It was a chance meeting, a need for support, and many touching hearts that brought many of Yavneh's students and Dr. Rick Hodes, the Medical Director for the JDC in Ethiopia and his family, together.  In the ensuing years, those connections have expanded and inspired the formation, and efforts of Yavneh's Students4Students organization.

photo courtesy Zoe Klein '09

Four Yavneh alumni, Jori Epstein '12, Zoe Klein '09, Miles Pulitzer '10, and Ilana Wernick '12, all previously involved at the start of S4S, recently returned from Ethiopia, traveling with the University of Maryland Hillel and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, experiencing some of what their mission has been firsthand.

Dr. Hodes, who has lived in Ethiopia for more than 20 years, devoting his professional and personal life to the tenet of tikun olam, to repairing the world - has taken that responsibility quite literally.  He has adopted a family of his own, the medical health of

Starting out 2014 by vising Ethiopia and the site of the S4S Sera Wonka school, and many other JDC sponsored projects, Yavneh Alumni Ilana Wernick '12, Jori Epstein '12, Zoe Klein '09,  and Miles Pulitzer '10, with Dr. Rick Hodes.                                                                                    photo courtesy Zoe Klein '09

three of those sons, his original link to Dallas - the boys to be

patients of Texas Scottish Rite Hospital, the Romaner Schultz families, the tie that binds, many years later.

"I'm forever indebted to Dallas, to the medical community for their great care, and to the Jewish community for their kindness to me and my kids," said Dr. Hodes, his sons Djene '12, Semegnew, Mesfin, and Mekonnen, who all attended Yavneh and/or Akiba academies at one point or another. 

"When you go to rural Ethiopia and you see the trees that Ethiopians sat underneath to study, and then you see a cement schoolhouse with real chairs and a latrine, you realize that by building a school, you are raising the expectations, the experience, and the ability to succeed of a whole village," said Dr. Hodes.  "This is true especially for girls, since they have been under-represented in rural education. We thank everyone connected to the programs that help our children, and we hope you too will visit."

"Dr. Hodes and the incredible people who work for him are a huge inspiration to me," said Zoe, a University of Maryland senior, majoring in Psychology and Pre-Medicine, also earning a minor in Global Poverty.  Zoe, who also visited Ethiopia in 2013, her career goals influenced such that she now hopes to spend time working as a physician in a developing country, helped coordinate an effort to help Dr Hodes' work (click here to help) "Shabbat dinner at Dr. Hodes' was full of kids whose lives he has saved, and touched, in unimaginable ways."

Photo courtesy Zoe Klein '09

"Yavneh instilled a sense of gratefulness in me and I am aware of the very privileged upbringing I had especially when it came to my education," said Miles, a junior at the University of Maryland, an Accounting major in the Robert H. Smith School of Business.  "To be able to help build a brick school for children who had formally been learning in huts made of soil straw was very meaningful and important.   

"The trip was truly an incredible experience," said Ilana, a freshman in the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business, exhuberant about seeing the S4S school and Dr. Hodes, as well as many other JDC-oriented efforts. "The trip was definitely a shock but I am glad I was exposed to a culture I didn't even know existed."

"The country has a rich culture and great potential, but that potential is currently

In 2011, S4S co-founders, Jori Epstein '12, Dalit Agronin '12,   and Rachel Siegel '13, delivering the first check for the future Sera Wonka school, to JDC representative, and Dallas resident, Stan Rabin

stifled by poverty, limited resources and most pertinent to my passions - limited education. I wanted to see how the Sera Warka school has affected the community to

better grasp what we can do from America to help Ethiopia and the most effective means to do so," said Jori, a University of Texas sophomore, majoring in Journalism and Plan II Honors, who co-founded Students4Students with Dalit Agronin '12 and Rachel Siegel '13.  "Before S4S, only 15 students from the village learned and they did so under an oak tree named Sera Warka (now the name of the Yavneh's S4S donated school.

The school, now at 80 students, atypically including many women, has already outgrown its facilities, is currently having 40 students study in the morning, and 40 in the afternoon.

S4S continues its efforts, beginning with this Monday night's (2/10/14) Bulldog Basketball & S4S Fundrai$er (click here for info), to raise the $12,000 needed to build an additional classroom at Sera Werka.

"This is a hands-on direct response  organization, and we see how our work affects the future of our world, near and far," said S4S President, Lauren Siegel '14, who with Rachel Siegel, initiated S4S Mentors, working with students at Richardson's Hamilton Park Pacesetter Magnet.  Yavneh mentors read with students and help them with assignments.  "We're very blessed to have the education and opportunities that we do, and I never could have imagined, before coming to Yavneh, the impact that a teenager can have.  We really can do anything we set our minds to."

"Yavneh's given us the tools to repair the world, supporting student initiatives wholeheartedly and exposing us to a broader world beyond our own community. Many who traveled with us remarked how incredible it was that the S4S project was completed in high school and how little they knew about social action in high school," said Jori.    "At Yavneh, it seems natural, a part of learning in a Jewish curriculum, a part of living a Jewish life."

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