Study away decisions have been released, most visa forms completed, and now we’re onto the stage of Pre-Departure Orientations - excitement is brewing as NYU Shanghai’s current sophomores prepare to study abroad next year. As the inaugural class, these students will be the first NYU Shanghai students studying abroad, representing their portal school at the other sites. But while a lot of focus is on the students, we must also not forget about the staff that is working so hard to make this entire process happen. This past week, On Century Avenue got an opportunity to catch up with two staff members involved with different aspects of the study away process: Malina Webb, NYU Shanghai’s Student Life Coordinator who, for the past year, has been representing the school and preparing for study away at New York; and Almaz Zelleke, a Global Postdoctoral Fellow, who is NYU Shanghai’s Coordinator of Global Planning and serves as as an academic study away advisor. OCA was able to talk to Malina and Almaz about the work that is put in behind the scenes and how the Global Network is preparing for NYU Shanghai to study abroad. The Student Life Aspect This past year, Malina, as Student Life Coordinator, has been working in New York to prepare the campus for this new population they will be accepting, and has been supporting all the necessary preparations regarding student life. Moreover, Malina will continue to be in New York all of next year as students study abroad, during which she will be the liaison between the Student Life staff at New York and Shanghai to ensure students have any support they might need from their home campus. She will also be working to ensure that all students studying abroad in New York are aware of the opportunities they have there as NYU Shanghai students. Student life at New York is very different to that at Shanghai, as the student population at New York is almost 10 times what we have here at Shanghai; with a lot of students comes a lot of opportunities to get involved, both in the college and university level and within the city. Regardless, Malina believes that the parent campus at New York is “very excited to give a welcome to the Shanghai students, specifically to have a new population of students.” The Academics Aspect Almaz, on the other hand, works with the academic side of studying away. The Office of Global Programs in New York supervises the study away process for all NYU students regardless of portal campus along with the eleven study away sites; Almaz works with this office to process all the applications while also working specifically for NYU Shanghai’s study abroad process. She works very closely with NYU Shanghai’s Office of Academic Affairs, particularly with Academic Advising, to ensure that students are studying away at locations that can progress their degree requirements. Almaz has been working very hard to ensure that all information regarding the study away procedures has been reaching students in a timely manner; her team has hosted several information sessions as well as created a website that serves as the central point for information about study away opportunities. Reflecting on the Process When asked about what has been easy and what has been the most difficult aspect of this entire process, Almaz answered: “I’d say the easy part is that at NYU Shanghai, you don’t have to convince anyone that studying abroad is a good idea. All the students I’ve talked to have been really enthusiastic about the opportunity and almost everybody has found at least one site they prefer that fulfills their academic and personal goals. The hard part for some students has been deciding on just one site per semester with 13 different locations to choose from, but this is a fun problem as it results from too many choices rather than too few choices. Another challenging problem has been convincing students about options other than New York; when it comes to availability of courses, there really is no competition with New York, but I constantly try to remind students that regardless of how many courses are being offered, you can only take four in one semester. It is a little hard for the other sites to compete with New York.” The turn out at the information sessions and the required events has been high. Moreover, according to Almaz, majority of the students thoroughly read their emails to obtain relevant information and meet their deadlines. However, Malina also pointed out that one of the biggest challenges in a small community like NYU Shanghai is that misinformation can spread very easily, which leaves it up to each student to be diligent and take the responsibility to seek out the correct information, by going to appropriate sources and reading all newsletters and emails thoroughly. Challenges with Course Registration One of the biggest challenges of the study abroad process this year was course registration, in terms of what Shanghai courses fulfill the prerequisites of other sites and what courses at the other sites fulfill requirements of the degree offered in Shanghai. When asked about how academics in the different campuses have been streamlined, Almaz says Academic Advising was able to evaluate courses for equivalencies at the different sites in the Fall semester itself, so that information was made available to the sophomores early on in the process. With regards to courses at Abu Dhabi, problems have been solved on a more individual basis depending on the students going there and the courses they intend to take. However based on this year’s experience, the agenda for improvement in the future includes having a personnel at Abu Dhabi who can communicate with Shanghai to look over course equivalencies and get NYU Shanghai courses built into Albert, eliminating the need to request permission codes for courses. This task has been particularly challenging for New York as the site is made up of several colleges and departments; according to Almaz, “New York is going to be a work in progress for the next few years.” Improvements for Upcoming Years As with all new initiatives, all those working behind the scenes to make study away possible for the sophomores have learnt a great deal about the process. This learning experience will affect the study abroad application procedures for underclassmen, as the required changes will be implemented this year itself. For example, to avoid the problem of limited time, the administration will be hosting study away information sessions for the current freshmen at the end of this academic year, to give the freshmen an opportunity to think through their study away plans thoroughly over the summer and align them with those of their family. Moreover, to ensure course enrollment and registration is smoother, students will have to give more detailed information on what particular courses they intend to take abroad at their site of preference; this could also mean that the study abroad application will also become more extensive, so the administration is able to ensure all individual needs are being met. The biggest lesson about what needs to changed, however, will come from the study abroad experience of the sophomores itself. As NYU Shanghai students begin to spread around the Global Network, only their correspondence