As part of the concluding events of the Mandel Program for Local Leadership in Baqa al-Gharbiyye, in late May, the group went on a retreat at the Beit Daniel cultural center in Zichron Yaakov.
The main purpose of the retreat was to give the fellows a space to share their experiences of the program with one another, discuss important points that they had experienced during the past two years, talk about missed opportunities for themselves or the group, and discuss the future leadership challenges that awaited them in their work. The retreat summed up the learning experiences through various stations: intellectual study, personal study, personal development, interpersonal feedback, the transition from fellows to graduates, and a general summary with Dr. Danielle Shani, the director of the Mandel Center for Leadership in the North.
In general, it emerged that the program was very meaningful for the fellows. All of them favorably acknowledged the development they had undergone, as well as the relationships and work experiences they had in the group. Shahira Shalaby and Dr. Asaf Turgeman, the program directors, were also impressed by the power of the work done as a group, both in terms of the support and in terms of the constructive critical reflection of the participants. During the retreat, the fellows received a detailed explanation of their transition to graduate status under the guidance of Jabir Asaqala, the head of the graduates unit at the Center.
