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The Return of Study Away—An International Education Week Program

Posted on , modified on by Katie L

Last fall during International Education Week, NYU hosted an array of events that explored the benefits of international study away programs. One of those programs—a virtual roundtable discussion featured four NYU site directors. NYU Tel Aviv’s Benjamin Hary, NYU Accra’s Chiké Frankie Edozien, NYU Berlin’s Gabriella Etmektsoglou, and NYU London’s Catherine Robson discussed the lessons COVID-19 taught them, how they used those lessons to reconstruct their programs, and their hopes for future study away students. NYU’s Associate Director of Study Away Student Support Alejandro Marti moderated the panel.

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Site directors, Chiké Frankie Edozien (top left), Gabriella Etmektsoglou (top right), Catherine Robson (bottom right), and Benjamin Hary (bottom left)

Using the Past to Reshape the Future

When the pandemic first began in 2020, the faculty and staff at NYU’s global sites quickly adjusted. They adopted Zoom technology for virtual classes, planned online events for cultural immersion, and reimagined the scope of their curricula. Unsurprisingly, the lessons they learned in 2020 influenced the trajectory of their programs in 2021. For Chiké Frankie Edozien (NYU Accra), this meant creating new experiential learning trips and adopting new wellness guidelines for students.

“We tried a lot of things during the time of restrictions with our Go Local students who were primarily Ghanaian,” said Edozien. “We tried new excursions based on topics like climate change, taking students to the sea defense wall construction site. We weren’t able to (and we’re still not able to) do overnight trips, so we tried to think of ways we could teach students about Accra outside of the classroom—ways that allowed them to come back safely without the need for excessive travel or hotels. Sometimes we held classes outside so students and professors could be out in the sun, rather than in a confined space, and feel a bit more safe. We also encouraged our faculty to implement what we call ‘mask breaks’ so students can remove their masks for a short time before continuing their work.”

Similar to NYU Accra, Benjamin Hary and his team at NYU Tel Aviv spent the first part of the pandemic redesigning their curriculum to accommodate COVID-19 regulations. They now invite a range of guest lecturers to the classroom, and they developed a robust orientation for students who might need to quarantine upon their arrival in Israel.

“As we prepared for last semester, we created ways to connect students with one another and staff,” said Hary. “What my staff did for orientation, which was totally online because students were in quarantine, is a good example of this. We usually take the students to the famous Tel Aviv market, but since we couldn’t do that, my staff created a video of the market instead. They went to each specific ethnic food place and actually bought all the same food for the students. We delivered it to their doors so when they were watching the video, we could tell them about the food, and they could follow along. They loved it.” In addition, he noted, “With Zoom, it is very easy to invite people, such as guest lecturers and other experts, to participate in our programming, regardless of their physical location.”

Preparing Intentional Coursework for All Circumstances

During the early months of the pandemic, NYU’s global staff worked hard to create a future curriculum that could span multiple formats: in person, online, and/or hybrid. By preparing for various circumstances, NYU’s global locations worked to ensure students never missed a beat in their education.

“Without our faculty, we would not have been able to offer such a good experience for our students,” said Gabriella Etmektsoglou (NYU Berlin). “They showed adaptability and flexibility. They developed so many different options for their courses within a semester. In Berlin, for example, we had times when we were teaching in person and hybrid, and we had times when we had to lock down the site for a few weeks. If you had planned trips to museums or nongovernmental organizations during those weeks, you had to totally rethink your class. The faculty really embraced, very intentionally, the values of equity, diversity, belonging, inclusion, and accessibility when rethinking their sessions. It wasn’t simply, ‘I can’t go to this museum. What do I do now?’ It was, ‘Why was I going to this museum to begin with? Is there any way I can bring this museum to my class?’”

Eagerly Awaiting Cultural Immersion

The pandemic forced educators across the globe to rethink and reimagine the ways in which students learn. While some tactics will remain in place moving forward, such as expanded access to guest lecturers, increased collaboration between study away sites, and new experiential learning opportunities, other tactics will likely fall to the wayside, like learning a new language online or participating in a remote internship—both of which are challenging to accomplish without full-blown cultural immersion.

