Global Experiences
Global Competency: understand and navigate complex global issues, work effectively in diverse cultural contexts, and collaborate across borders to address shared challenges.
Abu Dhabi
Spending the Spring 2022 semester in Abu Dhabi was my first stint living abroad, and a warm entryway to the culture and globalized nuances of the UAE and Gulf Region. The Saadiyat campus was a deeply appreciated change of pace, and I loved the community I cultivated there. Throughout the semester, I grew my social research and analysis skills through classes on social policy and research centered on global paradigms of orientalism, classism, and labor dynamics. These courses bolstered my skills in community-engaged scholarship, teaching through strong conceptual connections to the social, urban design, and climate sustainability challenges of the Gulf through final projects on Sustainable Transportation and Afro-Western Positionality in the UAE.
While I was in Abu Dhabi, I toured across the 7 Emirates and even took a 10-day Trip to Turkey to experience the nexus of Eurasia through vibrant urban culture and design.
Buenos Aires
Studying Argentinian Identity and City-Building in Buenos Aires(BA) was my second longest and most urban residential experience traveling abroad. We stayed as a cohort in a central area of BA for 2.5 weeks while attending a mix of classroom lectures and site visits on Argentinian socio-cultural history. As an Engineering school course, a core component of the class was spent on the interplay between natural and built environments, and how these features contribute to national development and identity-building. A core focus of my personal studies and time in Argentina was spent on the Afro-Argentinian community, which has been subject to one of the most extensive campaigns of erasure faced by an Afro-diasporic nationality. The community-engaged research and exploration around Black experiences and spaces in Buenos Aires were not only impactful for my understanding of shared global struggles across the diaspora, but also in terms of connecting points for solidarity among the Afro-Descendants I connected with and befriended during my time there.
In addition, through the adventurous and independent plunge I took navigating this trip, I was making friends from all over the region and organically practicing my Spanish from the plane ride there to this day. I made genuine friendships and had substantive conversations spanning hours with people who virtually spoke no English, and it was surreal to see how much I had grown in just a few months of taking and practicing Spanish in NYC when I could barely string together sentences a few months prior. My conversational Spanish is so much more comfortable after just a few weeks in Latin America it propelled months of exploring, working, and living throughout Latin America post-grad into a high priority of mine.
Vietnam
Spending a week in Vietnam with the NYU MLK Scholars program was a whirlwind tour that gave a robust taste of Vietnam's socio-cultural dimensions. From regional divisions, post-war development, and religious diversity, our tours throughout Ho Chi Minh City and the Mekong River Delta were insightful and reflective points on sensitive international dynamics between Vietnam and the West.
This trip was centered on MLK's anti-Vietnam War advocacy as well as lessons in anti-colonialism, anti-militarism, and global solidarity amongst oppressed peoples. These themes are crucial to how I and my peers in the program aim to shape our careers, as globally and culturally connected leaders both in our fields, but for our communities and on the struggles that matter and unite us across humanity.
From lectures, museums, and parks by day, I learned about key urban qualities and environmental issues of Ho Chi Minh City, and national difficulties remediating the long-term environmental and public health impacts of Agent Orange. While taking to the streets at night taught us more about urban traffic and mobility planning, socio-economic dynamics, as well as the dense amenities throughout the city.
Ghana
In March 2024, I spent a week in Ghana between major cities, Kumasi and Accra, to attend the first International Conference on Environment, Social, Governance, and Sustainable Development in Africa (ICESDA)-hosted at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology(KNUST) in Kumasi. The conference brought students, professors, business leaders, and public servants alike from the region to convene and network around key issues of West African sustainability futures and SDG trajectory.
As a Black American, many generations removed from African ancestry and ties to "homeland", my first trip to Africa was a special continent to serve as the culmination of my global journies at NYU. Not only was this my first time in Africa, but it was my first completely solo international trip. To plan and navigate an entire intercontinental venture by myself was fulfilling. But, cultivating a true community in Ghana, and leaving with a host of enriching personal, cultural, and professional experiences, represented the maturation of my social and academic capabilities from all of my undergraduate global experiences.
