[ Music ]
- Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to New York University Abu Dhabi.
[ Music ]
- Ladies and gentlemen, please take your
seats.
We're about to start the 2019
commencement exercises of New York
University Abu Dhabi.
[ Music ]
- Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome,
New York University Abu Dhabi's 2019 color guard.
[ Music ]
- Please welcome, New York University Abu
Dhabi's 2019 graduating class,
led by the student banner bearer.
[ Applause ]
[ Music ]
[ Music ]
- Please welcome, members of the New York University Abu Dhabi Cabinets and the
New York University Abu Dhabi Campus
Life leadership team.
[ Music ]
- Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome,
the Faculty of New York University Abu Dhabi.
[ Applause ]
[ Applause]
[ Music ]
[ Music ]
- Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome,
distinguished members of the platform party,
led by the Abu Dhabi Police Band.
[ Music ]
- Ladies and gentlemen, please stand for
the national anthems of the United Arab Emirates
and the United States of
America.
[ UAE anthem playing]
[ USA anthem playing]
- Ladies and gentlemen, the Provost of New
York University Abu Dhabi - Fabio Piano.
[ Applause ]
- Here, now, in the presence of
candidates for academic recognition,
members of the faculty and
administration, alumni, trustees,
honor guests, and friends of New York
University Abu Dhabi,
the 2019 commencement is hereby convened.
[ Applause ]
- Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome, Majida Al Maktoum, member of the class of 2019!
[ Applause ]
- Your Highnesses, your excellencies,
honored guests, university leadership and fellow peers,
I hope you all travelled to here safely.
My name is Majida Bint Maktoum Al Maktoum, I am delighted to welcome you all
to the commencement of the class of 2019 of New York University Abu Dhabi.
We are all gathered here today for a special occasion.
This commencement is taking place during the holy month of Ramadan
and during its last 10 days which is a sacred time.
Not only that, but we're also gathered here
today during the UAE's Year of Tolerance
which has aimed to foster respect,
peaceful coexistence, and mutual
understanding among people here in the
UAE.
And in my time here I have definitely come to believe
that NYU Abu Dhabi is the epitome of tolerance.
Roughly 4 years ago, the class of 2019
took a risk of attending this university.
For some, this place was already a home.
But for others it was the other side of the world,
an adventurous choice.
But I know that today, four years later,
we can all gladly call NYU Abu Dhabi our
home.
On campus we have had countless discussions on trying to define
the identity of NYUAD.
We are an American institution and also here in the UAE.
So what does that make us?
I think NYUAD is its community.
Its students, its faculty, its staff,
it is also capstone, long hours at the
library, and spring breaks
to our top-rated destinations - Turkey, Georgia, and Thailand.
[ Laughter ]
All of these together gives NYUAD its heart and soul.
In this home we
have grown to become a family.
Here, we experienced this idea of a shared
humanity and a shared responsibility to
do good and to be tolerant.
The UAE Year of Tolerance reminds us to carry the value of kindness,
forgiveness, and compassion,
beyond the borders of the UAE,
and shared with the world what we have
experienced here.
When I look at the world today, I see that tolerance is needed more than ever.
At a time when words have the power to separate and divide us,
we need tolerance.
At a time when social media has
the power to produce hate,
we need tolerance.
And at a time when ignorance overcomes knowledge, we need tolerance.
We all arrived here from different walks of life.
We brought our cultures, our stories, our perspectives,
and our beliefs into this environment.
NYUAD encouraged us to be curious, critical thinkers, and courageous.
And I think that's what we're going to walk away with.
To the UAE leadership, family, friends, faculty, and staff,
loved ones and greater NYUAD community,
thank you so much for your support and getting us to where we are today.
And on a personal note, I would like to thank my mother.
No amount of thank-yous is enough for you,
you made me the woman who I am today.
 
Thank you.
[ Applause ]
- Ladies and gentlemen, the chairman
of New York University Board of Trustees,
William Robert Berkley.
[ Applause ]
- Good evening.
As board chairman, I'm fortunate to attend
three commencement exercises in three
countries in just over a week.
One in New York,
one in Abu Dhabi,
and one in a few days in Shanghai.
I'm fully experiencing that thrill and the jetlag
that comes from being a part of a truly global university.
The Board of Trustees and I 
have watched the progress at NYU Abu Dhabi
over the past nine years with
great pride.
Your achievements are nothing short of remarkable.
From highly competitive admissions to new research
frontiers, to prestigious student awards,
to an innovative curriculum for the 21st century.
These accomplishments would not
be possible
without the talent and hard work of world-class faculty and administrators
guided by the superb chairmanship of my good friend - Al Bloom.
[ Applause ]
But,
the incredible support provided by
the Abu Dhabi government has been
nothing but spectacular through good
times and bad.
That in and of itself has made this possible.
I want to also be sure that everyone understand, however,
the remarkable class of 2019 remains the
strongest group of students,
and proof of concept.
You are beyond outstanding.
We are incredibly proud of you.
[ Applause ]
I am an alumnus of NYU.
Today, you are about to become NYU alumni yourselves.
You'll join a community of more than a
half a million fellow NYU graduates around the world.
I hope that being part of this unique and dynamic university
will bring you as much gratification as it's brought to me.
Over the past half-century I have gained much.
I've learned most of all you can do well while doing good.
To you, the class of 2019, best wishes and my warmest congratulations,
thank you.
[ Applause ]
- We now present
a special tribute to the class of 2019,
a commencement video featuring our
graduating students.
[ Music ]
- When you hear about NYU Abu Dhabi
the first thing that comes to mind is,
like, is this a real thing? Is it really?
No there's no way...there's gotta be a catch.
That's the thing with NYU Abu Dhabi. You
come here, you see what this place is all
about, you fall in love with it and it's
done...it's done. There is no going back
that's... that's it!
- It was incredible.
- It's really life-changing and transformative I'd say.
- It was just amazing.
- NYUAD not just met
my expectations but really exceeded it.
- I never expected to make such good
friends here, for example.
- This student
body is fascinating.
- I've learned about
cultures I never thought I would be
exposed to.
- I was blown away by the
opportunities to travel, engage, learn
beyond the walls of my classroom.
- I really wanted to explore the world.
[ Uplifting music ]
[ Piano plays ]
- It's been a
fun four years but I'm ready to go.
- I'm excited but at the same time can't
believe that it's already happening. I feel
like I was just at Candidate Weekend
yesterday.
- I'm gonna miss this openness
and this desire to lift each other up.
- Here, at this university, hard work and
ambition is almost contagious.
- You have that urge to like do 
something and do something
for the better.
- If there's something that
doesn't exist here and you wanted it to
exist you can make it happen.
- Students could take on leadership roles, create
new programs, get involved with projects
that break the boundaries of what is
thought to be a student project.
- Most of what we learn here at NYUAD is
outside of classrooms so whether it's
research opportunities or even you know
playing ping-pong in the Baraha
with my friends and talking about their
culture and their religion.
- My classmates are from all over the world.
Theros is from Hong Kong, Alyssa's 
from the Philippines
- from Peru
- Germany
- [North ] Macedonia
- Chile.
- From Japan.
- I have met people from countries that I...
I would have never even have known about.
- You know, every conversation becomes more
deep and complex.
- Everybody has different opinions but those opinions are based on
something, and it's so important to understand why we think something is
right or wrong.
- I feel like I've seen the world so much more.
- Study away experience just really gave me a chance to be immersed and really pushed beyond
what I thought I was capable of.
- Those educational experiences that are
explicitly global in nature are valuable but it's also valuable to just you know
go with your friends to Cyprus and rent a car and drive around.
- There's a lot of trips, they call them Kashtahs and they take students all over the Emirates.
- We had Kashtah trips to Ras Al Khaimah, we had Kashtah trips to Sharjah, we just had
one to Delma Island a few weeks ago.
- I really felt like when I came here I was really taken in by the hospitality by my local
friends. I felt so much more integrated with the UAE and with Abu Dhabi.
- It's growing and we kind of get to see that growth and be involved in that growth.
- NYUAD is part of creating the culture here.
- The UAE also becomes a part
of your identity over the four years here because Abu Dhabi is a city that
you really learn to love.
[ Music ]
- I want to spend the experience as sort of an adventure, like a make your own pathway.
- Through the liberal arts curriculum you can really explore different areas
- We have a very deep knowledge in one subject but also a broad understanding
in several subjects.
- I mean how many engineers can say that they studied
politics in Berlin and art in Florence.
- So the classes here are quite rigorous.
I think it leaves just enough time for a social life but just enough time.
- A few of us got back from dinner last weekend and we ended up chatting all about umm...the
political effects of weapons deals. Is that what college students normally chat
about on their Friday nights? Probably not!
- My favorite memories are the little ones.
- Being out in the desert and sitting around a fire with friends.
- Surprise birthday parties
- Eating knafeh on the streets of Abu Dhabi.
- I spend a lot of time with the campus cats!
- NYU Abu Dhabi has a lot of opportunities such
as NYUAD institute, the Arts Center where they have almost weekly
events.
- There's always soccer matches happening.
- We actually played against a professional team last semester.
[ Chuckles ] It was a terrible score but it was at least a good opportunity.
- All these like amazing activities, Latino nights, Balkan nights, Pakistani wedding night...
- You get to see what your peers are doing either through conferences, or research, or performances,
and you're like wow this class is talented.
- The class of 2019 is passionate
- Curious
- They're very hard-working
- Adventurous
- Ambitious
- Eccentric. [ Laughs ]
[ Seniors cheering ]
- They're all amazing, beautiful people and we all come together and it's beautiful.
I'm gonna miss them a lot...a lot.
[ NYUAD community cheers seniors ]
- I'll definitely miss being in this space
where there are people around me who are engaged in, and interested in, and devoted
in solving a lot of the real world issues we have.
- I think NYUAD has helped me grow in a lot a lot of ways. It gave me the
confidence to ask more questions and to allow myself to be curious.
- I think it's opened my mind to different ways of approaching religion,
different ways of approaching politics.
- Every single interaction I've had here I think
has been something that has shifted something in me and you know showed me
how much I don't know about the world which I think is awesome.
- I've definitely grown in terms of my capacity for empathy.
- I think I was impulsive.
- It has made me
more hardworking, has given me a vision for the future.
- I think NYU Abu Dhabi
has given me more than I need to go on after graduation.
[ Music ]
- I was recently selected as a Luce scholar. I'll be going to Malaysia to
work on technology education for women.
- I'm very very privileged to be heading to
Beijing next year where I'll be studying as a Schwartzman scholar.
- I'll be staying in Dubai working in consulting.
- I plan to move to DC for the next two years to
pursue my master's in security policy studies at George Washington University.
- This year I actually won the Rhodes Scholar.
So I'll be going to Oxford University.
- I'm going to do a dual master's degree
between Sciences Po university in Paris and London School of Economics.
- I'll be joining PWC in Dubai.
- Joining HSBC in London.
- Pursuing my master's in mechanical
engineering in the United States as a Fulbright Scholar.
- I'll be going to Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar.
- I will be a pre-doctoral fellow in economics at Harvard.
- Pursuing my master's at Tsinghua University as a Schwarzman scholar.
[ Music ]
- These past four years have been amazing and I just want to tell you all , "Thank you!"
I would like to thank His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan
for giving us the opportunity to study here...
- ...to engage with the local
community, to experience the culture, and I'm forever grateful for this opportunity.
- A huge thanks to my parents.
- I think I'd definitely like to thank my peers
- Thank you for all the conversations and all the cups of tea.
- I love you guys.
- I'd like to thank all the ADNH staff, all the contract staff.
- A big thank you to all the professors...
- Thank you for making us better human beings.
- OK, today is the day.
