After a hot and busy morning in the old city of Jerusalem and a delicious bagel lunch, we had our first leadership seminar with Zeev Ben Shachar. As we all took our seats in the air conditioned room Amnon bribed us to stay awake (after only having four hours of sleep) by putting a box of muffins in the center, which was pretty successful. Zeev is the education director of Jerusalem U, a film company that produces educational video about Israel. He taught us what it takes to be a leader which includes identifying a problem, “zooming out”/ looking at the bigger picture, defining a measurable goal, inspiring others, determination and leading. He asked us to identify a problem that we are passionate about. For example Rachel said the achievement gap and Roz said the refugee crisis. From there we learned about the inevitable failure you will have along the way but the importance of determination to achieve your goal. I can relate to this through my skating career- I know what it feels like to put hours into practicing on the ice and still fail my skating tests. However, once I fail I practice harder so I will pass the next time around. I’ve also learned to get back up after falling time and time again when trying to land a new jump. Zeev emphasized that a leader acknowledges that “no one is coming”, meaning to not leave an issue for someone else to solve and instead taking ownership. Zeev’s lecture on leadership could be helpful to anybody and be applied to anything, not just our cohort and our mission but our entire lives.