I was the coordinator of DOIT officially from October 15, 2012 through the end of May 2016 when

our final payment was received from The Agency in Brussels and Gordon Academic College completed
the task of transferring the last tranche of the grant budget to our 20 partner institution who made
up our consortium.

This is the second time I have the honor of standing here at Sokhumi State University to receive
recognition that belongs to our whole group of DOIT people who share a common vision which is
based on the belief that through education we can bring about change. I am really moved since this
kind of recognition is usually only given to someone who has donated a lot of money to an institution
or has died. The fact that my financial situation does not enable me to be a philanthropist that I may
wish to be, and, it is clear to all to all that I am very much alive, leaves me with this overwhelming
feeling which causes me ALMOST to be speechless. However, for many of you who know me well, I
am usually not at a loss of words and have since officially being informed of this special recognition,
I have been reflecting on this very special journey we have taken together.

Our DOIT journey actually began in 2010 when we started the whole process of trying to design a
TEMPUS program that promotes Multicultural Education, Diversity and Children’s Rights. This first
application attempt was unsuccessful and like any other situation in life when we face a set-back,
there were two different paths of choices that we could make.

1. The first choice could have been to say—ok, we tried our best, invested hundreds of hours in
writing the application and need to go on to programs and grant applications that are less
demanding and have a better opportunity of being funded. In other words forget about this
program and think about other ones.
2. The second choice, which is actually the more difficult path, was the decision to not let the
possibility of being rejected again stop us from trying again and attempting to improve upon
the program that was presented in our first application.

I was guided to make this decision by two complementary viewpoints or attitudes:

 The first was based on logic and intelligent analysis of the reviewers’ remarks and comments
on our application and assessing whether these remarks can be related to effectively in our
revisions. Several significant people took this approach: the two TEMPUS National
Representatives in Israel and in Georgia, Ms. Marissa Gross Yam and Ms. Lika Glonti and
Gordon’s new President, Prof. Yecheskel Taler. They carefully assessed that our chances as
being selected would be good if we related to the comments written by the reviewers who
rejected our application. Most importantly however was the support I received from my
colleagues of this first submission who gave me the clear message that WE (not I) could do
this and that TOGETHER we will succeed. This attitude that I am not alone and WE are and
will work together in what I have described as a culture of collaborate helped me make the
decision to try again.

 The second influence which guided my decision to try again came from my own family
upbringing and the lessons about life that I have gained from them especially from my Father.
The first week I was born in 1951, my father was diagnosed with a very rare condition called
 Acromegaly which is a hormonal disorder that develops in adulthood. The doctors informed
my parents that he would probably not live for more than 10 years which is the life-expectancy
of this disease once its conditions manifest itself. My father with the loving devotion and
support of my mother however, did not let this disease defeat him. There were difficult
moments in his life, but each time he was ‘knocked down” he managed to stand up again and
move forward. He lived a normal life, always worked full time to support his family, he
attended my high school and college graduation degrees, he danced at my wedding and was
a loving grandfather to his grandchildren for 25 years. My father lived until the age of 84,
over 50 years longer than the doctor’s predicted.

So I had growing up in my life, a model of a man that just never gave up and continued to strive and
work towards achieving the goals that were important for him. I learned from him that sometimes
we have failures in our lives or go through difficult situations but we should try to learn from them
and not let these failures hold us back from going forward. I learned from him that failing is a part of
life and that it is ok to fail. Real character is measured however by what a person does after he or
she fails and how they move forward in their lives learning from this experience.

We often say “we learn more from bad practices than good ones”—but only if we can really honestly
come to terms with what happened, why, how and then develop a strategy to overcome those
barriers which set us back.

I am standing here today as a result of making that second decision with you and deciding to invest
months of work in revising the application in a collaborative manner which resulted in DOIT being
selected. Our DOIT journey has been an amazing experience which after 7 years when our
collaborative process has begun, is still very much a part of our professional identity and sustained
within our universities (and even beyond in other institutions).