Good luck.
- Masha'Allah Class of 2019, we did it!
- Capstone is over, we're free!
- Congratulations class of 2019!
- Felicitaciones!
- Badhā'ī cha
- Herzliche Glückwünsche
-Alf mabrook!
- We made it!
- We definitely made it but don't stop here.
- Let's make a difference.
- Use the privilege that we have of this
amazing experience to make people's lives better.
- Congratulations Class of 2019, we made it!
[ Applause ]
- Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome,
Rayan Elsharkawi, member of the class of 2019.
[ Applause ]
- Your Highnesses, your excellencies, Mr. Berkley, president Hamilton,
Vice Chancellor Bloom, esteemed faculty, distinguished guests, friends and
families in the class of 2019,
welcome and Ramadan Kareem,
thank you so much for being here with us today
as we celebrate our four years at NYU Abu Dhabi.
Growing up with a single father my family struggled financially and so
consistency was almost non-existent.
However, the one thing my father ensured
was consistent was my education.
Despite financial hardship, he persistently
strived to keep me in one of the best schools in Egypt because like this
nation's leaders, he firmly believed in the pricelessness of education.
He'd always say the money I lost I can recover
but the years you could lose learning are unrecoverable.
The absence of guided education would have been irreversible for me.
Trying to picture what my life would have been like had I
stayed back home and not been fortunate enough to NYU Abu Dhabi, I would have
received a decent education in the classroom, but not outside.
The only George I would have known would have been in the States.
[ Laughter ]
No mock Pakistani wedding to RSVP to,
no chicken tikka masala for lunch,
no one-on-one collaboration with my professors on research,
no pursuit of my passions beyond my major,
no multicultural pictures of my friends on a grass patch, and don't even get me
started on what my Instagram page would've looked like then.
[ Laughter ]
It is because of my father's resilience
that I am here today.
And, actually, he deserves that NYUAD degree much more than I do
because he's been with me throughout these four years.
Through every exam, internship, and rejection.
Even when I would put him on hold to submit an assignment at 11:59.
And I think we can all relate to this
because, in addition to my father, I've created an incredibly close and
resilient family here on Saadiyat who has supported me with both my academic
endeavors and my personal struggles.
And so what is this resilience look like on campus?
It's in continuously proving that we're worthy of the privilege we're lucky to have.
In overcoming mental health battles as we adapt to new environments and cultures.
In using our backgrounds to globalize our education,
in consistently establishing NYUAD's names in companies and grad schools.
Having the first football team to reach semi-finals this year...
[ Applause ]
and building the first student-led sustainable home,
thanks to the Solar Decathlon team.
[ Applause ]
These are just a few of the countless examples of resilience at NYUAD.
And so, my dear family, I want to share the spirit of resilience with you
and I hope you use it to contribute to the vision of both the University and the UAE
to foster cultural consciousness in a global network tied to the Middle East.
To develop research and build knowledge-based economies and to tackle
global challenges from all fields.
Now I want to ask you a bit of a personal question.
Who here has relationship issues or
commitment issues, who here is long-distance relationship phobic?
I'm pretty sure way more of you are.
I started my first long-distance relationship the day I came to NYU Abu Dhabi .
And it was with my family.
My father had made me promise to consistently keep in touch, particularly
with my younger sister. It was one of his two terms for a long-distance relationship.
That, and obtaining a GPA of at least 3.8.
LOL.
[ Laughter ]
Being consistent with it was tough though.
Adjusting to different time zones,
spam dialing each other for 15 minutes before connecting because thanks NYU Wi-Fi.
Missing a birthday but blowing out virtual candles together, celebrating
how my grandma beat cancer or even hearing arguments about how she won't
stop feeding my fat cat.
It was only the first time when I came to NYUAD, that I
had a cultural shock but why was it that every time I went home I repeatedly had
mini cultural shocks over and over.
The place didn't change, nor did the people.
It was me.
Long distance is weird; I clash with my friends and my parents on
multiple occasions, on cultural, religious, and lifestyle matters.
"You can't wear the pants," they said.
I said, "Well, what about ripped jeans?"
"You're too independent, so when are you getting married?", they said.
"Um, I'm married to my career, thank you very much."
[ Laughter ]
In dealing with such interactions it's very easy to identify
the other end as "ignorant", but part of our responsibility is
to not take that easy way out.
Unlike most members of our home communities,
we've been extremely fortunate to have had the opportunity to
step foot into multiple worlds and to grow our minds here.
And because of this, we really need to think about
how we can extend our world view over to our homes.
How we can integrate some of what we've learned into local contexts which we
were once entirely native to.
Despite the differences and our opinions on various topics,
one good thing about our long distance relationship is that every time
I called home, we picked up where we left off.
And the same can be said about all
the times I called my NYUAD family.
All the long-distance friendships that we, as a class of 2019,
maintained while studying abroad.
Sometimes not seeing our good friends for two whole years.
I find it crazy how all of us, all these tiny
specks with different past and present experiences from all over the world,
managed to do it.
We each grew in our own ways moulded by
the wonderful opportunities we've had the privilege of receiving and experiencing.
But what allowed us to strengthen our
long-distance bonds was the fact that we all grew in parallel.
While there was no singular NYUAD journey,
our values, whether we developed them in A2 or A6,
on the football field or in capstone corner,
in the super lab or in the black box,
have constructed our shared experience.
This nation's leaders have further strengthened our values
by bringing all of us together in this year,
more like Years of Tolerance.
Being an NYUAD student is much more than
carrying the bookstore tote bag, like it's the most fashionable item down the highline.
[ Laughter ]
It's more than migrating D2 to Abd El Wahab on Tuesdays
and to Circle Cafe on weekends.
It's in the family of resilience that we've established here on campus.
It's in how proactively we support one another.
How we follow up on our friends' interviews.
How we mentor underclassmen after they panic...
...once they panic when we ask them what's your major.
How we treat each other to meal swipes.
How we agree to disagree.
