Hi! My name is Tamar Peterman. I’m a member of Kerem ‘15 and Naaleh ‘16. I was also a counselor for Gurim ‘17 and Gefen ‘18. These last couple of years I’ve been working in the marp!
After finishing my summers as a camper, I went to Northeastern University in Boston and graduated with a Bachelors in Nursing. Right after passing the nursing licensing exam I was given the opportunity to live out my childhood dream and work with Suzi and Stacey in the marp!
You could imagine that being a nurse in the marp was a lot more fun than working as a nursing student in hospitals around Boston. At Yavneh, my lunch break consisted of bothering my rosh friends and doing yoga near the agam. My lunch breaks at hospitals consisted of me telling myself I was hungry at 2am and eating in a staff room lit with fluorescent lights.
After my most recent summer at Yavneh I made Aliyah. Of course the first question people ask me is, why did you choose to live in Israel? Any of my close friends could attest that if you asked me a few years ago if I would ever consider living anywhere besides New York City I would respond with a hard no. If we’re going to be honest here, my decision to move to Israel is a direct result of the Yavneh tradition of hiring “Mishlachat” counselors, counselors from Israel, each summer. In the summer of 2018 I was working as a counselor for the newly created aydah, Gefen! Ariel, a first time mishlachat counselor, was also assigned to Gefen. And that was that, I guess.
After three years of long distance and interning in Israel for 6 months at Save a Childs Heart, an organization that provides cardiac surgery for children in impoverished countries, I decided I could really see myself living in Israel. At least for now.
It’s been over 7 months since I moved to Haifa. Haifa’s insane views of the Mediterranean and green covered hills remind me daily how different life is here than in New York City – in a good way! Unfortunately, the bureaucracy in Israel is also what makes this place unique. Since arriving to Israel I’ve been working on converting my US Nursing license to an Israeli license, without much success. The process is long. In the meantime, I’ve been working as a teacher for English after school programs all around Haifa. I teach kids from first to sixth grade. Some of my students are super excited about learning English and others rather relax and chat in Hebrew after a tiring day at school.
Working as a camp counselor for two years was definitely great preparation for spending my entire day with kids. Every day I’m reminded of how hilarious and entertaining kids are! Hopefully soon I will be spending my time working with kids and putting my nursing degree to use 🙂
This summer I’m so excited to be coming back to camp for the last couple of weeks! Make sure to come by the marp and say hi!
Best,
Tamar
