A rapidly expanding student group on college campuses offers elite college students experiential learning through business in Israel. Founded in 2008 at the University of Michigan, TAMID Group is now on 46 college campuses, offering more than 2,200 student members numerous ways to combine their passion for business with the dynamic Israeli landscape in this arena—from experiential business learning through interactive classes, to consulting with Israeli companies, to internship experiences in Israel, to managing investment portfolios with Israeli companies, and more.
“TAMID enables students from all backgrounds to interact with Israeli business leaders in an environment that’s full of excitement and devoid of controversy,” says Yoni Heilman, Executive Director of TAMID. “Israel is the key ingredient that makes TAMID a premier business group on campus because of the innovations and sheer number of businesses that thrive there.”
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This year, students started new chapters at Vanderbilt, Miami of Ohio, NYU Shanghai, Stanford, Duke, Chapman, Tufts, Rutgers, American, Brown, University of Chicago, IDC Herzliya, and UC Santa Barbara. TAMID now has chapters at all eight Ivy League schools (with the addition of Brown) and is at 16 schools that are in the top 20 of rankings for U.S. News and World report.
“Interest in TAMID has grown as students see the unique opportunity it offers to network and to gain valuable, real-world experience,” Heilman adds. “Business executives and leaders are beginning to see CV’s dotted with experiences related to Israel, and TAMID is a driving force behind that.”
“I have my first job in the sports world working for the Brooklyn Nets—the very same job I applied for and did not get the year prior,” says Benjamin Zirman of Yeshiva University. “The only difference in my experience from one year to the next was my involvement in TAMID and being able to discuss that in my interview.”
In total, TAMID student members have formed consulting teams to provide 65,000 pro-bono hours consulting for Israeli companies on the solutions to important business problems.
And, each summer, members have the opportunity to spend eight weeks in Israel on their capstone internship experience and engaging in conversations with some of Israel’s business leaders.
Students not only run the groups at the chapter level—arranging events, classes, the consulting opportunities, and more—but also fill national student leadership positions. The current student leadership currently is split evenly among men and women.
“My involvement in TAMID is invaluable,” says Daniella Wenger, a senior at UC Berkeley who is the National Director of Education for TAMID. “It has given me so much more than I could have ever imagined. From mentorship, to excel modeling skills, to crafting my resume, to roommates and best friends, I owe TAMID some of the best moments of my college career. As a freshman in college, I felt very lost. I changed my major many times, friends came and went; the one thing that has remained the same has been my TAMID family.”
Wenger and nearly 200 other TAMID chapter and national leaders kicked off the school year earlier this fall atTAMIDcon 2017, the largest gathering of TAMID student leadership to date. Funded by the William Davidson Foundation, with additional support from Onward Israel, Paul E. Singer Foundation, Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation, and The Marcus Foundation, the convention was designed as an accelerator to provide chapters the tools to succeed and grow. Sessions focused on areas such as branding and recruitment, career preparation, leadership and more. Students heard from speakers including Shelley Zalis, CEO of The Female Quotient (TFQ) and creator of The Girls’ Lounge, and Omri Lavie, an entrepreneur and investor.
“TAMIDcon showcased the best of TAMID—the connections we make, the learning we experience, the companies we get to advise, and the community of supportive, sharp-minded people that surround us,” says Alex Danley, a student at George Washington University and Regional Director of the Mid-Atlantic at TAMID Group. “I joined TAMID because it was the only organization on campus offering students real projects to work on, real connections to make, and a real sense of community and camaraderie with fellow members.”