How we adapt to new environments, learn to operate
within their cultural boundaries and thrive in them.
It's also in how disciplined we are.
Never in my life have I seen students stay up until 4:00 a.m.
on Friday, and then greet them the next morning in the library at 9:00 a.m.,
caffeinated and dedicated.
On that note, thank you to the convenience store for sponsoring the juice.
The DJ SIG for their very diverse music that somehow
always circles back to reggaeton.
And ResEd for their guest appearances.
[ Applause ]
On that note, thank you to the United Arab Emirates and its leaders for giving us
this unparalleled experience and for generously welcoming us with open arms.
Thank you to all the faculty and administrative staff for stimulating our minds,
supporting our passions, and allowing us to mold our global
perspectives here with you.
Thank you to all the staff for always smiling at us,
ensuring our well-being, and for making the four years here wholesome.
To all our family members, whether you are here today
or live streaming this ceremony,
you are sharing the NYUAD degree with us and your names will be forever
imprinted on that diploma.
Now, let's take a bit of a walk down memory lane
and go back to Candidate Weekend.
We were all those high school students,
concerned with not just excelling academically,
but with creating an impact.
And I'd like to take this opportunity to remind the
class of 2019 of those early dreams and of the privilege of having the resources
to jumpstart them.
But one tip: don't be overachievers, seriously.
Stop achieving things and start accomplishing things.
We have so many amazing achievers among us:
people who've won prestigious titles or awards or secure jobs at top firms
confirming their portrayal of success.
But how many of those achievements are
accomplishments, things that are meaningful to you personally and can be
extended to those around you?
An accomplishment can be as simple as
understanding someone's perspective in a conversation
or giving them insight into the world view that you've been privileged to have developed here.
Please don't let others' accomplishments
become your achievements.
Accomplishments are important as you move in your lives,
as you move forward in your lives, because they are stepping stone in the
right direction and not your direction.
Now, whether you did a million things or one thing,
we've all had these opportunities to grow and learn.
Every single one of our paths has been different, but we've all arrived at the
same destination.
We're all here now about to walk across the stage and
receive this blank piece of paper behind me.
[ Laughter ]
The question is what are you going to do with it.
Are you going to maintain your long-distance relationships?
Are you going to extend your world view to your homes?
Are you going to pass on your resilience elsewhere?
Going forward, I invite you to think about what you've
earned versus what you've accomplished.
And while NYUAD's mission is to make
the next generation of global leaders, I hope you also make NYUAD the blueprint
of all forthcoming change.
Our university is a microcosm of what global society
should strive to attain, but also it consists of all of us, all these tiny
specks from all over the world who bring the best from their home countries to
make this liberal arts education at the forefront of tackling global issues.
Remember what my father said,
"The years we could have lost and could lose
learning are unrecoverable."
Essentially, our role now is to become full-time global leaders,
a term we repeatedly ridiculed because of our denial about our capabilities,
our privilege, and our responsibility to
uplift the most marginalized members of our communities,
but a term we are coming to embrace slowly, but surely .
Genuinely, I'm not worried about each and every one of you.
Not one bit.
Because each of you has an incredible
amount of resilience, a whole family of it.
And I hope you use this resilience to
pay it forward, to continue to foster the NYUAD family spirit, both in Faiza's nest
and wherever we may fly, thank you.
[ Applause ]
- Ladies and gentlemen, the Vice Chancellor of New York University Abu Dhabi, Alfred Bloom.
[ Applause ]
- Your Highnesses, your excellencies, honored guests, members of the NYU and
NYU Abu Dhabi communities, families and friends of our graduates, and graduates
of the NYU Abu Dhabi class of 2019, good evening and welcome.
Graduates, we celebrate each of you
who will walk across this stage tonight prepared for
stunning success in your careers.
Equipped the wise and effective response
to the world's most pressing challenges and ready to open your hearts and your
minds across a world of increasingly fractious divides
to build a more responsible, inclusive, cooperative, and peaceful globe.
These habits of person in mind, intellectual, social, and ethical,
represent the core achievements of the
finest education and will make your alma mater, those who know you and who come to
know you, and you yourselves, justly proud.
Tonight we celebrate as well,
NYU Abu Dhabi.
The institution which mentored, supported, and challenged you.
And which each of you has helped shape into a distinctive and persuasive model
for higher education in this century.
I invite you to reflect with me on how
this institution was conceived, on significant transformations through
which it has matured, and on the potential it offers for persuading
higher education to accept a more deliberate role in shaping a more
responsible and more cooperative world.
NYUAD arose out of remarkable
convergence of cross-cultural vision and trust between His Highness
Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi,
and John Sexton, then president of NYU.
They imagined...they imagined NYUAD to be at once a
pioneering campus of NYU's global network
and a prominent University of this emirate, this nation, and over time of the world.
An institution devoted to uncompromising excellence in both
undergraduate education and in research, scholarship, and artistic work.
And at the same time to be a powerful incubator
of the global experience, understanding, and skill
required for responsible citizenship and leadership in today's world.
Consistent with its liberal arts tradition NYUAD
would cultivate acute analytic skills,
deep and broad intellectual understanding, and complex and sensitive ethical judgment.
It would offer opportunities for study and lived experience across the globe,
and it would distinctively enrich that educational model
through the exceptional quality of its students, faculty, and staff.
Through the rigor and ambition of its curriculum, through the close interaction of faculty
and students in the generation of knowledge and of creative forms, and
through building on campus, as a context for learning, a microcosm of a richly
diverse, deeply caring, and intentionally cooperative world.
NYUAD would be a place where the most talented, intellectually passionate, and courageous
students from more than 120 nations come together to form a community where
because no single culture is dominant, each student tests alongside the views
of classmates representing the diversity of the world, her or his own view of the
natural, the right, the beautiful, and the significant.
Of where our world most notably succeeds and fails,
of directions best to pursue.
