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NYU Named Gilman Top Producing Institution

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Benjamin A. Gilmn International Scholarship logo

The Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship is a program of the US Department of State with funding provided by the US government and supported in its implementation by the Institute of International Education (IIE).

In recognition of the large number of Gilman Scholars NYU has produced, the US Department of State named the University one of the highly regarded program’s 20 large Top Producing Colleges and Universities in 2021. NYU was the only private research university in the large category to receive this distinction, announced last fall by the State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

“Gilman’s mission is to make study abroad more accessible and inclusive by providing scholarships to outstanding US undergraduate students,” says NYU Office of Global Programs assistant director of student services Nyoka Joseph. “As a top-producing institution, NYU is recognized for its support of equity, diversity, and accessibility in study abroad through the programs it offers and the culture it has created with regards to studying or interning abroad for any student who wants the experience.”

Helping Students Fulfill Their Study Abroad Dreams

Since its foundation in 2001, the Gilman Scholarship Program has partnered with US higher education institutions to make study abroad more accessible for underrepresented students, including first-generation college students, students who are of historically marginalized ethnicities, students with disabilities, and students attending historically Black colleges and universities.

Students receive up to $5,000 in funding to study abroad for a full semester or academic year, and they are eligible to apply for an additional $3,000 in aid if they plan to study a critical need language (a language deemed critical to national security).

Each year, Joseph and her team host informational sessions to review the Gilman application process and teach students how to write strong essays. With three Gilman advisers on board, Joseph says they can mentor more than 35 student applicants each semester.

For Mika-Elle Metellus, a College of Arts and Science senior pursuing a double major in French and Politics, the Gilman advisers played a critical role in her Gilman success story.

“Thanks to the NYU Gilman advisers, my application process ran smoothly,” she says. “In the beginning of the spring 2019 semester, I attended a Gilman Scholarship information session at the StudentLink Center. I was then paired with an adviser who simplified the process for me by creating personal deadlines, reviewing all my essay drafts, and motivating me along the way.”

The Lasting Impact of a Gilman Scholarship

According to Joseph, students benefit from the Gilman Scholarship in many ways. One of the immediate benefits, she says, is the reduction of their financial burden. The scholarship allows them to focus on their studies while fully experiencing their new international environment. This was true for Mika-Elle, who studied abroad at NYU Paris in the fall of 2019. “I became fully integrated into the French culture and language,” she says. “My biggest takeaway from studying at NYU Paris was the language immersion that no classroom setting could ever provide.”

The Eiffel Tower

A view of the Eiffel Tower

When students complete their term abroad, Joseph says they gain access to the Gilman Scholar Network (a national alumni network), become a Gilman ambassador, and complete a service project for their NYU peers or their local community. They also qualify for at least 12 months of noncompetitive eligibility hiring status within the federal government. This allows US federal government agencies to hire eligible exchange program alumni outside of the formal competitive job announcement process.

Overall, Joseph says the Office of Global Programs at NYU regularly promotes the Gilman Scholarship because it continues to be an invaluable funding opportunity for students who might not otherwise have the means to study abroad. In the past 20 years, 307 NYU students have received a Gilman Scholarship. With Gilman they’ve been able to explore a new culture, study a diverse language, and acquire critical skills for their personal and professional development.

For more information about the Gilman Scholarship application process, please visit the Studying Abroad Gilman Scholarships page on NYU’s website.

Written by Samantha Jamison

Science Boot Camp: NYU Paris Students Hit the Ground Running

Posted on , modified on by Chelsea Robles

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Photo Source: https://acosse.github.io/NYUParisBootcamp/

In order to ensure that all NYU Paris (NYUP) students were beginning their math and computer studies with a similar foundation in the disciplines, NYUP Site Director Alfred Galichon, and professor of Economics and Mathematics at NYU in New York, oversaw the creation of a pre-semester “Science Bootcamp.”

“We really felt there was a need to level the playing field, and to make sure everybody – whether from the Abu Dhabi, New York, or Shanghai campuses – hits the ground running,” said Galichon.