“In orientation we always talk about immersion in your new culture,” said Catherine Robson (NYU London). “Only by doing that do you start to think deeply about the place you come from. When you’re remote, you’re still in your usual place. You don’t have that experience of sort of turning inward, of being challenged to think about your own country, your own region, your own locality. Only by being in that different environment do you really start to reflect because it defamiliarizes what was deeply unquestioned by you before. And so that is why actually being in person in that different country is so key to what we do.”
And that’s why NYU’s global staff are eager to welcome more and more students back to their centers this year in 2022.

What’s Ahead: Embrace the Unexpected

For students preparing to study abroad in the coming semesters, all four site directors encouraged them to maintain an open mind and a positive attitude.

“Right now I think students need to be adaptable and have a little bit of trust in the future,” said Etmektsoglou. “Twelve years ago when I started at NYU Berlin, it was so much more about traveling. Now it’s about your professional career and your development as a young researcher. Yes, you might miss some traveling, but it’s not the key. Because of the pandemic and because of the way we used the time, the quality of our classes increased. They’re much more focused on addressing the career skills and needs for professional competencies. They’re about applied research; they’re about becoming entrepreneurial young professionals. Students will benefit from the diversity, the guests, and all the things we embraced during the pandemic.”

Written by Samantha Jamison

Madrid Stories: Documenting Life During COVID-19

Posted on , modified on by Chelsea Robles
 

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Jack Siebert

“What we saw in this period of scarcity was the emergence of creativity,” said Robert Bahar and Almudena Carracedo, Emmy-winning filmmakers and lecturers at NYU Madrid, who described their experience moving Madrid Stories, a location-based course, to an online format.

Madrid Stories is a semester-long class at NYU Madrid that encourages students to look, listen and explore Madrid with a documentarian’s gaze, to represent the city from new perspectives, and to seek out stories that explore and question pre-existing notions of Madrid (and Spain more broadly). Jim Fernandez, site director of NYU Madrid and professor of Spanish Literature and Culture, explained that the nature of the course made it challenging  to adapt for remote learning. “In some ways, Madrid Stories, rooted as it is in Madrid, was the most difficult course to adapt to an online format, when the COVID-19 crisis abruptly forced us to teach and learn remotely. But Rob, Almudena and the students did an amazing job, making some delicious lemonade from the lemons they were given, as it were.  Each of the thirteen films, produced in quarantine, captures the strange rhythms of confinement, and tells a story about the impossibility of returning home.”

Some students felt that the creative process of film production might be a meaningful outlet and a means for making sense of the unprecedented situation they were facing. Robert Bahar

Bahar explained that in early March “our students had just begun work on their film projects and were offered the option to go home, and then leaving the site quickly became mandatory.” He explained that a decision had to be made about how to adapt the course curriculum, by either shifting toward an analysis of documentaries or keeping the focus on the production process. They sought input from their students, who  responded with clear enthusiasm for wanting to continue creating their own films. In fact, some students felt that the creative process of film production might be a meaningful outlet and a means for making sense of the unprecedented situation they were facing.

“The students had little in terms of production equipment, but they did have iPhones and family. They created something absolutely amazing by scavenging any available resources to create a final product — all within two weeks. They had to reimagine their lives, the course, and the project. Their lives took a turn, but in the process of doing so, the class served as a mirror on themselves, and a mirror into themselves. The process of making their films was reflective of where they were in the quarantine,” explained Carracedo. 

“We all learned to use digital tools to serve the production process,” noted Carracedo. “They had to learn new editing programs, and we taught them how to edit by sharing our screens and providing demonstrations.” The feedback process was also adapted to an online format. Zoom’s breakout room function allowed the students to work in small groups where they could view each other’s work and offer the critique and feedback that are essential to fine tune a film. “The difference between good and great is the last push of the editing and polishing,” said Bahar, “which is also the most difficult part of producing a film. We always push students toward great. We want to help them achieve their visions and be proud of their work.” 

