Orly Margulis, born in Venezuela, spent five years in the United States completing her undergraduate degree at Drexel University before arriving in the Jewish State to attend Tel Aviv University International (TAUi).
But, what was it that drew her focus 3,000 miles away and attend school in the heart of the Middle East?
"It was a dream of mine, ever since I was a very young girl," Margulis said. "And I always knew I wanted to study in Israel.”
Last year, she found out about TAUi’s MBA program and decided to enroll.
Student’s in the Sofaer Global Master's in Business Administration Program go through an intensive one-year program focused on finance, economics, statistics and consumer insights. They also complete a number of hands-on projects.
"It was a very intense year, but it was also very rewarding," Margulis said.
Because of COVID-19, Margulis' classes started off remotely. Students would call in via Zoom to attend the lectures and discussions. As restrictions began to be lifted, the students then began meeting in small capsules outside of the classroom and getting to know each other on a more personal level.
Eventually, all of the restrictions were lifted.
"We met at the beach to talk to each other, watch the sunset together," she said. "It was a challenge, but it made us want to be with eachother even more."
Margulis graduated from Drexel University with a degree in public relations attached to a double minor in writing and marketing. With that Margulis hopes to insert herself into the communications sector in Israel following the wrap-up of her studies at TAUi.
"I've always been interested in business operations, development and managing," Margulis began. "During coronavirus, we all know that many people sadly lost their jobs, the market collapsed and I thought it was the perfect opportunity for me to actually go after this dream and explore different areas."
Margulis notes that in her undergrad she never took any classes that dealt directly with business administration such as finance or statistics.
"It was more towards communications and research and writing, and being able to study microeconomics and accounting [at TAUi] that really helped a lot," Margulis said, adding that from this program she now has a more technical background on what it takes to run or grow a business, what formulas she could apply to her methods to obtain her goals and hands-on experience that directly relates to managing a business in the real-world.
Margulis adds that her undergraduate background mixed with her TAUi degree helps her "analyze other things, not necessarily focusing on numbers," which she believes is a very good skill to have, "and all of these things I will be taking to my career," she added.
During her MBA program at TAUi, Magulis had secured a part-time position at a local Israeli company, working on its marketing team, that acted as her internship for the program. While in her position, Margulis said that she saw a lot of great examples of how her studies, which focused more on the technical side of running a business, meshed well into her focus as a marketing professional for the company.
"Now I am doing both together, and it's very interesting to learn from the operations side of the company while I am still doing marketing and merging both of my passions together," Margulis said.
Following the completion of her degree at TAUi, Margulis intends to stay in Israel, living in Tel Aviv, where she will start her professional career as an Israeli citizen.
"I love the city," she said. "So for the [immediate] future I will stay here. From there, we will see what happens down the road."
Margulis noted to The Jerusalem Post that she would recommend that student hopefuls follow her path, take the plunge and move to Israel to start their studies and eventually kickstart their own careers somewhere down the line.
"I always say that Tel Aviv is a melting pot of cultures," she said. "It's beautiful to walk around and to listen to all the different languages and see different people.
"I also love the fact that you have people who are super religious and people who are super [secular] and how they live together. It's beautiful to see."
She added that Tel Aviv University is a lot like that.
"You are there and you obviously hear mostly Hebrew, because it is a school in Israel, but the international community is beautiful. You meet people from all over the world, you hear so many stories, you exchange so many stories with people, and now I have friends from all over the world,” she said.
Margulis highlighted the key life-skill she procured during her year at TAUi: Resiliency.
"We were in the MBA during a pandemic and a war, and we were still learning and still thriving and still moving forward," she said. “Israel is all about resiliency and moving forward and overcoming these challenges.”