BEN-GURION UNIVERSITY | THE WAY FORWARD

Young Family School for the Human Experience

current social and environmental challenges. Collaboration highlights include a BGU-led research consortium with the Technion and Hebrew University, which resulted in the establishment of the Israel Center for Digital Agriculture with a major grant from the Council for Higher Education. The school also prioritizes recruitment, and its research capacity has grown with the recruitment of two new outstanding climate scientists – Dr. Eytan Eshkol and Dr. Ilai Guendelman; a third researcher is in the advanced recruitment stage. By awarding graduate student fellowships, prizes, and grants, and creating new opportunities for studying sustainability and conservation, the school is ensuring that the next generation of experts can take up the mantle and address future environmental challenges. The Michael and Stella Dubey Fellowship Endowment Fund supporting exceptional graduate students will drive research at the school in perpetuity. The Merczynski Family’s Award for Sustainability and Climate Change is awarded to doctoral students or postdoctoral researchers who perform innovative research in the areas of sustainability and the environment. Another prize recognizes the work of two Ph.D. students annually, one from BGU and one from France, in the fields of water, desertification, solar energy, and agriculture in drylands Through the school’s initiative, students can now minor in sustainability and nature conservation, enroll in an interdisciplinary dual degree program in sustainability and environmental conservation, or take courses like a hands-on interdisciplinary practicum course on economics, society, and the environment, in which students solve real world sustainability challenges. A delegation from the school helped launch the Desert Stars Innovation and Sustainability Hub in Marsabit County in northern Kenya, bringing tested Negev desert expertise and solutions to communities severely impacted by climate change, as envisioned with the school’s founding.

The 2025-26 academic year saw the establishment of the Young Family School for the Human Experience, a visionary school that reflects the commitment of the donor and the University to both understanding the essence of what it means to be human in the 21st century and ensuring that this understanding accompanies future technological advancements by meaningfully exposing BGU students across the disciplines to the humanities. The school, which is unique in Israel’s academic landscape, was founded in recognition of the need to both take a new approach to the study of the humanities and reinforce the importance of the humanities in creating well-rounded, fully educated individuals, particularly in the midst of the current technological revolution. It has redefined the humanities in higher education as the comprehensive study of “being human,” placing the question of human experience at the center of its work. The school celebrates humanistic thinking, ethical reflection, cultural literacy, critical thinking, and social responsibility and aims to instill them in students across the University, rather than fostering these critical capabilities solely among those studying in degree programs at the Pinchas Sapir Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. To bridge the humanities with management and the social, health, computer, natural, and engineering sciences and allow students in those disciplines to meaningfully explore the humanities, the school is developing a new humanities curriculum for these students, which will include comprehensive overview courses, courses focusing on democratic values, and more. The curriculum aims to foster synergy between humanities and technology, creating a framework for examining humanistic, ethical, and moral issues in relation to scientific and technological advances of humanity and understanding their relevance to these advancements and the future of the world. An honors program will also be established, equipping outstanding socially engaged students with the skills and knowledge to navigate the complexity of contemporary society, contribute thoughtfully to discourse,

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