ABSTRACT
The students’ council held a meeting at the school in order to get the students acquainted with various programs of civic engagement in which they can enroll. These activities were presented to the students as part of the obligatory civic participation program held in Israeli public high schools. The program is called “personal obligation”. It aims to address issues of public concern and give a hand in tackling them. The students can volunteer for various activities and with different target populations, among them: children with a physical or mental disability, underprivileged children, seniors, and injured animals. The “personal obligation” project is an initiative introduced by the Israeli Ministry of Education in 1979. Participation in the project is obligatory during 10th grade. Today, the current goals focus on the students’ educational, cognitive, and emotional development that is gained through participation in these out-of-school activities.
