Theme: The Power of Youth

The American International School in Israel is a multicultural environment that provides education to kids between the ages of 3-18. The community is composed of people of over 40 nationalities and celebrates the diverse backgrounds present. The school focuses on individual research starting from 9th grade with the “iSearch project” and ending in 12th grade with either Senior Project or AP Research. The goal of this event is to create a forum for students involved in academic research with peers and faculty members, encouraging youth initiatives and unifying the diverse passions of AIS high school students. We hope that this recognition of student research inspires other students to explore their own passions and conduct their own explorations in years to come.

Walworth Barbour American International School
65 HaShomron Street
Even Yehuda, HaMerkaz, 4051765
Israel

Adiel Rutabana

Student

Adiel is a graduating senior in WBAIS who has completed the AP Research course. His research, centered on South African language policy and its implementation, explores the complex relationship between language and government in a multilingual Africa. Through a series of interviews, Adiel discovered weak spots in the language policy and what needs South Africans have in regards to it. His findings also show the need for more political will from the government to implement constitutional provisions on language in order to achieve the goals of an ambitious language policy.

Ava Iro

Ava Iro is an actor and musical performer. She accompanies Nalini in her performance of an original song.

Ben Fischer

Student

Ben is a senior at AIS and will be attending Stanford University in the fall. Through the AP Research course, and stemming from a lifelong passion for writing and language, he conducted research on the linguistic effects of the Church of Scientology’s unique lexicon. Through literary review of great linguists and psychologists, he came to understand that our words have weight beyond their messages. They affect us on surprising levels, guiding our perspective, behaviors, attitudes. His talk explores how he came to these conclusions, and reminds us of the value of choosing our words carefully.

Gwyneth Martin

Student

Gwyneth Martin currently a junior at WBAIS. She is an American citizen who has lived in Israel for 2 years. She is enrolled in the Jr. Seminar class at the school, but her reaserch is from her experience and independant drive to learn more about the issue. Gwyneth's reaserch focuses on how female health is hindering girls from obtaining an education. An Education is one of the most powerful tools with which we can equip the future generation. Yet millions of girls around the world each year miss out on an education due to women’s health related issues. The Power of Female Education highlights aspects of female health that are keeping girls out of school, and why it is so valuable that females around the globe have an education.

Hannah Trescott

Student

Hannah Trescott is a graduating senior at AIS, and based on her research through a course called Senior Project, she explains three main factors that can influence a consumer's decision to purchase a hybrid electric car--energy-efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and environmentally friendliness. However, contrary to popular belief, research showed that the social-image factor was the most prominent factor in prompting a consumer's car purchase. Hannah concludes that even though the social-image factor may be a greater incentive to those who want to purchase a hybrid car, reasons for decreasing pollution in the air should be more of more concern and the purchase of a hybrid electric car is a great way that people can reduce pollution worldwide.

Mai Ness

Student

Mai Ness grew up in Belgrade, Serbia but has relocated to Israel in order to complete her senior year at AIS. Her profound interest in biosocial psychology inspired her to research the nature-nurture dichotomy in criminology, specifically addressing the extent to which individual choices can impact the manifestation of criminal tendencies. This complex dichotomy, after which she structured her culminating high-school senior project, has further encouraged her to pursue a position of this nature in the IDF, to which she will be drafting in July 2019.

Meirav Ricover

Student

Mei Ricover is a ninth-grade student, from Argentina, in WBAIS. The question she is analyzing in this talk is: why do certain songs remain popular over time more than others? She approaches this question in different ways. For example, the composition of the song. How is it written in a way that makes people love it? Or the marketing of a song. How is it exposed to us in a way that helps its fame? She mainly concentrates on how the emotional attatchemt that a song causes and the message that is portrayed through the artist and/or lyrics play a big part on how certain songs stand the test of time.

Nalini Venugopal

Student

Nalini Venugopal is an 11th grade Indian-American girl. She is interested in English, history, and music. In her junior seminar class, she decided to research a topic very close to heart, the second-generation Indian - American experience. Her research focused on their general experiences and struggles, however, through her research she discovered one aspect that she chose to dive into more deeply on her own - the importance of representation in media.

Ori Livneh & Yahav Gilbai

Students

Ori Livneh and Yahav Gilbai discuss the propensity of perception: the idea that every decision we make can be seen as a result of our perception. It is understood that essentially, the nature of each of our own perceptions is limited, and only when we become aware of this fact can we begin to embrace a mentality where other perceptions influence our decisions. Livneh and Gilbai apply this methodology to the Albino Crisis in Tanzania. Here, Tanzanians perceive people with Albinism as supernatural and for this reason discriminate, rape, and murder the Albino population. The Tanzanian media has encouraged this limited perception and denied the public from a different perception of Albinos as fellow human beings. Livneh and Gilbai illustrate that through the use of education, this second perception can be accepted and cause for the cessation of these crimes against humanity. To influence our perception is to recognize the limiting nature of the perception we are accustomed to.

Orian Leitersdorf

Student

Orian Leitersdorf, senior at WBAIS attending the Technion next year, possess a passion for learning and problem solving that drives him to explore subjects beyond his focus of Computer Science. For the past year, Orian has been actively participating in the Organ-on-Chip project at the Bioengineering Nahmias Laboratory from the Hebrew University. The Organ-on-Chip technology aims to meet the demand of the pharmaceutical industry for the preclinical phase of development by incorporating advanced tissues cultures in order to develop environments which can better mimic the physiology of humans. The specific Organ-on-Chip variation developed at this laboratory involves spheroids with embedded oxygen sensors as measurements of metabolic stress, providing crucial information beyond live-dead analysis. Combined with Orian’s contributions through software analysis platforms, the project hopes to significantly impact drug discovery and personalized medicine going forward.

Ziv Machtinger

Student

Ziv is a 16-year-old girl from Israel. She lives in a house with 3 younger siblings were two of them are 13-year-old twins with Cerebral Palsy. She will talk about how people with special needs are treated aka ignored. Living in a house with two kids with special needs, she can tell when people look at them in a way that is emphasizing their weaknesses. Where most of what she can see is their amazing characteristics and strength. Ziv is telling you, stop treating them as people with special needs, and see them as special people.