The Ruppin Academic Center (Israel)

The Ruppin Academic Center, originally founded in 1949 as the Ruppin School, became a public college in 1949.  With over 4,000 students, it is one of the largest public colleges in Israel.  Ruppin offers innovative study programs that are committed to developing knowledge and professional know-how that can serve Israel’s most vital social and economic challenges. Ruppin strives to cultivate a new generation of leaders who possess moral conscience, social involvement and environmental awareness.

Ruppin’s activity in the civic engagement area is targeted at:

1. Allowing the students and staff to be exposed to, take part in and contribute to the activities of organizations dealing with the challenge of ensuring social justice and social integration.
2. Develop and promote study frameworks combining theoretical and practical aspects in the areas of civic engagement, environmental responsibility and entrepreneurship.

Priority is given to:

1. Activity within organizations in the college’s vicinity, acting in the area of social integration of weak and excluded populations.
2. Activity which includes a critical mass of students’ involvement.
3. Activity combining the theoretical and practical aspects in the area of civic engagement.

Special programs

• Leadership & Intercultural Mediation Program for Students of Ethiopian Descent:

A unique, first of its kind program in Israel, fostering a young, educated and motivated Ethiopian leadership by equipping participants with professional skills and intercultural proficiency. Students gain tools for community leadership, for serving as role models and for mediating between the Ethiopian community and Israeli society at large, helping to break down barriers of social and economic integration. The students study towards a first degree in any of Ruppin’s schools, in addition to receiving a professional mediation certificate from the Ministry of Justice. As part of the program, the students volunteer in Ethiopian frameworks: education institutes, community centers, absorption centers and more.

To support the success of these students, some of our BA for Managers students (older students who already occupy managerial positions and combine work and studies) established a scholarship fund, financed via assistance lessons given by excelling students to their friends, voluntarily.

• Community Relations – Ruppin and three Youth Villages in the college’s vicinity:

Young people in youth villages suffer from learning gaps, created by various difficulties such as learning disabilities, behavior problems and emotional problems. The homes these pupils come from are usually unable to provide answers to their complex needs. Most children arriving at youth villages suffer from an immigration crisis, which becomes stronger with adolescence.

The objective of the activity which encompasses approximately 100 students from Ruppin’s four schools is to develop modules of action under a wide scope of efforts, in two main focuses: Increasing motivation for learning and succeeding, and institutionalizing the training process of the staff in contending with diversity and cultural integration.

Courses combining civic engagement and contribution

• Final project in the M.A. program in Immigration & Social Integration:

The students’ final project encompasses the theoretical knowledge gained by the students and its practical implementation in a specific issue of absorption and social integration in one of the communities in Israel which has absorbed a large number of immigrants

• An Entrepreneurship and civic engagement seminar – BA for Managers program:

Exposing students to social entrepreneurship, combining theory and practice in civic organizations.

• Young entrepreneurs seminar:

During this seminar, our Business Administration students (together with teachers and business mentors), guide high school pupils in establishing business endeavors and start-up companies, emphasizing social norms and values such as business ethics, leadership and team work.

• Field experience – Department of Psychology:

Students volunteer in community, treatment and rehabilitation centers, including two weekly hours and a weekly study session.

• Final project in social voluntary associations – Industrial Engineering & Management Program:

The students need to provide a solution to the need of a real organization. They invest hundreds of work hours studying the organization and locating its needs and difficulties.  For example, students developed an information system for a holocaust survivors voluntary association, improving the organization’s exposure and accessibility to survivors and their families.

• Marine farming and the center for research and saving of marine mammals:

Ruppin’s Marine Sciences School offers numerous courses in the area of environment conservation and ecology. Students volunteer in the marine farming center and the center for research and saving of marine mammals.

• Marketing Communication Management – Business Administration program:

Students prepare marketing communication materials and advertising campaigns for organizations in the area of social contribution and environment conservation.

• Volunteering in frameworks for youth at risk:

Ruppin awards two academic credit points to students who give 56 hours volunteering in a social organization. Over 100 students are active each year in various voluntary associations.