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Almost two years ago, our daily routines, practically our everyday life, have turned upside down. COVID-19 challenged us in the College to make adjustments, address the needs of our students and faculty and overcome numerous challenges. We sat down with our Director General, Shlomi Ben Non, to find out more and get his perspective.

As the Director General of the College, how would you sum up your personal dealings with COVID-19?

Managing the Zefat Academic College during COVID-19 required me to constantly address the ever changing government regulatory guidelines and adapt them to the College. Throughout the period, we navigated in the labyrinth of uncertainty. The College offers quite a few healthcare-related academic programs, so our students were at the forefront of the fight against the virus both in hospitals and the throughout the community. In addition, since most of the academic programs in the College require practical training, and the pandemic required extra time of our students, we needed to adapt the courses delivery and timing. At the same time, one silver lining of the pandemic was my ability to accelerate our physical development projects and to develop our distance learning technology. The College has taken a quantum leap forward in its computing infrastructure and in our approach to student services. The endless challenges of the pandemic notwithstanding, we managed to leverage the disruptions of COVID to our advantage in some cases, which is encouraging.

What occupies you these days? What's on the agenda of the College as we are nearing the end of 2021?

Naturally, at the top of the agenda is a smooth opening of the 2021/22 school year precisely according to plans. Most of the courses are taught on campus and about 30% are held in hybrid form. In addition, we are very busy preparing the opening of the new healthcare education complex which is supposed to double the College space. Within the new campus we are excited about the opening the Helmsley Institute for Advanced Health Training & Education, a second of its kind center for medical simulations in Israel, that requires the purchase of cutting edge technology and equipment. We are deeply grateful to the Helmsley Charity Trust for its ongoing support and generosity.

One of the major strategic issues on my table is the planning of the construction of new student dormitories. The College has a designated budget but bureaucratic obstacles have prevented us from progressing at the pace we prefer. The dormitories will be part of a multi-purpose building that will address our academic development, the needs of our students and the economic solidification of the College.

How do you envision the College in five years? What goals do you wish the College would reach?

In five years, I see the College as a leading academic center in the country, especially in the fields of healthcare and computer related programs.

With the forthcoming opening of the Department of Optometry, I look forward to increasing the number of additional undergraduate degrees and students. According to our plans, we will increase also the number of master's degree programs. For example, we will open soon the research based advanced degree program in Physical Therapy. Thanks to a massive investment in learning technologies, our students will be able to improve their academic performance, which makes me particularly proud and satisfied.

On the physical development front - with the opening of the new healthcare education complex, a sequence of buildings will be created with the connection of bridges and passages, which will facilitate the safe movement of our students on campus. We also expect to build a new parking lot for our staff and students and keep improving our student retention services.

Financially, the College has been and will continue to benefit from a sound fiscal management and balanced budget. Our fiscal health will continue to help us vis-à-vis government regulators and our friends and supporters. In addition, we will continue to refine the activities that already exist to increase student retention and expand the set of tools in the hands of campus administrators who execute our efforts in this important area.

In terms of social involvement and student activities, the College already offers a large variety of programs. Yet, we would like to both expand the scope of activities and also offer our students a proper home where all of our social, multi-ethnic and cross-cultural endeavors take place.

In the years to come, the College also sees itself as a regional game changer that supports and strengthen the northern periphery in a number of aspects. Chief among which is offering our students, 90% of whom are first generation college students, a much needed opportunity for upward social mobility.

2021 was, by all accounts, a year full of challenges. Still, any points of light?

The main bright spots in my eyes are the continued increase in the number of students despite COVID, the incredible success rates of our students in government licensing exams and our cross-sectoral social activities. No less so is the recognition and trust given to the College by donors and government regulators, who, together, contributed greatly to the growth and development of the College.

I wish all of them and our College community a very happy, healthy and prosperous 2022.
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ZAC is proud to announce the much anticipated opening of our very own Department of Optometry and Vision Science, starting the academic year of 2022-2023 and offering its graduates with a B.Optom degree, recognized by the Council for Higher Education of Israel.

The Department's opening serves as an answer to Israel's desperate need of optometrists, as currently there are only two academic optometry programs in the entire country, both of which located in its center, leaving the periphery bereft and short sighted.

Leading the Department will be Prof. Zvi Malik, Dr. Oren Yehezkel and Dr. Jeffrey Hilowitz – all are renowned researchers and physicians in the field of optometry.
 
