Students often tell us they want get to know locals… but, living and studying with NYU students doesn’t provide many natural opportunities for integrating in the community.
This semester has seen a number of new projects that have done just that.
Some of these have grown out of the students’ own interests and initiatives. Nandini Kochar, who is volunteering for the human rights organization ROMEA, is creating a photo series modelled on the People of New York project that will document the stories of Romani people (see below). Audrey Romjue is organizing a picnic and honeybee workshop for refugee families through the Organization for Aid to Refugees, continuing a project that RA Clare Profus started last year. The NYU vocal ensemble got the chance to rehearse and perform with the Czech SMIX choir (see article).
This semester we’ve seen a huge amount of interest in our community outreach trips. We have two trips that take our students on visits to local high schools (in Broumov and Hlinsko), and every semester we go to Ostrava to visit Romani community centers. This year the Romani children performed a dance for us, and our students organized an Easter Egg Hunt and origami workshop for them. At the end the event broke into a spontaneous dancing party in the courtyard of the center. “These are experiences the students will remember for the rest of their lives,” said Yveta Kenety, Assistant Director of Student Life, “and the Romani children got a rare positive experience with people from outside their community. ”
Yveta has been working closely with the students to find ways to narrow the gap between our students and locals. We open up many of our events, including some trips, as we believe that the NYU students learn so much more when they interact with people from different backgrounds. Two projects – Diversity University and the Human Library – provided formal platforms for our students to speak to people from minority communities. And sometimes it’s best to meet people in a less academic setting – so our our student council is organizing Board Games evenings and Karaoke nights that are open to all.
We always have a lot of students who volunteer through our non-credit internship program; this semester is no exception. Students are teaching English at ČVUT, laughing with first and second graders at elementary schools, editing websites at NGOs, assisting at festivals and conferences, doing social media research, and befriending people as they work as unofficial ambassadors of NYU.
In some ways, it’s easier to meet people in Prague than in New York. Two students interviewed the entrepreneur Antonín Kokeš, owner of the local companies Albi and Antonín’s Bakeries, for the NYU Prague podcast “I was so surprised that this successful businessman who has a franchise of bakeries would take the time to meet us, a couple of NYU students,” said one student. “That would never happen in New York.”