with the school in terms of how best to prepare future students for study away will be the most valuable information to influence the study away application and process. ******************************************************************************************************** OCA then got an opportunity to ask Malina and Almaz about their own personal opinions. OCA: How prepared do you think the sophomores are to study abroad?Almaz Zelleke (AZ): One of the topics we addressed in the Pre-Departure Orientations is the fact that even though students feel prepared, there is going to be an adjustment period after the initial excitement when students will begin to miss home, which can mean several things for students at NYU Shanghai. However, I think our students are particularly well prepared for study away because they have already chosen to be in a cross cultural environment here at NYU Shanghai. The international students have been studying in China, which is a huge change from the places most of them come from; and the Chinese students are studying in an American University, living with and going to classes with students from all over the world. I look really forward to hearing back from some of the students about this because the community here at NYU Shanghai is pretty small. Some of our students are going to the very small sites like Accra and Sydney, where they are going to be with a small group of students they will see all the time. Other students are going to the bigger campuses like New York that has over 40,000 students in total, which is very different from being in a place with 750 students even if you do not know everyone personally. However, we believe that our students are well prepared for the experience, and we are here to support them in any way we can. Malina Webb (MW): Adding on to that, I think this is a unique opportunity for some of the international students to help some of the domestic Chinese students who may not have studied abroad before or may not have travelled that much; the international students can help them by using their own experiences of study abroad in China. OCA: A lot of focus has been on the New York campus, how they are preparing for this new population of students. How do you think the other sites are preparing for NYU Shanghai students to study abroad?MW: I was at a conference in New York last year called Global Connections where the leaders of the staff from all the sites come together to discuss student life. At this conference, I was often asked “How are the Shanghai students?” and what they are like and interested in, so I think all the sites across the Global Network are very excited to meet NYU Shanghai students. It also helps that the sophomores have studied “abroad” in Shanghai, so they can share their experiences in China with the students from New York and Abu Dhabi. The sophomores will essentially become student ambassadors for NYU Shanghai, which includes not just representing the school but also educating people about it. AZ: I’ve been in touch with some of the other sites about particular registration issues and all the site directors and assistant directors have been expressing their excitement about welcoming the NYU Shanghai students to their sites, so I think everyone is looking forward to meeting these students they have heard so much about it. We do on the other hand expect the sophomores to be great ambassadors for our university when they go into these sites. OCA: What do you expect to students to get out of this study abroad experience? AZ: First off, some of the students are definitely going to come back with new language skills, which should be interesting to see. Secondly, one of the most important aspects about studying abroad is leaning to see things from another perspective, so I am definitely expecting to hear back from students about how they have been changed by their experience living and studying in another country. For example, we have a lot of Business and Finance (B&F) majors here at NYU Shanghai, with many of them going to New York and London because those are two of the biggest financial capitals other than Shanghai and Hong Kong. I really like to encourage B&F students to study away in sites like Accra or Buenos Aires at least for one semester, where they can see the economy from the perspective of a developing country that perhaps doesn’t have the ability to control the global economy as much as powerhouses like China and the US; I want to encourage these students to study abroad in locations that are really affected by the practices and policies of those big players in the global economy so that some of the students will come back with a new perspective on their B&F majors.

OCA: How do you think the community of NYU Shanghai is going to be changed when the sophomores return from study abroad as seniors?MW: It was really interesting for me to return to Shanghai during the Fall 2015 Orientation to see the beginning of the mixing of the freshmen and the sophomores. Then, I was away for a long period of time and came back in the beginning of this semester and saw how things have changed since Orientation - student life has just exploded with growth and vitality, there is an event happening at almost every second of every day here, and I don’t see it being specific to one class or one nationality which is amazing. I think senior year will be a very emotional time for everyone as it will be a culmination of the journey of the inaugural class. Though the process of study abroad, the students would have learnt a lot, so coming back in senior year will be a great experience. AZ: When the sophomores return from study abroad, they will come back to a sophomore class they have never met before as well as a freshman class no one has ever met before. To these two classes, the current sophomores will be like rockstars, because they are the pioneers of the school, having gone from freshmen to sophomore years; they will really look up to you in a way the current freshmen may not as they already know you. They are going to look to the sophomores to see “What am I going to be like by the time I am done with this journey at NYU Shanghai, which also takes me to out into these global study away sites”. This will be a heavy responsibility but I think the current sophomores will continue this pioneering spirit and live up to these expectations and demands to show the younger students what it is like to have gone through four years of this program. ******************************************************************************************************** As study away gets closer, among the excitement, it is important to remember the amount of work that is being put in by multiple offices at NYU Shanghai to make this opportunity possible. Whether it is Student Life helping with transition, Academic Affairs overlooking course registration and academic stability, or Student Mobility helping with obtaining visas for different passports for the multiple sites - on behalf of the entire student body, OCA would like to thank each and every individual involved in this endeavor for their hard work. This article was written by Lathika Chandra Mouli. Send an email to [email protected] to get in touch. Photo Credit: