Providing Opportunities for Periphery Students
Yakir Mazuz, from the town of Tzfat in northern Israel, has broken the “glass ceiling” of Israel’s periphery and has flourished as a third-year law student at Tel Aviv University’s Buchmann Faculty of Law. When he finished high school, Mazuz was selected as a participant in TAU’s Periphery Program, which boosts accessibility to higher education among Israelis from disadvantaged backgrounds and outlying communities. After successfully meeting the Program criteria, Mazuz completed his mandatory army service and then enrolled at TAU.
Tel Aviv President Ariel Porat founded the Periphery Program when he was Dean of the Buchmann Faculty of Law in the early 2000s. “The Periphery Program is not an affirmative action program,” he explains, “but rather uses different criteria to test students’ potential for success. The purpose of the program is not only to locate good students from the social and geographic periphery for the university, but to create a horizon of hope and expectations for students in Israel’s periphery, who know that they can be accepted at Tel Aviv if they excel in their studies.”
The Periphery Program recently received an infusion of support from the Charles, Evelyne and Sandra Dolansky Periphery Scholarship Fund and a fund established by TAU Global Campaign Cabinet members
Dr. Kathy Fields-Rayant and Dr. Garry Rayant in honor of Campaign Chair Dr. Anita Friedman.
TAU’s Periphery Program recruits students based on their achievements relative to their classmates rather than on standardized admissions tests that pit them against students from the country’s wealthier central region. It provides financial, academic, emotional and social support alongside career and employment guidance. In return, students perform community service. Ultimately, the Program aims to help scholars realize their potential and inspire other young people from their communities to follow suit.
Coming from a small northern community, Mazuz had to adjust to life in Tel Aviv. “At the beginning, it was very scary,” he says. “Everyone you know is in the North. You’re on your own, and you’re responsible for yourself completely.” Ultimately, he made friends through the Periphery Program, and he values the support he has received from its staff. “You never feel alone,” he says. Moreover, his scholarship and living stipend have allowed him to focus on his studies and will enable him to finish his degree on time.
“The Periphery Program gave me an opportunity to thrive,” says Mazuz, “and I jumped at the chance to fulfill my dream of studying at the best law faculty at the country’s best university.”