When my family moved from White Plains, New York, to Barkan, Israel, it was the first time I had ever felt so out of place. I was six years old, could not understand what people around me were saying, and knew no one other than my family. At first, I was bullied for being an outsider, but I eventually learned to stand up for myself, and developed the Israeli warrior soul. Every year in school, we were taught that a “suspicious object,” such as abandoned bags, poses a possible bomb threat. We memorized the procedure to follow if under attack. This was a lot to handle, but over time I became more Israeli than American. I thrived by adopting the Israeli trait of sticking together and treating others as family.
Just as I was fully immersed in Israeli culture, my family had to move to Miami, Florida, due to my mother’s new job. I experienced another culture shock, one involving a longer period of adjustment. The Hispanic culture in Miami was so different from that in Israel, and, once again, I did not fit in. My Hebrew was better than my English, so I was placed in “English for Speakers of Other Languages” classes. I struggled academically due to the language barrier and longed for my friends in Israel, with whom I had built such strong bonds.
In addition to the culture shocks, my
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In the Israeli grade school, I joined an honors program to prepare me for advanced math studies, and in the U.S. secondary schools, I was placed in honors and college-level math courses. While the language barrier presented a hurdle in many of my courses, mathematics is inherently more universal. During my second year at UCF, I allowed my passion for the subject to guide my career choices and changed my major from Education to Mathematics. Despite taking the most difficult mathematics courses offered, I was placed on the Dean’s List three times and was eventually placed on the President’s