Designed and taught by NYUP lecturers, Joachim Lebovits (Math) and Augustin Cosse (Computer Science), NYUP held its inaugural Science Bootcamp at the start of the Spring semester, outside of regular class hours. Enabling students to quickly find their footing, said Lebovits, “we wanted to make sure that everyone, whatever their background, is given the opportunity to acquire the necessary tools to get a good start in the actual course, instead of losing time catching up on some basic notions.” And after finding their footing, students were “able to more fully enjoy their semester from the get-go,” he said.

The development of the non-credit program was also underpinned by the premise that math and computer science are intrinsically linked, said Lebovits. “There can be no programming without algorithms, and a relatively complex calculation might benefit from some degree of coding. Unfortunately, a blackboard and a piece of chalk are not always enough anymore,” he said.

 “At the very least,” said Lebovits, “it serves as a refresher for the students already familiar with them. For some, it may be also a good way to test their interest in the field.” For instance, a Math major can become better acquainted with coding and may go on to delve more deeply into programming languages. “In any case, it will give them the means to look forward to their courses with confidence, in a maybe more relaxed atmosphere than when the semester has actually started. Indeed, students are encouraged to carry out group projects, which gives them the opportunity to meet their fellow students more easily than in a regular class.” Lebovits says he believes the camp also benefits the lecturers and teaching staff: “Since the math and computer science courses are taught jointly by two or three professors, it helps the students view us as a team, rather than a set of individuals.”

In addition to bolstering students’ academic grounding, the program also demonstrates the importance of transferable skills. For example,“the ‘Python programming’ session also gives students the opportunity to test their knowledge on some interview questions from the tech industry.” The idea was to develop a curriculum that would prepare students for future challenges, explained Cosse, “be it with their classes or future job interviews.”

Students may arrive in Paris with different academic backgrounds and come to the classroom with different tools at their disposal, and may also have unique histories with math or computer science, and students’ academic and career plans vary widely. (Lebovits notes that “last semester one of my students in Linear Algebra wanted to become an architect, while another intended to do research in Mathematics.) But regardless of their future plans, “both will benefit from this ability to use programming tools,” he said.  What the students all share, both Cosse and Lebovits remarked, is a strong motivation to deepen their skill set – and this brought them to bootcamp outside of regular class hours and on weekends. 

While the bootcamp was designed at the outset to be classroom-based, Lebovits pointed out that it would translate easily into a distance learning environment. “The light and interactive format would be very well suited to a remote version and thus to our current situation. Considering the unprecedented changes that have taken place due to COVID-19, I think that we are increasingly going to need to create new ways of teaching to be able to adapt to student’s needs, whatever their background and regardless of their location.”

More information about the course can be found on Cosse’s website here.

NYU Paris Director Alfred Galichon Awarded Prestigious European Commission Grant

Posted on by Martha J Bekink

Photo of Alfred GalichonNYU Paris Director and Courant Professor Alfred Galichon was recently awarded a substantial grant from the European Commission for a research project on dynamic pricing at the intersection of economics, mathematics, and computer science. This prestigious award is very competitive and this will be a five-year project. Professor Galichon applied for the grant through Sciences Po, one of NYU Paris’s partner institutions, and is sole Principal Investigator on the project. Therefore many activities related to the project will be done in collaboration with NYU. 

Professor Galichon’s award demonstrates that you can keep researching at the highest level while being a site director. His access to this opportunity was only possible due to his presence in Paris, which is wonderful both for NYU Courant and NYU Paris. 

Here are some further details about the project:
 
This project seeks to build an innovative economic toolbox (ranging from modelling, computation, inference, and empirical applications) for the study of equilibrium models with gross substitutes, with applications to models of matching with or without transfers, trade flows on networks, multinomial choice models, as well as hedonic and dynamic pricing models. While under-emphasized in general equilibrium theory, equilibrium models with gross substitutes are very relevant to these problems as each of these problems can be recast as such.
 
Thus far, almost any tractable empirical model of these problems typically required making the strong assumption of quasi-linear utilities, leading to a predominance of models with transferable utility in applied work. The current project seeks to develop a new paradigm to move beyond the transferable utility framework to the imperfectly transferable utility one, where the agent’s utilities are no longer quasi-linear.
 
The mathematical structure of gross substitutes will replace the structure of convexity underlying in models with transferable utility.
 