It would be a place where faculty representing that world
would at once meet the highest standards of
professional distinction and also delight in undergraduate education in
challenging and supporting students, in transforming them into intellectual
colleagues, and in drawing on students' insights and
experience to build the faculty's own contribution to intellectual and social advance.
By integrating these distinctive strengths NYUAD would evolve
into a powerful center of educational and academic excellence that would
contribute critically to the needs of this nation and stretch perspective,
empathy, and response to the needs of the world.
Even in NYUADs first year, remarkable students, faculty, and staff in unanticipated numbers
were drawn to our community by its rare combination of
superior academic quality and
unprecedented global composition and vision.
The size of the institution increased steadily,
the educational program matured rapidly,
the expectation and opportunity for world-class research
was extended to a very large majority of our faculty,
and by 2014, the university had moved to this architecturally dynamic
and resource-rich campus on Saadiyat island.
Energized by this initial success
and compelled by commitment to place the power of higher education more fully in
the service of a better world, the community began to consider how to bring
disciplinary and multi disciplinary lenses more directly to exploring and
responding to the world's most pressing challenges such as endemic poverty and discrimination,
forced migration, disease, unconstrained technology, environmental erosion,
terrorism, and regional and international conflict.
In a major step forward towards clearer academic focus and with the strong endorsement of both
faculty and the student body, our core academic program was restructured.
First, to build an interdisciplinary foundation and then through colloquia to apply the
perspectives and analytic tools offered by that foundation to severe challenges
facing our globe.
Focusing on the challenge themselves, offered a holistic
picture of a human, environmental, and ethical risks they entail.
Under the very complex, multidisciplinary, and global nature of the solutions required to
respond effectively to those challenges.
Almost simultaneously propelled by a
generous infusion of research support from our government partners the
infrastructure of our research program was restructured as well around
themes that guide research towards areas of critical, social, and environmental action.
Governance and peace, bio innovation and health
cities, cultural heritage, and environmental sustainability.
Under each theme research centers are developing
which bring together communities of researchers from
a variety of disciplinary backgrounds to focus on that theme.
It is not surprising that a university drawn from the world and
committed to bringing its analytic powers more directly to improving that world
would restructure both its core academic program
and its research enterprise to that end.
But the convergence of that restructuring,
at the undergraduate core level and at the research level,
was a stunning moment in academic history.
In our academic history, and, perhaps, from a global educational
point of view, more generally.
And that convergence became even more significant,
as it coincided with a fresh examination of the underlying purposes and
implications of the intense cross-cultural engagement we offer our students.
We had considered the fundamental purpose of cross-cultural experience
to be developing appreciation for other cultural worlds and the
intellectual, social, aesthetic, and ethical experience, and insight those worlds bring.
But as our experience in intercultural education developed,
it became increasingly evident that the purpose of cross-cultural engagement
must be not only that of expanding appreciation of other cultural worlds,
but as significantly, or even more significantly,
of recognizing how much across those cultural worlds we, as human beings, share.
Of recognizing how much we share in the infrastructures of our conceptual,
linguistic, and emotional eyes.
In our needs for security, affiliation, and admiration.
In our enjoyment and employment of humor and beauty.
In our longings for opportunity, meaning, accomplishment, and impact.
It is that very recognition of continuity across difference that
provides the motivation and the basis for bridging seemingly unbridgeable divides.
It is that very recognition of how much we have in common
that produces the openness to connections across difference in
understanding, responsibility, and purpose, that can transform a fractious present
into a more productive, cooperative, and peaceful future.
From candidate weekends and continuing through the course
of an NYUAD education, the productive encounter with difference elicits
growing recognition of the basis for friendship, trust, care, and
mutual responsibility across that difference.
That recognition that generates a community of inclusion and of common purpose.
And anyone who worries that building common ground will transform
the world into a sea of uniformity should just take a look at the class of 2019
or at this audience in front of me today.
In fact, more than four years ago in my
concluding toast at your own candidate weekends, I reminded you, class of 2019,
that beyond your awesome skills and intellectual and creative achievement,
you are already masters of forming connections across difference.
And I promise that the more you exercise that habit of mind, the greater satisfaction
you would bring to yourselves and to the world.
Four years later, today, your mastery at this task
is more fully realized,
and you will to make use of it more determined.
And the increasing divisiveness of the world
has made all the more clear how crucial your practice
of that skill will be to your own and to our collective future.
Has these advances in NYUAD's educational perspective
gave renewed shape to our academic core,
to our research commitments, and to our student life program.
The world continued to respond with ever-increasing enthusiasm
to what NYUAD is about.
Students from around the globe expressed ever more interest in the kind of
education we offer.
Sustaining our rates of selectivity and yield in student admissions
as among the most competitive in the world.
Our graduates continued to demonstrate exceptional achievement
in post-graduate placements and in competition
for internationally prestigious awards.
Faculty from the world's most distinguished institutions
in increasing numbers sought positions here.
And NYUAD's research scholarship and artistic profile move the university
firmly onto the global stage as a center of scientific, social-scientific,
technological, and cultural advance.
And as importantly, the Abu Dhabi and UAE communities
welcomed us with increasing respect and appreciation for the
contributions NYUAD was making to a more inclusive, empowered, and
empowering knowledge-based community here.
Once again, a more clearly defined sense of educational purpose triggered
a further transformation in our perceptions of ourselves.
We dared to think and hope that our accomplishment wasn't simply the path of maturation for
this institution but, in fact, a blueprint for higher education can and
must evolve to serve an increasingly divided and vulnerable world.
Such a model would not only demand excellence in the traditional components of higher
education, but compel engagement with the critical challenges that face our globe
and empower the lease of perspective and trust that bridge the world's divides.
Together we have demonstrated here that higher education can nurture these
habits of mind and person. And, in fact, that it must for outside higher
education there is no other way to produce on the global scale required
effective agents of a more responsible and cooperative world.
How can nations be successful if their citizens are not prepared to engage with
the complexities of the fundamental challenges our world faces?