In addition to learning new technical tools to support the filmmaking process, students also had to develop new strategies to enable them to complete their work remotely. For Jack Seibert, a rising senior at Tisch School of the Arts, said he had to learn to remind himself “that artistic processes always encounter unforeseen bumps in the road — large or small — and it is our job as creatives to develop innovative solutions to those problems while staying on schedule. I found pursuing a creative process during this time to be incredibly beneficial to my future artistic career — whether working in theater or film — because I discovered personalized tools to recognize when I feel motivated or unmotivated, and how to either encourage myself to keep working or give myself breaks.” 

Developing their film projects also helped some students cope with the sense of uncertainty brought about by the pandemic and they noted that the experience was cathartic and therapeutic. Claudia Picado, a rising senior at Steinhardt School of Education, Culture, and Human Development, explained that her film, Meires en Cuerentena, enabled her to process her experience through “self expression, while also creating something that represented my family and how we came together during quarantine.”

Colin Donahue, a visiting student at NYU Madrid from Swarthmore College, created a film entitled, In an Instant, that detailed idyllic scenes of life in Europe. It is a portrait of travel to Rome and Paris and all of the things you imagine global students doing. Donohue explained that when he first returned to the United States, he “spent the first two weeks of quarantine in my childhood bedroom reflecting on my past experiences and feeling grateful for the health and safety of my family. After looking back on the footage from my study abroad experience, I knew I wanted to use this project as an opportunity to not only remember Spain but to document how I experienced this international public health crisis.” 

Donohue said that for him and many of his classmates, the creative process became “a philosophical reflection on the lockdown and quarantine, and the feeling of going back in time when one returns to their childhood home,” said Carracedo. They used the experience to produce introspective glimpses into what life was like during uncommon times. 

While the final screenings of student productions are typically held in-person at a closing event at NYU Madrid, this year’s films were screened online, which allowed  families and friends to participate.

View all Madrid Stories here (Vimeo).

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Adapting the African City

Posted on , modified on by Chelsea Robles
 

“What students are doing now ⁠— asking the subjects themselves to take part in creating a documentary ⁠— is their contribution to how the genre has been evolving since its inception in the early 1920s,” explains filmmaker Yahaya Alpha Suberu, a lecturer at NYU Accra. Instead of having films take the stance of a passive observer, “documentaries are now engaging the subjects, they are filming their own voices, and the collaborative process has changed between subject and documenter,” says Suberu.

In “Documenting the African City,” a course that has been offered at NYU Accra since its establishment 15 years ago, students learn how to tell stories using the language of film. The class is open to all students, regardless of their discipline — a background in film is not required — and helps students discover more about the city during the process of shooting short pieces, recording sound, and editing their work. “The topics of their documentaries,” said Suberu, “are as varied as NYU’s diversity. Music, religion, race, politics, transportation, education, gender, sexuality, streetism, commerce, health, dance, tradition, the list goes on and on.” 

“Usually by mid-semester students have all the basic skills for pre-production, production, and post-production to finish five-minute individual or group projects. By the end of the semester they would have honed their skills and produced a longer documentary which is about ten minutes in duration.” The longer documentaries are screened outdoors in Accra to an audience from NYU Accra and the surrounding community.

My students have adapted in their learning process as much as I have in my pedagogy. They have had to quickly learn to shoot and record sound using their smartphones, and they also learned to engage their subjects by making them a part of the documentary process. Yahaya Alpha Suberu

However, this spring presented a set of unique challenges, as NYU Accra, like the rest of NYU’s campuses and academic centers, was forced to suspend in-person operations due to the COVID-19 virus, and the cohort found themselves in a range of unexpected locations. “Some were in quarantine in their home countries, some at a place that was a ‘stopover’ or a place that was not home,” said Suberu. In response, the entire structure of the course had to be reshaped and the course’s focal point on Accra also had to adapt given that most of the cohort was no longer in Africa.