To investigate this class of models, one builds a general framework embedding all the models described above, the “equilibrium flow problem.” The gross substitute property is properly generalized and properties (existence of an equilibrium, uniqueness, lattice structure) are derived. Computational algorithms that rely on gross substitutability are designed and implemented. The econometrics of the problem is addressed (estimation, inference, model selection). Applications to various fields such as labor economics, family economics, international trade, urban economics, industrial organization, etc. are investigated.
 
The project touches upon other disciplines. It will propose new ideas in applied mathematics, offer new algorithms of interest in computer science and machine learning, and provide new methods in other social sciences (like sociology, demography and geography).
 
For more information about Professor Galichon’s work or this project, please visit his website here.

Meet a Global Equity Fellow – Oye Olubowale, NYU Paris

Posted on , modified on by Martha J Bekink

Oyetunde “Oye” Olubowale is a junior at NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study. She is pursuing an individualized concentration in Global Marketing, Media, and Propaganda. She is also working towards a Minor in Francophone Studies. Oye owes her exposure to diversity and various cultures to her travels to Switzerland, Kenya, Myanmar, Côte d’Ivoire, Rwanda, and Nigeria. As a Nigerian immigrant to the United States and extensive traveller, she is no stranger to culture shock and difference. Oye further developed her understanding of diversity and inclusion at the Wheeler School in Providence, Rhode Island where she served as head of the Black Affinity club and attended national student diversity leadership conferences.

During her first year at NYU, Oye was a part of the Rubin Poverty and Affluence stream where she researched and wrote about the disparities in the US public education and the barriers to voter access in New York. She also was a volunteer tutor with the New York French American Charter School in Harlem.  At NYU, Oye serves as the treasurer for UndocNYU (formerly known as Dream Team), a student activism club dedicated to advocating for and creating community with undocumented folks at NYU and beyond. As the Paris Global Equity Fellow, Oye hopes to explore media’s relationship with multiculturalism and diverse representation in France.

A Half Century in Paris: A Look into the Past and a Glimpse of the Future

Posted on , modified on by Chelsea Robles
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NYU Paris 50th Anniversary announcement.

To celebrate its 50th anniversary last month, NYU Paris held a day of commemorative events designed both to provide a view into the past, and to ponder the site’s future, including the potential for new academic opportunities and collaborations. The event brought together key figures involved with different phases of the site’s growth, current and past faculty, students, and staff as well as colleagues from American universities with programs in France,  including the American University in Paris, the University of Chicago, Brown University, and Columbia University. 

Linda Mills, Vice Chancellor and Senior Vice Provost for Global Programs and University Life, kicked off the day by acknowledging the site’s history, and linking the past to the present. “As the second oldest site in NYU’s global network, NYU Paris has been a defining feature of our global identity and has become a key element of what makes NYU the leading global institution it is today,” said Mills. “NYU Paris is a beautiful expression of what the world needs – one that is inextricably tied to its environment, steeped in its host city’s culture and context, offering unparalleled academic and scholarly experiences to a wide range of faculty and students.”

In attendance were several individuals who have played critical roles in the establishment and operation of NYU Paris over the past 50 years: Tom Bishop, professor of French Literature, Thought and Culture, and a driving force in the creation of NYU Paris; Judith Miller, professor of French Literature, who served as Director of the NYU Center in Paris from 1998 to 2003; Benoît Bolduc, also a professor of French Literature, and the Director of NYU Paris from 2015 – 2018; and the current site director, Alfred Galichon, professor of Economics and Mathematics

 
NYU Paris is a beautiful expression of what the world needs - one that is inextricably tied to its environment, steeped in its host city’s culture and context, offering unparalleled academic and scholarly experiences to a wide range of faculty and students Linda Mills

Recalling the early history of the site, talks during the opening panel focused on memories and reflections on the founding of NYU Paris in 1969, at a time when it was less common to cross an international border while pursuing a degree – and talk of establishing NYU’s global network was still some 40 years away.  Miller, Bolduc, and Galichon, traced the academic roots of the site in the study of French language and culture. 

NYU Paris opened its doors during a “glorious time for French studies, “ said Miller, “many post-war thinkers had not yet been translated to English,” so it was important to understand French. “Knowledge has since shifted from the philosophical terrain to a way of thinking that acknowledges global and digital interactions.” Reflecting this expansion, during her tenure as site director, NYU Paris opened its Anglophone program, “welcoming students who were not French majors but became French minors.”  On the experience of learning a new language and culture in situ, Miller explained, “you learn from a “different” world around you, and have to figure out how to live with it.” 

