploration, group trip, and experience is part of a larger goal, providing guidance for each of us and allowing us to unlock knowledge about ourselves that we otherwise wouldn’t have.

Being on Tivnu is a fantastic experience with many learning opportunities. In addition to things like tool training at construction and cooking tips for communal meals, I was fortunate enough to vote for the first time during Tivnu.

After grabbing our helmets and going over how to inflate bike tires, we struck off, both clad in Baja hoodies color-coded to our hair.

It was like a mini night sky in the sand.