This April, juniors Aylat Lifshitz and Haley Weinischke will board a plane and travel 6,000 miles. The two girls will attend a study abroad program for two months, at the Alexander Muss High School in Israel (AMHSI), which provides high school students the opportunity to learn about the country’s history.

AMHSI is designed to broaden students’ views of the world, while focusing on the history of Israel.

“After you learn about a place or event, you go there and you have your history class right there, where it happened,” she said. “That just seems so amazing to me. We sit through history class every year and we learn all the hard facts, but we usually have never been or will [never] go there in our lives, which doesn’t make it as meaningful.”

Students stay in campus dorms in Hod HaSharon, a city just outside of Tel Aviv. AMHSI offers several different programs in which students can stay for six weeks, eight weeks or a full semester, which is four months long. While there, they are given the freedom to manage their own time and budget their spending money.

“I hope to gain some independence and experience the world on my own, not with the security of my parents,” said Lifshitz.

Both girls said the experience they hope to gain was a driving factor in their decision to attend the program.

“I wanted something new and I wanted the experience,” said Weinischke. “My motivations were on a personal level because I have family and friends in Israel . . . but I have never lived there; [I] only visited, so I thought it was time to change that.”

In addition to gaining historical knowledge, high school students who attend AMHSI are also able to keep up with the same classes they would take at home.

“During the morning you have what they call the core class, which is the history of Israel,” Lifshitz explained. “Then after lunch, you have tutors for your different ‘sequentials,’ which are the [general studies] classes you are doing back at home. Then, every other day or so, you go on trips to where the events you’ve been studying took place.”

But this program is not completely new to either girl. Each said knows other people who have attended the program, including friends and relatives. Weinischke said her aunt participated when she was in high school.

In preparation for the program, however, Lifshitz and Weinishke have had different experiences. Lifshitz admitted to it being a bit hectic.

“[There was] a lot of back and forth between my parents, my counselor and the regional director of admissions, in order to make sure all the forms were filled out and to ensure the credits will transfer okay,” said Lifshitz. “There have been a few miscommunications, but it went a lot smoother than I thought it would, and everything has been sorted out.”

On the other hand, Weinishke said preparation for the trip has gone

smoothly.

“[The] planning process has been surprisingly easy,” she said. “Basically, it has been a lot of emails back and forth.”

The girls leave in just a few months, and they have both expressed their feelings of nervousness and excitement. Lifshitz said she is eager to be gaining a different perspective and learning so many new things, but is anxious about going to live with a group of new people. However, Weinishke did not express any concerns.

“I really am looking forward to everything,” she said. “I can’t wait to see my school and finally just be there. For the first time ever, I am not nervous about anything.”