Michael Kroll

I'm a former abuse and neglect investigator from Texas. I worked intensively in the field with the Department of Family and Protective Services for about a year, investigating abuse and neglect cases against children in the Texas daycare system. Prior to that I worked in a hospital and graduated with my Bachelor of Science degree in psychology and biology from the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor in Belton, Texas.

The Crisis and Trauma program was at the top of my list once I moved to Israel. I knew that I needed to further my education to achieve my goals. Since I was already working and performing in Tel Aviv when it came time to decide, I chose the Crisis and Trauma program, given the content it offered and the close proximity to my other projects.

For the Field Experience segment of the program, I volunteer with Tzimaon LaHibuk, the “Thirsting for a Hug” program. Tzimaon is a collection of projects that set to tackle quite a few issues in Tel Aviv and surrounding communities. The "For a Hug" division is centers on providing love, guidance, structure, and compassion for children in South-Central Tel Aviv. As a volunteer, I go once a week to observe, play, and interact with the kids, provide as much love as I can, while also still working with the caregivers to help provide a more effective lesson-plan to help these children acclimate to Israeli society prior to them entering the school system. 

These are children of asylum seekers and refugees, and people often forget about the human side of the refugee and asylum seeker situation that the country is focused on at the moment. A majority of the population seems to think of these people as just a mass of problems being brought into the country, when in reality, they're just trying to find their way out of an oppressive and oft-times dangerous situation in another country. It's easy for someone who is not being trained in trauma and crisis to look at these children and their parents and not see anything but a negative issue, however, that ignorance needs to be broken so that people can understand that at the end of the day, these children are just as much the future of this country as anyone else, and if we want Israel, as well as the rest of the world, to survive, then we need to be more compassionate to those that want to live here peacefully, and really offer them a fighting chance.

I used to work with children back in the States, even outside of my career as an investigator. I was a camp counselor at a Jewish summer camp in Central Texas for a few years, working in the summer or during family weekends, and really enjoyed seeing the energy and unique perspectives that the kids brought with them to our environment. People seem to forget that children are incredibly brilliant, and they really do have a unique outlook on life that we tend to lose sight of as we get older.

Even if it weren't my assigned field experience, I'd find a way to volunteer with Tzimaon For Hug. My plans are to hopefully finish my degree this year, and then immediately move on to a PhD in pediatric neuroscience. I have an interest in studying developmental psychology, but combining it with studies on the physical development of the adolescent mind. To do that, I need not only to study the structure of the brain itself, but to observe it in action through the eyes of a child, and really try to capture their perspective on life in a society where they have to fight to be accepted in a place that, frankly, is trying to push them out. The resiliency of the human body and mind is astounding, and seeing it magnified in children is just absolutely profound.