It was BOTH of those influences that guided my in the decision to try again, namely, belonging to an
intelligent supportive group who were committed to work together and having the model in my life
of not allowing one failure to hold me back. It is these two points that I would like to relate to in my
talk today. The first is the importance of building what I have been calling a culture of collaboration
in which the group of professionals works together and make decisions based on what is best for the
project rather than for their own individual selves or specific universities. These people who “buy
into” this culture of collaboration realize that is is through working in this way we are not “sacrificing
ourselves” or our universities. They realize that through collaboration and hard work, the program
will not only achieve its short-term goals, but also achieve amazing long-term sustainable results. It
is these long-term sustainable results that contribute directly to each and every person in the group
and the institution that they are a part of.

The other point that I want to share with you is how to embrace failure, not succeeding. This is just
as much a part of our lives as succeeding. Failing is only tragic when we let our failures keep us down.
If we look at failure as a learning experience that will enable us to do better, improve and develop,
then we did not fail, but have grown. SO for our young students who are sitting here today, I hope
that you will remember these words that are based on our experiences. Know that it is ok not to
succeed IF you learn from the process and are willing to grow with it and build you next experiences
based on what you have learned.

DOIT’s program was selected in the first weeks of August 2011, Project start was on October 15th
2011 and our first kick-off meeting was in the following week of October. Having a kick-off meeting
which involved purchasing tickets and having financial support for the cost of stay BEFORE we even
received the first payment of our funds, is very exceptional. But because DOIT’s cultural of
collaboration and TRUST was developed already in the application stages, each institution was ready
to commit to the program and send their respective DOIT teams to Tbilisi who hosted our meeting.

I was DOIT’s coordinator, but DOIT belonged to each and every institution. For almost three years
of our project’s life, we worked together and we were all empowered to make DOIT’s program a part
of our institutions. Sokhumi State University’s DOIT team headed by Professor Lia Akhaladze led her
team in designing academic programs at her university which could integrate DOIT’s innovative
courses into their curriculum. New curriculum programs were created and around six different
programs benefitted by DOIT’s courses. The impact and sustainability at SSU is evidence by these
new programs and now this new auditorium is being dedicated to our program through this honor
which they are bestowing on me.

Sokhumi State University is just one example of DOIT’s Sustainability. At Tbilisi State University the
course on Children’s Rights is offered as an elective to ALL of its faculty, the Faculty of Cultural Studies
has integrated as electives or required courses several of DOIT’s courses into their academic
programs. In Alhaltskhe at Samtskhe-Javakheti State University and at Ilia State University DOIT’s
courses or units from their courses are integrated into their curriculum in the Faculty of Humanities
and Education. In Telavi State U not only are DOIT’s courses being taught but DOIT’s students have
helped form a NGO that works with the Kist youth in neighboring villages so that they will contribute
and remain within their community and not turn to extreme Islamic groups such as ISIS/DASH.

The impact was also experienced in Israel. Gordon College is running DOIT’s courses and has even
redesigned the Children’s Rights course to be an online course that can reach hundreds of students
each year. Sakhnin Academic College has submitted a new MA program that integrated DOIT’s
courses within this new program. In addition, at Sakhnin the DOIT courses are still being taught as
workshops by their own students at their university. Kaye College has been teaching the Children’s
Rights course and other DOIT’s courses after the life of the program. And the Interdisciplinary Center
of Hertzilya’s Student union were still running “DOIT” programs in the year following our project end.

The above reflects an amazing accomplishment for a Key Action 2 Capacity Building Program of
TEMPUS that all of us who are a part of the DOIT team can be proud of.

Even more impressive however, I believe is the fact that DOIT’s collaboration has been sustained and
has opened up many more avenues of collaboration between Israeli and Georgian
institutions. There are now three important ERASMUS+ Key Action 2 programs which are based on
Israeli-Georgian collaboration aimed to contribute to the capacity building and development of our
institutions. They are all special programs that are designed to make tangible impacts on our
institutions. I believe that they all have the potential of reaching the amazing achievements of DOIT.
The Sustainability of our professional ties and institutions are reflected In the 2015 ERASMUS+ Key
Action Selected program of :
1. DARE: Developing programs for Access of Disadvantaged groups of people and Regions to
Higher Education is being coordinated by Haifa University in Israel. This program continues
DOIT’s vision of Promoting Diversity in Curriculum to SUPPORTING diversity in our
universities through developing support services for disadvantaged groups. Members of our
DOIT team who are in this project are:
a. Gordon Academic College of Education
b. Sapir College
c. Sokhumi State University
d. Ilia State University
e. Telavi State University
“New” Israeli and Georgian institutions are included in this program that are now benefitting
from our Israeli-Georgian partnership: Haifa University the Coordinator and Achva Academic
College in Israel and Zugdidi State University in Georgia.