How exactly did Suberu adapt his instruction for a course that is typically very hands on, particularly in the locational aspect of the documentaries and the use of NYU Accra’s on-site film equipment and editing suite? And how did he support the continuity of a course that requires a high level of focused creativity in the midst of the chaos and stress? 

As he adapted how classes were conducted, spent time identifying short-format films that addressed the needs of the syllabus, and worked with students to expand their story themes beyond the city limits of Accra, Suberu found himself spending more time identifying resources and engaging with students online than in-person. “Even though class is over, I’m still doing research and communicating by email — when you end class, you are still on the screen, spending more time there than one usually would in more familiar circumstances. And along with the move from campus to computer, there has been a shift in how we think about time in terms of teaching and student engagement.”

“My students have adapted in their learning process as much as I have in my pedagogy. They have had to quickly learn to shoot and record sound using their smartphones, and they also learned to engage their subjects by making them a part of the documentary process. For instance, one student wanted to interview an individual in Accra, so the subject filmed herself and sent the footage to the student. Another documented the journey of a friend from NYU New York who travelled back home to China, and self-recorded the experience of being in quarantine.” 

Interestingly, the class produced films that have taken a timely look at different angles of the COVID-19 pandemic, said Suberu. “One student’s dad works in virology and he was able to tie his dad’s work into a story that was driven by his interest in biological warfare. Along similar lines, another student investigated how her mom is taking care of herself as a front-line medical worker.” 

The final projects from the course will be screened online on May 15th to a public audience. Open to 300 participants via Zoom, Suberu says “it will be quite fascinating to see how many viewers tune in from all over the world.”

 
 
 
 
 

NYU Los Angles Launches Inaugural Discovery Sessions

Posted on , modified on by Chelsea Robles

Next month, NYU Los Angeles will be launching a series of talks and presentations for NYU alumni, led by industry experts who will cover a range of topics in media and entertainment. The Summer 2020 Discovery Sessions will launch Monday, June 1, and are geared towards professionals looking to expand their knowledge base and community in highly specialized arenas. 

The series will debut with two free special webinars (information below), that are “being offered in the spirit of creating community and opportunity to the entire NYU community,” said NYU Los Angeles Program Director Nina Sadowsky, who created the Discovery Sessions. In addition, two spots in each of the series’ paid sessions will be offered free of charge to applicants who have been laid off or furloughed due to the COVID-19 virus. More information on these scholarships is available here. 

The Business: Snapshots of the Current Media and Entertainment Landscape from the Professionals Who Run It 

Monday, June 1 • 3pm PDT/6pm EDT

Through a series of TEDTalk-style presentations, participants will learn how organizations are responding to the unfolding economic challenges presented by COVID-19. Professionals in fields ranging from film, television, music, podcasting and more, will share their perspective on how the business has shifted and their outlook for the near future.

This event is produced in collaboration with NYU LA, the NYU Production Lab, the Wasserman Center for Career Development, and the Tisch Office of Career Development.

Career Strategies for Creatives

Wednesday, June 3 • 3pm PDT/6pm EDT

What is it like to start your career in the middle of an economic downturn? What strategies can you employ to stay productive, build your network and continue to pursue your creative passions? This special panel composed of Tisch grads that entered the workforce during the 2008/2009 recession will share their experiences and expertise in pursuing a career in the arts despite a difficult economic climate. Panelists will include representatives from different areas of the industry.

This event is produced in collaboration with NYU LA and NYU Tisch.

Download (PDF) the session brochure and schedule  below.

NYU Los Angeles Goes Virtual

Posted on , modified on by Chelsea Robles
 

The following post is a guest submission from Gracie Corapi, assistant to NYU Los Angeles Program Director Nina Sadowsky.

