Every day, UCI anteaters are doing amazing things. Current students and alumni can be found everywhere from local elementary school classrooms where they’re teaching our next generation of leaders how to read, to the halls of international governments where they’re impacting human rights policy on a global level. UCI’s Olive Tree Initiative is full of anteaters like these who want to make a difference. The group promotes conflict analysis and resolution through education on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and in OTI’s sixth year of existence, they’ve raised more than $1 million to fund their experiential learning work.
 
This summer, two groups of students from the Olive Tree Initiative travelled to Washington, D.C. and the United Nations headquarters in New York City before leaving for the Middle East. The students spent three weeks in Israel, the West Bank and Jordan where they met with more than 60 politicians, religious leaders, nongovernmental leaders and academics to gain a better understanding of regional tensions. Below, hear from Timna Medovoy, an OTI member who made the trek and how the experience has shaped her future plans.

"As a freshman at UCSB, I was eager to join a student advocacy group that focused on Israel/Palestine, but I quickly learned that the groups I was initially attracted to were not especially open to an Israeli-American student with a history of pro-Palestinian activism. However, OTI resonated with me as a constructive alternative to the typically more exclusivist and combative nature of activism, bringing people together to engage through education and exposure. One of the challenges of OTI is learning to cope with that exposure and how to respond to people whose narratives may be diametrically opposed to your own. Especially for those with strong ties to the region, it can be a real struggle to get past the emotional obstacles we may have to honestly hearing the other “sides.” This summer, after I transferred to UCI and was on my second trip, as we shuffled between high intensity meetings, I was struck by how much that animosity I’d felt previously had dissipated. Instead of bitterly dismissing speakers I disagreed with, I was able to contextualize the myriad perspectives we heard as all legitimate narratives in a complex conflict. Having shed much of the knee-jerk reactionism, I was able to really hear them. As I watched the group go through the emotional and intellectual challenges I had faced two years ago, I saw a major shift take place that was a testament for me, both to the progress we had made as a group, and to the profound strength of the OTI program. Our last speakers expressed the most unabashed racism we’d encountered and while the sentiments could have reasonably elicited strong emotional reactions, I was amazed to see the group collectively move beyond the emotional triggers, delving immediately into a deeper analysis of what we had just heard. In spite of the vulgarity, students examined the narrative in context, drawing political and historical comparisons marked by a level of awareness and understanding not commonly found in conflict discourse. In moments like these, I am humbled to be part of such an incredible and passionate group of up-and-coming leaders. The vast majority of people, particularly those living in the conflict, will never experience the kind of exposure that OTI provides. We had the privilege of hearing first-hand what this conflict means to people on the ground from all different walks of life and we all have a responsibility now to share what we have learned."

Timna Medovoy, political science
Future Plans: UCDC, grad school, continue Arabic studies, and hopefully going back to Egypt (studied abroad there and went back this last summer to learn Arabic prior to the trip) to work with public policy NGOs

About the Olive Tree Initiative:
Founded in 2007, UCI’s Olive Tree Initiative has been highly lauded for its efforts to promote dialogue and understanding through experiential education. Awards and honors received include recognition by the U.S. Summit for Global Citizen Diplomacy and U.S. State Department as a top citizen diplomacy program; the inaugural UC Office of the President Award for Outstanding Leadership; UCI’s Anteater Award for Best International Organization; the Paul Delp Peace Award; the Orange County Human Relations Commission’s Community Leader Award; and a UCI Living our Values student team award.  September 2013 marked the return of OTI’s eighth student group from its experiential learning trip to the Middle East. OTI’s work serves as the foundation of the new UCI undergraduate certificate program in conflict analysis and resolution which offers students academic credit for work leading up to and following their learning trip. OTI now has active groups operating on UC campuses in Berkeley, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz and San Diego with additional branches in the works at other UC campuses and universities nationwide as well as internationally.  OTI alumni include Rhodes, Fulbright and Rotary scholars, and the program’s first graduates are already working at NGOs and in politics in the Middle East and the U.S.