In the 2016 ERASMUS+ selection of Key Action2 Capacity Building Programs we had two Israeli-
Georgian partnerships selected, one which I have the honor and privilege of coordinating, CURE.

2. CURE: Curriculum Reform for Promoting Civic Education and Democratic Principles in
Israel and in Georgia which I am now privileged to coordinate. CURE aims to improve the
level of curriculum for Civic Education and Principles of Democracy in teacher-training
programs in Israel and in Georgia through: developing new courses, faculty training
workshops, student leadership training, student activities, establishing Civic education
clubs/centers at CURE's Israeli and Georgian universities and colleges and in schools where
students practice teach.
Members of our DOIT team in this project include:
a. Gordon Academic College
b. Sakhnin Academic College
c. Sapir Academic College
d. Ilia State University
e. Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University
f. Samtskhe-Javakheti State University
g. Civic Development Institute

“New” Israeli and Georgian Universities who are a part of this consortium are in Israel Givat
Washington Academic College, David Yellin Academic College and in Georgia Batumi State University,
Kutaisi University

Finally, there is a GEORGIAN Initiative that has included uniting in a consortium 3 regions: Georgia,
Israel and Bosnia and Herzegovina:
 3. ABC: Access to Better Communication is being coordinated by Ilia State University. It aims to
enhance the profession of Speech and Language Therapy in participating countries through
quality courses and programs offered at different levels of professional education.
Members of our DOIT team in this project include:
a. Ilia State University
b. Gordon Academic College
“New” Israeli and Georgian Universities who are a part of this consortium are Ono Academic
College, Haifa University and Batumi State University in Georgia.

The sustainability of our Georgian-Israeli professional ties will hopefully be further strengthened in a
new program called ASSESS. The applicant is an Israeli institution of Kinneret Academic College and
the program aims to develop assessment and evaluation tools that will enable us to see the impact
of our curricular reform programs of TEMPUS and ERASMUS+ Key Action 2 programs that have
developed innovative courses. While this program is aimed at understanding the IMPACT of our
courses, for me it is clear that the IMPACT and SUSTAINABLE processes of DOIT is validated by the
sustainable and development of our professional relations as evidenced above.

We have taken a long journey which would have NOT been possible without the framework of Key
Action 2 Programs of TEMPUS and now ERASMUS+. The Georgian-Israeli TEMPUS/ERASMUS+
programs started with 2 Georgian institutions and 3 Israeli institutions. When this was rejected, we
successfully revised our program and DOIT’s TEMPUS program was selected and included seven
Georgian HEIs and six Israeli HEIs. Today, in 2017, we have 11 different Israeli institutions
collaborating with 12 different Georgian institutions in 3 different ERASMUS+ programs. Our EU
partnership in these consortiums has also expanded from the 5 HEIs of EU partnership for DOIT to
16 EU HEIs in our 3 additional ERASMUS+ programs.

I feel that I have been privileged to be a part of this development not only due to the
professionally but also personally. A dear colleague and friend, Prof. Nino Chiabrishvili, who during
the DOIT application development process shared with me her thoughts which actually foresaw what
has actually been accomplished:
During the preparation process new ideas and approaches emerged from online meetings,
emails ,…these processes have enriched not only the initial sketch of the project but the
participants' attitudes towards the whole concept of multicultural education… I think that the
most valuable outcome of this project is the partnership that (I believe) will last in spite of
everything, even the project itself.
And indeed, Nino was correct---that our partnership has continued and is lasting through new
dynamic programs which contribute to our institutions and societies.

I want to sincerely thank this amazing institution of Sokhumi State University who has been an
integral partner in our DOIT journey for this honor. I am so proud to have my name embedded on
this wall and hope that we will continue to share our knowledge and accomplish through our culture
of collaboration great things.

THANK YOU. Rhonda Sofer, July 28, 2017