Page 34 - PresidentReport2024Portrait

Adi Gefen Adi grew up in Rehovot and came to Jerusalem following her
military service to study at HAC's DAN Department of Creative
Nerya Mansbach- Human Design. Some eight years later, she is still living in the city:
Richardson Adi works as a service designer for the Municipality of Jerusalem
and is studying (not at HAC) for her M.A. in Sociology and
Anthropology, with a specialization in organizational consulting.

“I was looking at four possible schools for my undergraduate
studies, and I am so glad I chose HAC," she says. “It offered me
so much. I took part in the President’s Program for Excellence,
I took workshops on multiculturalism, and helped run the
Department’s booth at Jerusalem’s Artists' Colony Fair for a few
years.” Her final project involved customizing services to specific
target populations, and she developed a system that enables
organizations to identify community representatives and co-
design community services in collaboration with them. Her M.A.
thesis focuses on how organizations can use tacit information to
promote cultural accessibility.

“HAC taught me how to be a researcher,” she says, ‘’not just how
to collect information, but how to go out in the field, interview
people, organize surveys, and so much more.” When she
completed her studies, Adi offered to help mentor fourth year
design students at HAC. Once a month for the past three years,
Adi has been doing just that.

After performing her national service, Nerya, who is from Ma'aleh
Adumim, initially began studying Computer Science, but the
COVID-19 pandemic led her to rethink the course of her life. She
decided to study Behavioral Science instead and enrolled at HAC.

“Our professors were very strict, though fair with their demands,”
she recalls, “and they didn't miss an opportunity to tell us how
much they believed in us, and that we should dream big.” Nerya
especially recalls one course which involved practical work at
a center for at-risk and autistic children. “This really gave me a
better understanding of the profession," she recalls.

Today, Nerya is married and the mother of two children, and
remarkably busy on all fronts. She is completing an M.A. in Early
Childhood at The Hebrew University’s Department of Social
Work. Simultaneously, she works as an assistant researcher at
The Haruv Institute and as an assistant researcher for Dr. Shani
Oppenheim-Weller, Chair of HAC's Department of Behavioral
Science. Moreover, following her teachers’ advice about dreaming
big, Nerya hopes to continue to pursue a doctorate and engage in
academic research in her field.

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