For some, the barbed wire creates the illusion of a prison. Swarms of people grow restless, waiting up to two or three hours in the heat. Words of hatred and political divide are spray painted across the wall and scream to come alive. Young soldiers are tired from 12-hour shifts at the border and Students Crossing Boundaries fellows, along with others, prepare their passports for inspection, but they, however, look past the hate and divide and instead try and understand the conflict. Students Crossing Boundaries is a student-run fellowship program that started in 2007 following Jimmy Carter's controversial visit to Brandeis. In discussing his book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, Carter challenged Brandeis students to "visit the occupied territories for a few days to determine whether I have exaggerated or incorrectly described the plight of the Palestinians." In response to his challenge, a group of students, among them SCB Founding Director Justin Kang '09, e-mailed Carter about the possibility of visiting Israel. A student committee was formed to select the fellows, and 11 Brandeis students were chosen to travel across Israel and the West Bank to experience the Israeli-Palestinian conflict firsthand. The trip, which was funded by Carter and the Maurice J. and Fay B. Karpf Awards, was led by Kang and lasted 10 days over the students' spring break.

Following the trip, Feya Hillel (GRAD), Executive director of SCB, and Adriel Orzoco '10, the program's managing director, worked to improve SCB and develop it into a yearlong program. Hillel and Orzoco, a student born to Mexican immigrants, began by expanding the program from Israel to the U.S.-Mexican border. "We chose to expand the program to the U.S.-Mexican border because we wanted fellows to bring depth and a greater understanding of immigration issues, human trafficking, walls, and issues of racism and stereotypes back to Brandeis," Hillel says.

This summer was the second year fellows traveled to both Israeli-Palestinian territories and the U.S.-Mexico Border to better understand conflict in these regions. Nine fellows were chosen from Brandeis from almost 100 applicants. Four spent their summer in the U.S. Mexican Border region, and five in Israel and the West Bank areas. The vision for the fellows was "to not only talk about the conflict but to learn from people and expand their perspectives by living in a different culture and having a true understanding of a name and place. That is something that is greater than books and studies," Hillel says.

"How much do people really understand about the conflict when they post flyers that say 'fight for peace' and 'end the occupation'?" Jordan Klebanow '13 says, a fellow who began the summer knowing little about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and spent the summer gaining knowledge about the conflict.

"SCB is big on encouraging us to go in open-minded and see both sides. Not to judge, but to observe and really experience it. ... And then maybe you can come to a conclusion," Klebanow says.

The fellows took on a variety of internships that immersed them in the reality of the conflict. Living in El Paso, Texas in the Annunciation House, an emergency shelter that serves the population of the El Paso-Juárez border region, Dara Rosenkrantz '12 helped provide hospitality to immigrants in the border region. Located north of the border area, the Annunciation House serves as refuge for documented and undocumented immigrants from Mexico and Central America in need of shelter, food, work and support.

While the experience was at times difficult for Rosenkrantz, who lived and worked in the Annunciation House just blocks from the U.S.-Mexican border, living among the people she was working to help made the situation a rewarding one for her. "It was a challenging and extremely intense summer living and working in the same place. The people I worked with were coming from such difficult situations, sometimes it was hard to relate. I grew close to a family that had a really difficult story. They left the house and we brought them dinner," Rosenkrantz says.

Rosenkrantz also spearheaded the planning for a procession in downtown El Paso after a 15-year-old boy was shot and killed by a border patrol agent.

"SCB was one of the best decisions I've ever made. I feel really passionate about immigration and border issues now, and I don't think it will fade," she says. Rosenkrantz, a Psychology and Hispanic Studies double major, learned about SCB through an e-mail from the Hispanic Studies department.

"The suffering of people in other countries, specifically in Latin America, is not independent of the wealth and opportunity I have in the U.S., and because of that I feel the responsibility to do something to help," Rosenkrantz continues.

SCB fellows living in Israel worked with Israelis and Palestinians together in an effort to create peace. Shirel Guez '12, a fellow who worked for the Interfaith Encounter Association, an organization working to spread peace through interfaith dialogue. "I came back with a stronger understanding. I'm still a Zionist-my views didn't change, but my respect and understanding did. There are two completely valid sides. ... People just like to choose a side, but they don't really understand what's going on," Guez explains.

Outside their internships as well, fellows searched for opportunities to experience and interact with both sides of the conflict as much as possible. Klebanow traveled to Hebron, a city in the West Bank that is home to Palestinian and Israeli settlers, to visit the burial site of the biblical Patriarchs, one of the holiest places for both Jews and Muslims. "I told them I was Christian so I could spend time in the mosque, and when I was finished I went into the synagogue where there was an American tour group of young kids running around" Klebanow, who is Jewish, says. "I just kept thinking, 'Not one of these kids will get to experience the other side, and these kids are only nine feet away from what could be the most powerful moment of their lives.'"

Despite an end to the summer and their return home, the fellows' work fellows is just beginning. "We see our students as fellows for the rest of their lives. Our idea is wherever they will go and whatever they will do, they will have patience and empathy skills from this experience. We want them to bring their coexistence skills to their life," Hillel says.

As part of the SCB program, fellows are expected to initiate an awareness project on campus to share their experience. "We're not bringing the conflict to school; we just want to make an impact and show people there shouldn't be a divide," Guez says.

The plan, according to Hillel, is also to spread SCB to other college campuses in the coming years. "The vision is to have activism in every college in the U.S. We don't see it as a Brandeis thing," she says.

"One thing is absolutely clear-this summer has been dynamic, frightening, eye- opening, wild, delicious wet, and mind-blowing. I am a stronger, healthier human being for doing what I did and seeing what I saw this summer," Klebanow says.