The panelists emphasized the importance of shaping the minds of global citizens engaging in the local terrain. “We’re sending students to Paris, not the moon,” said Bolduc  “and we need to ensure our academic programming reflects the unique nature of that experience.” Shedding light on current academic and cultural initiatives, Galichon detailed “the expanding academic opportunities at the site, including course offerings that have resulted in new populations of students being drawn to the study of the French language. A good example is computer science students who have traditionally been less likely to even take a course in France. As a result of earning credits for their major in Paris, some computer science students have found that their immersive experiences in France have sparked new interests, with some choosing to complete minors in French. And the number of these types of students is increasing.” 

 

In a panel later in the day,The Next 50 Years of NYU Paris: What’s Next?, Sana Odeh, Clinical Professor of Computer Science, explained that “Paris’ position as a hub for mathematical and scientific inquiry, combined with the flourishing entrepreneurial culture draws global talent and has created a range of opportunities. Studying in a world capital with an inspiring environment, and taking [Computer Science] special topics and high-level courses makes NYU Paris a wonderful location for computer science students.” 

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NYU Trustee and President’s Global Council Chair Chandrika Tandon performs at the celebration.

Galichon also highlighted upcoming initiatives in store for NYU Paris. “In collaboration with colleagues in the French department, and following the masterclass format developed for doctoral students, a new set of masterclasses are on the horizon,” he said, accompanied by panelists who included Phillip Usher, Associate Professor and Department Chair, French Literature, Thought and Culture, François Noudelmann, Professor of French Literature and Director of the Center for French Language and Cultures, and Linda Mills. “French faculty from New York will come once per year,” said Usher, “to deliver short-term intensive courses related to their research. The topics will rotate each semester and the first course will cover cinema, myth, and politics. Increasing engagement with the broader community, enrollment will be opened up to local PhD students from French universities.” 

In conjunction with the celebration, photos that are only rarely viewed outside of the archives were on full display, including those documenting the student experience, staff over the years, and trips taken by the NYU Paris community. The exhibit also included shots of NYU Paris literary events and avant garde activities featuring Eugène Ionesco, and other well known French writers and politicians.The exhibition also included student works, including student-shot videos captured on iPhones in an experimental film class.

The day ended with a cocktail reception at Hotel des Arts et Métiers, which included guests such as NYU President Andrew Hamilton, Gene Jarrett, Dean of the College of Arts and Science, Jeffrey Lehman, Vice Chancellor, NYU Shanghai, Antonio Merlo, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Science, and NYU Trustee and President’s Global Council Chair Chandrika Tandon.

A Lab for Pedagogical Innovation: Doctoral Masterclasses at NYU Paris

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Galichon delivering a coding session
Galichon delivering a coding session

Paris hosted its first-ever master class, math+econ+code Masterclass on Optimal Transport, Choice and Matching Models, delivered by Alfred Galichon, NYU Paris site director, and professor, Department of Economics and Mathematics, Courant Institute, in late June.

Interdisciplinary in nature, the five-day course focused on “models of demand, matching models, and optimal transport methods, with various applications pertaining to labor markets, the economics of marriage, industrial organization, matching platforms, networks, and international trade from the crossed perspectives of theory, empirics and computation.”

Interestingly, it is Paris’ world renowned cooking schools, such as Le Cordon Bleu and L’Atelier des Chefs, that inspired Galichon to take a new approach to the delivery of coding lessons. Galichon says his approach was informed by “scientific-context-based learning principles, where theoretical tools are introduced just in time, as needed, at the point in time when they are called for by the specific application.” Under this model, much as culinary students would in a kitchen, Galichon’s students essentially take on the role of apprentices, and over time, move from their position at the periphery of a learning community to the center as they build their expertise.

Galichon explained that the course starts with a presentation of “the raw ingredients to the student, which in this case, means the data, such as the characteristics of consumers and of products.” Following this, he describes to the class “what we will cook, which in this case means the type of matching or pricing problems we will solve.” To make this delivery format possible, Galichon emphasized that “[t]he time-consuming data preparations” – the tasks of the sous chef – “have been done off-line. I show the ideas on the whiteboard, and then I cook/code them myself in front of the students,” explains Galichon. “The students then code themselves, inspired by what they saw.”

