On Sept. 19th, 2014, NYU Shanghai’s student-led project Breaking Barriers Initiative hosted its inaugural event, the Brothers & Sisters (大小) Mixer Event, marking the launch of their first program, Brothers & Sisters (大&小). On Century Avenue got the opportunity to talk to some of BBI’s founding members to find out more about this program from an insider’s point of view. Read what founders José Antonio Cabrera Sánchez, Megan Hou, and Julie Hauge had to say: How would you describe BBI in a nutshell?Julie: BBI stands for the Breaking Barriers Initiative. Being an initiative under the Dean of Students, it is a hub of programs consisting of the Brothers & Sisters Program, La Familia, and the Language Awareness Campaign (LAC). Brothers & Sisters is a program that unites freshmen with sophomores and/or study away students in hopes of breaking barriers between the three classes, helping people integrate further, and getting people to reach out to more friend groups. La Familia is a cross-network program which is going to develop based on the Brothers & Sisters program. We intend to build a system of brothers and sisters that will go from one portal campus or from one study away site to another. The goal is to help join together the Global Network University (GNU) in a more integrated way. Finally there’s the LAC which is going to be focused on raising awareness about the way we each speak and the languages we speak in. For example, if you are in a group that is speaking a language other than English it’s possible that someone in the group won’t understand you or someone outside the group may be less inclined to approach you. It’s things like this that build barriers, and that is exactly why we are trying to break them. How did you come up with this idea of the Breaking Barriers Initiative?Jose: Last year I served as the Student Government’s International Vice President and part of the responsibility included bringing the international community together. I wanted to create a close-knit community for everybody. I began brainstorming and thinking and found an amazing group of people, including Megan and Julie, who were also passionate, so we began to build on this idea. I started talking to people from NYU Abu Dhabi on the problems they faced, how they resolved them, and any suggestions they had for NYU Shanghai. That’s how the general concept came into being. This entire brain storming process resulted in the Breaking Barriers Initiative that exists at NYU Shanghai today; it’s been going great so far and I’m personally very excited for its future! What are your goals for this program?Megan: One of our goals is to create a greater sense of community at NYU Shanghai itself, but a bigger future goal for us is to be able to integrate the rest of the global network. Eventually, we want to have Abu Dhabi, New York City, and the other study away sites involved so that they are all aware of our efforts to create a closer, tight-knit community. Jose: The goal is to make people realize that there is a little bit of BBI in everyone – everyone has the ability to break barriers, and I know that all of us would particularly be very happy if by the end of the semester, or even by the end of the year, everybody can say “Hey I’ve broken barriers this way” or “I’ve built bridges this way”. For example, with the Brothers & Sisters program, I would be so happy to see that the that pairs were created actually go out and do things together: go to Starbucks together, go to a movie together, just spend time with each other. It’s not about us – the goals are personal; they’re inside of everybody. I just want everyone to feel like they’re breaking barriers somehow regardless of how they do it. Do you have any specific goals for this year?Julie: This year we want to really raise awareness for BBI as a program and to get people to understand what we are and what we want to do. We also want to get the Brothers & Sisters program up and running more smoothly after having some initial bumps along the road. We also want to start up La Familia. We want to get prepared for La Familia so that when we do study abroad the program will really start making progress, and we’ll have it spreading around to the other Global Network sites. Finally, we want to build up a stronger leadership, which is why we have chosen four Freshmen students (Ashley, Anny, Anurag and Defne) who are interested in furthering this initiative and helping it reach its full potential. Jose: The goals for this year are basically to make sure that the brothers and sisters are interacting and doing things together, that we are planning enough events for them, and that the two classes, Class of 2017 and Class of 2018, are connected. Moreover, we want to begin La Familia, start connecting the GNU sites, and have more Skype calls with other campuses. Hopefully, we will also be able to start the Language Awareness Campaign so that next years sophomores and freshmen can work on it and take it forward. How do you think BBI has contributed to our relations with the GNU in general?Megan: I think it’s strengthened our relationship with the GNU as we are definitely communicating more with people at other campuses and study away sites, especially Abu Dhabi. We’ve had many Skype calls with them, and our programs are starting to kind of mesh together so that we can make it a program throughout the global network. Essentially right now, we have created a very good start, and we are aiming for it to become a global project. Julie: So this is where La Familia comes into play, because we want to bring the Global Network University to a smaller circle in a sense. To do this, we want to increase communication and increase knowledge on a student-to-student basis so that we can get to truly understand the GNU from the views of our peers. We want to actually be able to put ourselves in the places of people currently studying abroad in order to understand the GNU better. Do you see any similarities or differences between the programs in Abu Dhabi and in Shanghai?Jose: In Abu Dhabi they don’t necessarily have the “Breaking Barriers Initiative,” they just have the Brothers & Sisters program. They are thinking about expanding it, perhaps to the level of BBI, which would be amazing in my opinion. They currently just focus on the Brothers & Sisters program, as well as collaborating with us on creating La Familia. Now that we are sharing all these ideas with them I think they should push the idea of bringing BBI to their campus, since they are expanding their programs and it’s becoming a more time-consuming project. There are many similarities but also many differences between the programs in Shanghai and Abu Dhabi, mostly because the essence and necessities of both campuses are different, but we still connect in many ways. Describe BBI in ten words or less.Megan: A family, within our campus and eventually throughout the global network, where we will have someone to talk to and someone that we know at all the other study away sites. Julie: A unique program to integrate students, build friendships, and connect the GNU. Jose: BBI in one sentence? I don’t know. BBI stands for the Breaking Barriers Initiative, but BBI is also the building bridges initiative, BBI breaks barriers, forges bridges and creates a very special sense of community. Where do you see this program going in the future?Julie: Other than launching the new campaigns, our main goal right now is to have BBI set up in every site in the GNU. We want it to be a cross-campus program and possibly have more integration initiatives. But our absolute main goal right now is to be able to call up the BBI team in Buenos Aires, Prague, New York, or Paris, or anywhere for that matter – we should be all over the GNU. Megan: I really hope that this does become a global network organization just so that we’ll have people to talk to; we’ll have friends all around the world, and hopefully the divide that we’ll break here will be broken everywhere else. Jose: (after confusing Toy Story with Star Trek): To infinity and beyond! For more information on BBI, visit their OrgSync page (Breaking Barriers Initiative), Facebook page or email them at [email protected]. This article was written by Lathika Chandra Mouli. Send an email to [email protected] to get in touch.