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Zuresh’s Story
My name is Zuresh, short for Zureshork, in Amharic “Around you is gold.” I was born in Ethiopia, the youngest of four children. I grew up in the town of Arba Menz (the forty springs) in southern Ethiopia. In 1998, when I was eight, we immigrated to Israel. I grew up in a different culture. My parents did not know Hebrew, did not play with me in games that develop thinking, and did not read stories when I was little.
I have a BA in Psychology and Business Administration from the Hebrew University, and this year I started my MA in Clinical Psychology.
The way I have done so far is not simple, and I will try to tell you briefly about my journey to the academic world and where I am now.
At the end of my military service, I took a psychometric exam because I wanted to be admitted to academic studies. My grade was low, and since my desire to study was very high, I began to study in a pre-academic preparatory program. During my studies in the preparatory program, I repeated the psychometric exam again, and unfortunately, the grade did not change much, and I was not allowed to be accepted into the academic profession I wanted to study in psychology. Despite my strong desire and motivation to succeed, all my attempts to score high were unsuccessful, and I felt missed and failed.
Since I really wanted to study at the university, I turned to Feuerstein’s program at the academy, a unique program for Ethiopian-Israeli applicants, and in the last two years also to candidates from the social-geographic periphery at the Hebrew University, Bar Ilan and Ariel. The program enables candidates with a high average matriculation rate to be tested as an alternative to the psychometric exam, in a different method, the “dynamic diagnosis” that examines the potential of learning in addition to the current ability developed by Prof. Feuerstein.
I passed this test and passed successfully, and the Feuerstein Institute recommended me to study psychology at the Hebrew University. Thanks to the program, I was able to apply for a bachelor’s degree in psychology and business administration, despite my low score in the psychometric exam, which is culturally biased.
I must say that I was very afraid of failure and that I would not be able to finish my studies because of the gap between the score in the psychometric exams I actually had and the one I needed in the department. Still, I left the fear behind, took the opportunity with both hands and devoted all my energy to my studies. Thanks to my high motivation, investment, support and support from the Feuerstein Institute, I managed to complete my undergraduate degree with a general average of 86 and an average of 88 in the psychology department. It turns out that the Feuerstein Institute’s dynamic assessment was able to better predict my chances of success in academic studies.