How can the world be successful if citizens and leaders are not prepared to reach across
difference, to forge common purpose in meeting those challenges?
Of course we cannot expect all institutions of higher learning
to have available the resources and support we have enjoyed.
But integrating within academics programs,
more explicit connections between disciplinary lenses, and global
challenges and emphasized practice,
I'm sorry, and emphasizing practice in
recognizing and building across difference.
What it is that we have in common
or within the capacity of any institution, no matter its resources or location.
Furthermore, I am convinced that most college-aged people around the world
are eager to build bridges of connection across difference, if given
the encouragement, the guidance, and the opportunity to do so.
Let us continue to refine and extend the model of
undergraduate education we have developed here
and in so doing, shatter the assumption that placing education
more firmly at the service of a better world will diminish its freedom or erode
its rigor or its power.
And let us hope that presenting a model of education
that more directly serves the world will increase respect for higher education in
an era when the world is rapidly losing faith in the value of undergraduate education
other than as a road to pre-professional training, and scientific and technological progress.
As I step down as Vice Chancellor, I take this opportunity to thank His Highness Sheikh
Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and John Sexton for their wisdom and their
unwavering support to NYUAD throughout its history.
To president Hamilton and NYU's leadership
for their commitment to the global network university of which you are a part.
To Khaldoon Al Mubarak, Rima Al Mukarrab, John Tate, and to Tom Kean team
for their investment of confidence, support, and guidance in this project.
And to the friends and alumni of this college, it's exceptional faculty, staff,
and students, and most importantly this evening, to the class of 2019 who have
brought our distinctive and historic institution to life.
Class of 2019, you are each amazing in what you have accomplished.
Thank you for being our students
and very soon for becoming NYUAD alums.
And especially thank you for joining and helping
to set education on a course that not only seeks
intellectual precision, depth, and breadth, but moves its graduates to extend
empathy to the world and equips its graduates to act and to inspire others
to act towards creating the kind of world that achieves what empathy demands.
Congratulations to each of you on this momentous day.
Thank you.
[ Applause ]
- Ladies and gentlemen, the president of
New York University, Andrew Hamilton.
- Your Highnesses, your excellencies, Vice
Chancellor Bloom,
colleagues, friends, and most importantly, the outstanding NYU Abu Dhabi class of 2019...
[ Cheering ]
...yes.
Now, my job tonight is twofold, it is to bring
greetings from wider NYU, but it is also
to be brief.
And let me say how thrilled
I am, my wife Jenny who's in the audience,
we are delighted to be here for this
special special evening.
We have some
work to do tonight, we have some degrees
to give out, and, wait, may I get that
process started by asking all of our
family and friends and my colleagues
behind me to give their warmest
congratulations to the graduating class
of 2019, well done!
[ Applause ]
An NYU class of 2019 you have not
made it to this point on your own you've
had the love and the support of many.
I now want you to show your thanks to all
of those in the room tonight who have
helped you to this very special place.
[ Applause ]
And ladies and gentlemen,
please forgive me if my voice is
cracking a little because we are nearing the end of NYU's marathon commencement celebrations.
We have completed
graduation ceremonies for each of NYU's
18 schools and colleges located in New
York, and then, of course, the
university-wide
commencement ceremony held at Yankee Stadium
in which NYU Abu Dhabi was well represented and in a few days,
in a few days, as you heard from
chairman Berkley, I will head to NYU Shanghai
for the final commencement of the year.
Nothing underscores NYU's global reach like my itinerary in May.
[ Laughter ]
But whether I'm speaking to the graduating classes
from the College of Arts and Science or the Tandon School of Engineering
or NYU Shanghai or indeed
NYU Abu Dhabi, one thing remains the same:
it is always thrilling to look out at
the sea of violet in front of me and to
think of the bright futures that lie
ahead for all of NYU's graduates.
In my remarks at the university-wide
commencement this year, I spoke about the
incredible upward trajectory that NYU
has undergone over these past 50 years.
I made reference to 1969 when NYU was
primarily a regional New York city-based
university that accepted close to 70% of
those who applied to it.
Well, you all know now that NYU student body today is
unmatched in its national and
international diversity, and the
acceptance rate for the New York City
campus has fallen to a record low 16%.
We're not quite at NYU Abu Dhabi's level,
but we will be soon, trust me,
we're catching up.
In metric after metric,
NYU has been on an unparalleled upward
march into the top tier of world
universities and just a glance at this
past year and the honors that our
faculty and students have received shows
that clearly.
This year we have received
a Nobel Prize, a Turing award, the
equivalent of the Nobel Prize in computer science,
a Pulitzer Prize, an
Academy Award, any of you who watch the
Oscars will remember Spike Lee dressed in a
violet suit wearing violet glasses, I'm
having my mind made right now, and
shouting from the stage of the Oscars
"NYU, NYU".
It was remarkable and among our
students, Rhodes Scholarships, yet again
and a record number of Fulbrights.
These show the talent that this university has
and it rivals any in the world.
Now looking back at these past five
decades of NYU's life, three qualities
came to my mind as being essential for
that upward trajectory that the
university has undergone. And those three
very briefly are a willingness to take
risks, number one.
Ambition, soaring ambition, number two.
And creativity, unfettered creativity, number three.
Just think about NYU's global presence guided
by the conviction that it is better to
build wall...
...it is better to build bridges
to the world that walls,
definitely others want to build walls,
NYU builds bridges.
We have created a
groundbreaking network of sites across
six continents and everyone knows that
was always the risk that that
global outreach might not succeed.
But today our global enterprise has allowed
us to create new ways of teaching,
new ways of learning and researching
across disciplines, as Vice Chancellor
Bloom so eloquently said, and also
researching, teaching, and learning across
borders.
This has helped NYU become an undisputed leader
in 21st century
education.
And there is no better proof
of that than NYU Abu Dhabi.
There are, of course, the impressive statistics:
single-digit acceptance rate, 12 Rhodes
Scholars in six years, and a number one
ranking in the UAE for producing high-
quality research.
