Last Thursday, Nov. 5, BBI hosted its second annual World Bazaar at the 15th floor colloquium. Following the BBI Mixer, this was the second major BBI event of the year. It had a great turnout; there were freshmen, sophomores, study-away juniors, and some staff and faculty present. The Breaking Barriers Initiative (BBI) is a student-run organization with the goal of bringing our diverse NYU Shanghai population together. It helps students integrate into the community and become global citizens. Currently, students from over 45 countries are involved in BBI. The BBI organized different activities to be held during the World Bazaar. There were trivia games, raffles, and student performances. This year, it showcased fourteen NYU Global Academic Centers. The sites are Abu Dhabi, Accra, Berlin, Buenos Aires, Florence, London, Madrid, New York, Paris, Prague, Shanghai, Sydney, Tel Aviv, and Washington DC. Current sophomores will have the opportunity to study abroad next year for one to three semesters at any of these sites. Each site presentation included an engaging and well-thought-out poster. The poster included the history, religion, politics, visa issues, course offerings, daily living costs, weather, and site-specific information. For instance, the NYU Florence presentation included housing information unique to Florence. Study-away students have the option of living in an on-campus villa, on-campus residence, or as a homestay with an Italian family. The Villa La Pietra, donated by Sir Harold Acton in 1994, is NYU’s Florence study abroad campus. It consists of five historic villas and 57 acres of gardens and olive groves. It was evident that each site ambassador was dedicated to his/her respective site. Later in the evening, there were student performances. At first, they were some technical issues, such as a lack of mic on the 15th floor. Luckily, the technical issues were quickly resolved and the audience was able to enjoy the performances. It featured Joelle Jay (Class of ‘19) singing “Hooked on a Feeling”, Quintus Ziye Wang (Class of ’18) performing “Hong Yan”, and Ellen (Class of ’18) performing “Yong Chun.”Taylor Smith (Class of ’18), Vice President of BBI, explained why she became involved with BBI: “I got involved in BBI because I want to help create a tight-knit family-like community at NYU Shanghai. I love making new friends and helping others foster new relationship. As VP of BBI, I feel like I am making a major difference in the school community. It is so rewarding to help this school become more welcoming and accepting. Events like this are so much fun and definitely helps bring people together.”Emily Xiang Li (Class ’18), described the preparation for this event. “We prepared a great deal for this event, so I’m thrilled that there is a good turnout. Each of us did a lot of research on our respective sites and dedicated a lot of time to this project. It is so rewarding that people seem to be having such a good time.”It was definitely a successful BBI event. It resolved a lot of confusion about studying away and sparked student’s interest in lesser-known sites. From an academic perspective, it was an improvement from last year’s World Bazaar, which did not thoroughly cover the academic aspect of the study away experience. Many of the questions involving majors, minors, course requirements were better presented at this year’s event. Click here for more information about the Breaking Barriers Initiative. 上周四， 第二届世界集会于15楼会厅成功举办。这是在上一次联谊活动后BBI的第二个主要活动。活动反响热烈，不仅有大一、大二学生以及留学生参与，也有一些教职员工出席。BBI是一个以学生会为主导的组织，旨在让上海纽约大学的多元文化能够更好融合，消除多文化背景下的隔阂。来自超过45个国家的学生已经成为了BBI的一员。世界集会上开展了精彩纷呈的活动：包含小游戏，抽彩和学生表演等。今年，它主要呈现了14个纽约大学全球办学点，包括阿布扎比，阿克拉，柏林，布宜诺斯艾利斯，佛罗伦萨，伦敦，马德里，纽约，巴黎，布拉格，上海，悉尼，特拉维夫和华盛顿特区。明年，大二的学生将有机会在以上任意一个办学点，开启一到三个学期的留学之旅。每一个办学点的展示都包含了一个精心策划的海报，介绍关于留学点的历史，宗教，政治，签证事宜，课程安排，生活开销，天气和其他具体信息。比如上海纽约大学佛罗伦萨办学点介绍中，就囊括了它特有的住宿信息。留学生可以住在校区的别墅型宿舍，普通宿舍或者在当地意大利家庭寄宿。The Villa La Pietra是上海纽约大学留学生校园，1994年由Sir Harold Acton捐赠。校园内有5个历史别墅，57英亩花园和橄榄园。所有校区的大使们都不遗余力地向大家介绍各自地校区。活动后半程进入了学生表演环节。起初虽然有了一些技术问题，比如十五楼场地缺少了麦克风，但幸运地是它们都在第一时间得到了解决，观众们也能如期欣赏表演。本次表演不仅有大一新生Joelle Jay的歌曲表演“Hooked on a Feeling”，也有大二学生Quintus Ziye Wang 和Ellen的倾情献唱，分别带来歌曲“鸿雁”，“红唇”。BBI的副主席Taylor Smith 透露了她当初决定成为BBI一员的初衷。“我加入BBI是因为我想帮助上海纽约大学构造一个紧密联系的、像家庭一样的社区。我喜欢结交新的朋友，帮助他人建立新的联系。作为BBI的副主席，我能感觉到自己在这个学校社区团体中发挥的举足轻重的作用。让学校变得更加亲切随和是一件及其有意义的事情。今天这样的活动很有趣味性，我相信一定能够将大家紧紧联系在一起。”2014届的学生Emily Xiang Li详细阐述了本次活动的前期准备过程。 “我们为了这次集会投入了大量心血，所以看到反响如此热烈我们都很欣慰。我们各自都对不同的办学点做了很多调查，并且在项目中投入了很多时间。看到大家都如此享受这个过程，我们觉得自己的辛苦没有白费。”BBI本次的活动的成果在于它解决了关于留学的困惑，并且激起了学生们对于并不是那么热门的一些办学点的兴趣。由于本次还增加了办学点学术方面的介绍，本次的世界集会活动相较于去年有了很大的进步，呈现了从主修课程，辅修课程到课程要求的信息。想要更进一步了解BBI吗？请点开如下链接。https://orgsync.com/86716/chapterThis article was written by Joanne Chun. Translation written by 宾雪. Send an email to [email protected] to get in touch. Photo Credit: Emily Li.