By Gracie Corapi

I started as the assistant to Nina Sadowsky, program director of NYU Los Angeles (NYULA), in September 2019, still early in the program’s inaugural semester. We gave our first 33 students a study away program to celebrate: distinct LA experiences, unique panels and programming, an academic center with sunset views and Brita-filtered water. By the time Spring 2020 began and a new cohort of 36 joined us, we’d turned it up to 100: a one-on-one mentorship program! Double the special events, double the networking! Brita pitchers in each student apartment! Alumni mixers! And… a worldwide pandemic that sent them all home? 

As a student, I experienced a few unexpected bumps in my university years. In undergrad, classes were cancelled by a polar vortex. In grad school, I was on campus during an active shooter scare––thankfully, a false alarm. But this is a much bigger bump, and it’s my first time with an admin-level view of how a school can adapt when the world makes an unprecedented turn. This is what went into transitioning NYULA into a successful (and fun!) remote learning program. 

We began with the lecturers — all of whom are accomplished and flexible, but that didn’t make them automatic Zoom experts. Our first project: creating resources. We had help from the knowledge base and from materials shared by NYU Shanghai (who were the first in the NYU community to face the Coronavirus), but we discovered that what our entirely part-time lecturers really needed was distilled guidance, not wallops of information on top of the changes in their own careers and lives. We created a step-by-step Zoom guide in PDF form for the visual learners, and we set up a system of 1:1 staff-led tutorials with the active learners. Then we created a schedule of staff support: every single class has a staff member on call, joining the Zoom meeting for at least the first ten minutes, making sure all tech runs smoothly. And hey, it’s not a bad deal for me, a forever-learner; I’ve ended up staying the full length of several classes, enjoying the content and conversation, forgetting I’m not a student myself. 

Our challenge for [the students] was instead experience-based: how do we provide an education equal to what we were providing before? Gracie Corapi

Adapting classes to a remote model has been more challenging for some than others. Our biggest challenge came when we’d all settled into our new home “offices,” when we’d all learned the difference between day and night PJs, when the hard work of transition seemed to be leveling out. We have a professor with… a VHS addiction. The treatment: after a hilarious but ineffective attempt to hold an iPad up to an old, VHS-equipped TV, the ingenious professor scoured YouTube for comparable clips and even learned how to digitize their tapes. It’s not quarantine if you’re not learning new skills, right? 

It’s no surprise that our amazing students are already tech-savvy. Our challenge for them was instead experience-based: how do we provide an education equal to what we were providing before? As a millennial, I say this completely genuinely: the great thing about Gen Z, which describes our cohort, is that they have big ideas and they’re not afraid to share them. In classes, professors are asking and listening to students about how best to change assignments to fit the new landscape. Group projects are morphing. Final paper topics are changing in real time as the industry adapts around us. 

One of the great facets of the LA program is the internship component. All students are required to have one, and we worried that this would be a grand hurdle. But so far, everyone has adapted. While many students have been able to maintain their internship work remotely, those that haven’t are working with our program director on customized projects that keep them connected to the type of work that drew them to LA in the first place.  

On the administrative side, we’re collaborating with our student workers on multiple fronts: what do you and your peers need from us? What do you want from us? What does support look like now, and what does the LA experience look like when you’re not even in LA? We created “Virtual LA” for the cohort, a constantly-growing source of online museum tours, livecam music, plus photos and stories of the city’s history and LA-set movie recommendations from faculty and staff. There’s more where that came from: we’re working on industry and craft book recommendations, an NYULA cookbook, and we’re in early discussions about a Zoom talent show. 

A couple of our ongoing projects are adapting too: our big event, the Hollywood Sustainability Summit, is going digital on May 16th. Our mentorship program continues by phone and Facetime. But now we have student-led movie nights and support groups, too. Our small staff is doing 1:1 student check-ins, and we’re dedicated to creating even more community as we go along. 

So far, so good. Nothing is easy in this kind of transition, and no one is really loving it. But NYULA, true to our city, has a sunny outlook. We’re finding unexpected opportunities in the remote world. That said, I am looking forward to returning to our NYULA home on Fairfax. I don’t have sunset views and a Brita filter at home, and I can’t take one more second of Tiger King.