And those rightfully a sources of great pride,
but even more important to me is that NYU Abu Dhabi
shows, again, as Al Bloom said
magnificently, that a group of people
from over a hundred and ten different
countries can come together with a
shared purpose and build a robust
community that is equipped everyone in
it to have a profound and lasting impact
on the world.
And what a testament that is
to the vision of a number, a very small number of people, the Crown Prince,
as we've heard, my predecessor John
Sexton sitting right at the back there...
[ Applause ]
...and on the front row next to Al Bloom, Khaldoon Al Mubarak, those three men
this was their vision and their
achievement, and now it is being brought
forward by the wonderful partnership
that we have with Rima Al Mukarrab,
also on the front row, and her colleagues at
Tamkeen.
NYU Abu Dhabi is in great health and I want to just single out one other person
who's in the audience tonight.
We will be talking more about Al
Bloom and his remarkable legacy at NYU Abu Dhabi
in a few moments but I want to
just ask Mariette Westerman who will
start as NYU Abu Dhabi's vice-chancellor
this summer,
Marriott, welcome, welcome, welcome!
[ Applause ]
Graduates, I said earlier that the
willingness to take risks with ambition
and creativity were essential to NYU's
successful trajectory,
well, class of 2019, I would argue that those same qualities
will also be essential to your own trajectory,
to the trajectory of your lives.
But, luckily, as NYU Abu Dhabi students you have had abundant opportunities
to develop those traits,
risk-taking, ambition, and creativity.
You needed all three of those qualities to
become students here, just as you needed
all three of them to succeed here and
you have all succeeded brilliantly.
To the class of 2019, wherever on the globe life takes you,
know that all of NYU is proud of you and sends its very best
wishes for your future careers and your
future happiness, to all of you, class of 2019,
many congratulations on your
achievements, well done!
[ Applause ]
And now, ladies and gentlemen, it's my
great honor to introduce our
distinguished keynote speaker Bonnie St.
John.
[ Applause ]
Hers is a remarkable story of courage, perseverance, and achievement.
Born with a condition that required her
to have her right leg amputated at the
age of five,
Bonnie went on to become the first
African American to win medals in Winter
Olympic competition taking home a silver
and two bronzes in the 1984
Paralympics in Innsbruck, Austria.
She went on to graduate from Harvard University Magna cum laude,
and then like two of NYU Abu Dhabi's graduating students,
she won a Rhodes scholarship to a
minor institution in the UK called Oxford.
And there she earned a Master's
degree in Economics.
Now, three US presidents have recognized
Bonnie's diverse achievements.
Bill Clinton appointed her to the White House
Economic Council,
George W. Bush honored her at a White House celebration of Black History Month,
and Barack Obama selected her as a member of his official
delegation to the Paralympic Winter Games in Vancouver.
She is the author of
seven books, and today Bonnie travels
widely as a leadership consultant and a
keynote speaker.
We are so pleased to welcome her to the podium,
she is someone
who embodies NYU's motto:
"perstare et praestare",
to persevere and to excel.
Our keynote speaker Bonnie St. John.
[ Applause ]
- Greetings, your Highnesses, your Excellencies,
parents, faculty, and, of course, the class of 2019.
Yes, you can cheer!
[ Applause ]
It is customary in my position to be
congratulating you on your achievement.
And you have all worked very hard, some of you have made it look easy,
some of you have struggled, some of you may have left and come back,
some of you have parents either here or somewhere
far away thinking it is a miracle that you made it.
[ Laughter ]
But you all made it to this incredible day.
But I find myself feeling rather than congratulating you, the
emotion that I feel more strongly is a sense of gratitude.
I have to say I've spoken at other graduations,
and it's palpably different.
I feel that I need to thank you for being willing
to take a risk, as has been said, to join in this
incredible cutting-edge project to redefine what education looks like,
to create a truly global education.
People have talked about how wonderful it is to
sit in the cafeteria late at night talking to people from 20 countries
but I got to imagine at times it was hard!
That you felt insulted by something someone said.
And they didn't even realize they'd insulted you.
To be hurt, to hurt, to hurt others, to fight,
I can't imagine it was always easy.
But to come together to build bridges across
so many cultures to learn, to have empathy,
to stretch your minds in incredible ways.
Coming here, my husband and I came, my husband Alan is in the audience,
and...yeah you can cheer for him.
[ Laughter ]
[ Applause ]
We've spent a couple of days here, we've talked to some students and faculty
members, and, just...
...we've had to stretch our minds.
To understand what happens here, and I know I've only had a small taste, but the
conversations...education is so much about conversation and what you learn from
each other. And to have 10 students in a room and have 10 countries represented
is a very different conversation than what most of the students around the
world are having.
This is a truly extraordinary place that has been
created. And so I thank the students for being willing to participate in the
creation of this amazing place.
I thank you for coming, and staying, and creating.
And, of course, I think the faculty and the trustees, and all of the people who
make this possible, and also the parents who...
[ Applause ]
...go ahead you can cheer for parents!
[ Applause ]
Who had to trust and, in many cases, send you far away and the student speakers
talked about the long-distance relationships and all of the challenges
that entails. And so the creation of this amazing space really comes down to all
of you taking risks, putting in the effort, and being courageous.
I want to share a story with you from being at the Olympics.
When I was selected for the US team,
I was the third-ranked one-legged woman in the United States in Alpine skiing.
Now that was a good thing because they
only took three one-legged women on the US team.
[ Laughter ]
So, after years of training, and I
grew up in San Diego, California, where there's no snow, so I had to leave home
to ski. So I moved to different places, I waited tables, I looked for sponsors,
I had to work very hard. People say it's difficult to ski on one leg,
it's really difficult to ski when your family has no money.
[ Laughter ]
So I had to work hard and be creative
to make it possible and I broke my leg at one point,
I had many setbacks, but I finally made it to be on the US team going to
the Paralympics in Innsbruck, Austria.
