Herzlia matric student Jordan Cohen has been enjoying a unique experience over the past few months, since being appointed earlier this year as a FIFA volunteer for the 2010 Soccer World Cup.
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| Jordan in his FIFA gear and sister Jodi the dancer. |
Jordan applied for a position as a FIFA volunteer from an ad on the web last year. Contacted earlier this year, among hundreds of applicants he ‘passed’ various interviews and tests, and was the youngest of the group accepted, going through the required training workshops to qualify as an ‘Accreditation’ volunteer at the Cape Town Stadium.
Jordan’s job involves working on computer, checking information on volunteers in various fields including security, medics and the like, and completing the process of providing them with the official accreditation documentation.
He now has his full volunteer kit and works as many shifts as he can in his ‘office’ — a tent next to the stadium, where he and his co-workers make-up the necessary lanyards allowing the various personnel — local and from overseas — access to the Stadium.
A fascinating and broadening ‘once in a lifetime’ experience, it has enabled him to work with more ‘senior’ colleagues and also to meet a range of interesting people, both Capetonians and visitors to our city.
At the ‘cutting edge’ of this global event, he must surely be the envy of all his Herzlia peers. And he has the opportunity to see the games too — but from a separate volunteers room, not a seat on the stand!
Jordan is the son of Marc and Michelle Cohen. Michelle, an executive member of the Union of Jewish Women and a member of the Kesher Group, was co-convener of the ICJW held in Cape Town in May.
Their daughter Jodi — the accredited FIFA volunteer’s sister — also lit up the Green Point area before the World Cup began, when she was runner-up in the U20 ‘Own Choice’ at the Modern Dance section of the Cape Town Eisteddfod at the Sea Point Civic Centre, her teacher being former Herzlian Ilana Margolis.
