"The Mandel Leadership Institute enabled me to bridge the worlds of academia and social action."

Dr. Sarit Barzilai,
MSELGraduate,  cohort 11
Founding Director of 'Semel'

"Stories Breed Success" ("Semel" in Hebrew) is the brainchild of Dr. Sarit Barzilai, graduate of the Mandel School for Educational Leadership. Her project is based on the philosophy that one's personal narrative can and often does serve as the springboard to successful self-realization.

On the basis of this narrative concept, Barzilai developed a number of programs and workshops at Semel which aim to affect the way individuals see their lives, and thus motivate them to alter the very course of those lives.

She sums up the Semel philosophy as follows,
"Every one of us has a life story, and each one of us has the ability to change that life-story."

Semel operates four programs aimed at different target audiences: The flagship Semel program is its program for the Development of Social Leadership through Success Stories. This program's goal is to build leadership that is driven by a social vision. Participants begin with sharpening their self-awareness through an in-depth examination of their life-story, thus developing a leadership orientation.

Self-Empowerment and School Motivation is geared to youth between the ages of 14-18 — high-school students, drop-outs or soldiers who completed their military service. This biographical workshop invites participants to become active authors of their own life stories and to set the course for a new one.

Academic and Vocational Guidance targets high-school students, students in university-preparatory courses and the unemployed. This workshop aims to help participants sort through the confusion they experience and equip them with skills to make the right academic or career choices.

Narrative Training Program for Community Workers, Social Workers, Counselors, Education and Welfare Workers —The workshop equips professionals with skills to help their client populations understand the limits they place on themselves due to the prism through which they view their lives.

Barzilai's book, "Breaking through Mea Shearim: Journey to the World of the Newly Secular," also deals with the issue of life stories. Her own life story is testament to what is possible when the two worlds of theory and practice meet.

As she puts it, "Mandel Leadership Institute enabled me to bridge the worlds of academia and social action."