Galichon grounds his pedagogy in “a ‘learning-by-coding’ philosophy,” which involves creating code “in front of the students rather than showing them lines of pre-written code.” In this way, students actively learn in-situ, rather than via a scripted method that relies heavily on the passive visualization of code and other course content. Delivering immersive courses, he says, has allowed him to be “quite creative and test new pedagogical ideas that may apply to other courses of this type.”

The curriculum, said Galichon, was constructed to serve the needs of two core groups of doctoral candidates. “There is a big demand from students in economics who look to acquire coding skills, and who want to develop a deeper understanding of the mathematical structure behind the economic models,” he said, “and at the same time from students in math/computer students who seek to understand better the economic applications of their tools.” Crafted around these requirements, the “course provides students with the conceptual tools and coding skills in an apprenticeship philosophy.”

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The masterclass quickly attracted “a wonderful mix of students,” said Galichon, from quantitative disciplines, including economics, math, computer science, and engineering. In addition to students from NYU, the inaugural cohort comprised international enrollees from Faculté des sciences de Tunis, and Harvard as well as others from “very strong [local] institutions” such as Sciences Po, and Ecole Polytechnique/Ensae.

The international nature of the masterclass is also part of the linguistic aspects of learning to code. The course presents several different types of coding languages simultaneously, lending to a sense of multiliteracy within the learning environment. This is accomplished, Galichon explained, with “the presence of ‘veteran students’ who, after the lectures, present the course material coded in other programming languages than the one I am presenting.” He added that “These are among the novel ideas that I will test in Paris, which will thus serve as a lab for pedagogical innovation.”

NYU Paris Liberal Studies Freshman Students Win Prize at NYU Policy Case Competition

Posted on , modified on by Martha J Bekink

NYU Paris Liberal Studies freshman or First Year Away students Spencer Julian, Jarrett Lash, Wendy Li, and Cecilia Wang competed in the sixth annual New York University Policy Case Competition this weekend, where the team won the international policy category and competed in the Final Five round.

The Policy Case Competition is a conference hosted by the NYU Politics Society, in which students of all experience levels are given the opportunity to propose policy solutions in response to critical current issues. This year’s first round competition had over 550 participants from universities around the world, with the competition divided into five topics: International, Domestic, New York City, Technology, and South Africa.

Julian, Lash, Li, and Wang submitted a policy memo on maritime policy, with recommendations to the Executive Office of the United States to strengthen its capabilities in the arctic region by increasing military soft power and facilitating the creation of an intergovernmental forum on arctic trade and economics.

This post comes to us thanks to NYU Paris and Liberal Studies and you can learn more here.

NYU Paris Professor Valérie Berty Presents Her Book on Sembène Ousmane

Posted on , modified on by Martha J Bekink

On April 1, NYU Paris hosted an event featuring one of its professors, Valérie Berty. Professor Berty presented her book Sembène Ousmane (1923-2007): Un homme debout. Sembène Ousmane was a Senegalese film director, producer and writer. He was considered one of the greatest authors of Africa and he has often been called the “father of African film”. The program also included a screening of Sembène Ousmane’s first movie Borom Sarret (18mn) introduced by journalist and African cinema specialist Catherine Ruelle and by Alain Sembène. After the screening there was a panel discussion with Valérie Berty moderated by Elisabeth Molkou (New York University Paris) with  Marc Cerisuelo (Université Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée) and Boniface Mongo-Mboussa (writer and literary critic). It was a lively and informative evening.

NYU Paris Hosts Symposium on Joan Miró

Posted on , modified on by Martha J Bekink

Joan Miró : Dessin-poème L’Été, 1937 (détail). Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona © Successió Miró

On 9 – 10 November, 2018, NYU Paris will host a symposium on Joan Miró. Joan Miró: Painting – Poetry will focus in the main on Miró’s dream of merging painting and poetry, as well as his awareness of the existence of an inexorable duality between the text and the image. His simultaneous exploration in his works of these two contradictory paths constituted a major contribution to the art of his time. This symposium will also provide greater insights into the influence of French and Catalan poetry on Miró and his contemporaries.