A little over two years ago, ClearForest (located in Israel, and part of the Content Marketplace Group) joined the “Thinking Positive” initiative, a program to promote high school student achievement in science, math and english, and prepare students for their matriculation exams. Through the program, volunteers from high-tech companies, including Thomson Reuters, Intel, Marvel, IBM, Kodak and Agilent, work with the students at their offices, helping prepare the students for their exams, while giving them a view into a real-world office environment. Students are selected based on their socioeconomic level, grades, and motivation to succeed. Typically, these students do not have other options for getting help with their studies.

23 May 2012Thomson Reuters

Every week from November through June, five ClearForest volunteers – Enav Weinreb, Sari Brosh, Michal Katz, Benny Vaknin and Noemie Guthmann – meet with high school students at the ClearForest office, providing assistance with their math and english studies.

The program is very popular among the students, and has shown to be quite effective. The students say they like the “high-tech” atmosphere in the office and are really inspired by it. More importantly, their grades improve significantly — and this is especially true for those who work with the ClearForest volunteers. In fact, the average grades for the ClearForest students showed the most dramatic improvement in 2011 — significantly higher than the average of the other participating companies.

According to Zohar Granot, the program is one of the rare chances where opportunity to make a difference is literally on our doorstep. “Our volunteers end up feeling fulfilled and with a sense of accomplishment just as the kids will,” she said.