The Department's residence will be "Rechter House," located alongside the Legacy Heritage Education Center for Health Training & Simulation (Beit Bussel Complex). The Building was designed in the 1960's by the Israel Prize laureate architect Yaakov Rechter, and was initially purposed as a recovery home. Currently, the building is in the early stages of extensive renovation process, joining ZAC's ongoing building developments.
 
Alongside its academic activities, the Program will run the "Optometry on Wheels" initiative: a field-training project, which packs both ZAC's social and academic agenda in one groundbreaking vehicle.

From this revolutionary unit, the department's staff and students will provide optometric services for thousands of deserving yet underprivileged residents in the northern periphery each year. Priority will be given the elderly, people with disabilities, immigrant communities, Holocaust survivors, residents of Arab and Druze villages and others who lack access to these services due to health and economic limitations. In order to detect residents in need, the Unit will arrive at kindergartens, schools, day care centers, community centers, retirement homes, sheltered housing facilities and remote villages around the northern periphery.

Adding to this initiative are the Department's subsidized store, which will offer eye care products as glasses and contact lenses at reduced prices, and on-campus clinic, which will provide our students with another valuable opportunity to improve their practical skills and become outstanding optometric professionals.  
קולאז' בית ר...
Captioned above: The master plan for the  Beit Bussel Complexmade by Yaakov Rechter, Rechter House in the front (left. Photo curtesy of architect Amnon Rechter) and Rechter House, 2015 (right. Credit Photo: Yoni Lubliner).
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As 2021 comes to an end, it seems that rather than stopping research activity, COVID-19 increased, in fact, the academic studies at our College by adding new relevant research topics. ZAC's researchers have studied several aspects of COVID-19 pandemic throughout the year, as their publications discuss machine-learning algorithms for predicting COVID-19 complications; COVID-19 in pregnancy; social aspects as the pandemic's effects on drug and alcohol consumption and the effects of social distancing on the elderly population.

In addition, geographical distance was not a setback, as conferences and research meetings were conducted online, by that enabling the participation of many researchers in international conferences despite the travel restrictions.

During this year, our already impressive list of research centers was joined by two new officially approved centers, and now includes:

 
- The Center of Interdisciplinary Research for Multi-cultural Community Development.
- Research Center of Cultures and Communities in the Galilee.
- Galilee Digital Health Research Center.
- Zefat Center for Bioethics: Law &Ethics in Health Sciences.
- Tzahar - Palm Beach Research Center for Judaism-Based Social Sciences.
 
Other than COVID-19 related publication, ZAC researchers published this year dozens of articles in various fields including social science, law, health sciences, computer science and arts, discussing intriguing questions as:
 
- "Can algorithms predict failures in healthcare?"
- "Does a cold physical environment lead to more identification with suffering?"
- "Do ethnicity and religion effect perception of victims and offenders?"
- "Do children with ADHD have more trans-fats in their blood cells?"

Click here to read some of this year's publications and keep posted on the Research Authority's activities and accomplishments. 
הדרנוימן
Pictured above: Dr. Hadar Neuman, Head of ZAC's Research Authority. 
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Earlier this month we said our farewells to Sefton Bergson – ZAC's dear friend and ally, who is retiring from his position as the Galil Representative of the United Jewish Israel Appeal (UJIA) Great Britain after over 30 years.

During his work with our College, Sefton promoted diligently the common interests of ZAC and the Jewish community of Great Britain, as he followed up closely the development and implementation process of various projects in the College. These include the donation of academic scholarships for new immigrants in favor of computer skills studies at our College, and the building process of our School of Nursing's new state of the art home.

One initiative worth mentioning in this context is the generous donation of the UJIA that offers full scholarships for well-deserved students in our School of Nursing. Thanks to these scholarships, these students were able to focus on their studies and complete them with uninterrupted.

We thank Sefton for all of his professionalism and deep care and wish him a joyous and relaxing retirement. 
פרידה מספטון...
Pictured above: Left to right – ZAC's Director General Shlomi Ben Non, Sefton Bergson, Secretary of Dean of Students Office Mary Ben Lulu, Dean of Students Dorit Partovi and ZAC'S Vice President of Development and External Relations Dr. Amnon Leshem.  
For more opportunities to make an impact in our students' lives, please visit our website
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E-mail
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11 Jerusalem St.
P.O.B 160
Zefat
Israel


Telephone
 +972-4-6927931
  +972-4-6927866 
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Newsletter Editors
mail


Zohar Tzur - tzurz@zefat.ac.il
Dr. Amnon Leshem - amnonl@zefat.ac.il
Credit Photos - ZAC spokesperson, Yoni Lubliner, Zohar Tzur
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