I had my team uniform, my ticket to Innsbruck,
and my mother came with me. It was the first time my mother had ever seen
me in a ski race. We didn't have ski races in San Diego, she was a single mom
and a schoolteacher, so she wasn't traveling around with me skiing.
When she came to Innsbruck it was the first time she would get to see me actually race.
And I had no thought of winning, if you're the third ranked woman in the US,
no one thinks you're gonna beat your own team members, never mind anyone else.
But I had trained all summer on a glacier. I had gotten very strong and I had trained
with two-legged skiers and just really pushed myself to raise the bar.
So when I finished the first run of the slalom race,
the slalom is that tight turns around the red and blue poles,
when I finished the first run of the first race,
the times were posted and my time was
number one in the world.
It was a complete upset.
[ Laughter ]
[ Applause ]
But it...to win a medal it takes two runs:
you have to go back and do it again.
Now I don't know how many
ski racers or skiers we have in Abu Dhabi,
how many skiers do we have here?
Few.
So those of you who ski, may realize that you can't...the second run is never
like the first. Because after the first run the snow is all chewed up, the course
is destroyed, so they have to set a new course that is entirely different.
So as I'm waiting for the second run, I'm thinking:
"I'm in first place! I'm gonna take home the gold medal!
This is incredible beyond my wildest dreams!"
And I'm standing there waiting, a few other women go down before me and they report
back up to the top of the hill that they're crashing.
On this new course there's this dangerous icy spot
and people are falling. Everybody's skiing on
one leg you try to hold on but they fall down. So, I'm at the top thinking I just
have to stay standing, I don't...I don't have to do anything crazy, I just have to
stay standing and I could win.
Now, I was sponsored by a national, a US-based Black Ski Organization.
A lot of people think black people don't ski but there
were 33 members of this organization that had sponsored me there to cheer me on,
so my teammates said: "Bonnie, you have a really big family!"
Because these black people all stood out, right?
[ Laughter ]
But I wasn't paying attention to that, I just, I knew I needed to concentrate and and go for the
gold, so, I get to the point where I'm standing in the starting gate and the
race officials counting down "3, 2, 1, go!"
I hit the timing wand I'm hitting the red
and blue bamboo poles, I get to where I can see the finish line and I think: "I've made it!"
"I'm over the ice, I'm gonna win!"
And that's when I fell.
I was so close I could taste victory.
And I found myself sitting on my rear end in the snow.
In that moment I just wanted to collect...I just wanted to crawl away and disappear.
I didn't want to have to face my teammates, my coaches, my mother.
But before I could make a decision about what I would do, my training took over
and I jumped up, grabbed my equipment, and got over the finish line.
When the dust cleared and they posted all the times,
my time was still in third place.
I won a bronze medal. I got to stand on the winner's podium.
The US flag waving behind me, my mother crying in the snow...
but it wouldn't have happened if I had given up when things didn't look promising.
Now, I think it's interesting
what got me through that moment wasn't a decision that I made, it was my training.
It was the ability, without thinking, to do the right thing.
And I think that's so powerful,
that's a gift that you've gotten here.
That your instincts will be
different because of how you've been shaped in the last four years.
In some of the toughest moments that you will have as leaders,
as conveners, as decision-makers,
as people who impact the world, some of the most difficult decisions you
make will be how you treat another person in the blink of an eye.
And that will be different because you were here.
You will have the instinct to get up when you fall down.
Not to stay down, not to hide,
not to run, not to escape a difficult situation
but to get up and get over the finish line because of what
you've become here, because of your training.
You are the change,
you are what is different in the world, what is needed in the world today.
So many of the speeches have exhorted you to go out and change the world.
And you will because you are the change.
You can try to change the world
but I don't think you can fail to change the world
because you are the change.
[ Applause ]
As I stood on the winner's podium accepting my bronze medal in that race,
I thought about the women who won the gold.
Coulda, woulda, shoulda, right?
And I realized,
I'd beat her when nothing went wrong.
I had the fastest slalom, I was the best slalom skier in the world.
She also fell in the second run, so she didn't beat me by not falling in the second run,
she didn't beat me by being a better skier,
how did she beat me?
"She got out faster", someone said.
She won the gold medal in the world for being the quicker getter-upper?
[ Laughter ]
[ Applause ]
It speaks to the importance of resilience.
You will go out in the world from here,
and you will have a greater resilience because you carry with you
the stories, the dreams, the perspectives of the world.
You have the ability to be more resilient in more situations.
But you also...you will fall down.
I had the privilege earlier today to sit down with some of your classmates and
ask them, what should I say in my speech.
And part of what they talked about was
how much pressure that you do feel, that you all feel that you have to go out and
solve all the problems that we created.
[ Laughter ]
[ Applause ]
So I tell you, you are the change.
You cannot fail to make the world better by
just who you are and how you...how you be in the world but also know that
as you go out you will fall down.
And you will get up again and sometimes you will
get up fast, but sometimes it will take a season to get up.
It won't always look like you are changing the world,
know that you are always changing the world
by everything you do. And you'll have some seasons where you're raising
children, whether you're a woman or a man, you may leave the workforce and be
raising children for a season.
You may fail in a job or a project and take a
little while to get back on track.
You will go through many seasons.
It won't always look like you are doing what we all expect you to do,
but it's important to understand that you are.
I wrote a whole article on the difference between
looking extraordinary and being extraordinary.
It's qz.com, if you want to look it up,
it's in the Atlantic Monthly.
[ Laughter ]
No, no, because it's an important discussion
about the difference between being
extraordinary and looking extraordinary.
And because you have so much social
media, and so much pressure, and so much connectedness, you often will feel
that you have to solve all of these problems.
Tomorrow you have to be a world
leader and you have to change everything, it takes time.
It won't always look like
you are changing the world but even if you are full-time raising a child, you're
raising that child differently because of all of your classmates will
be helping to raise that child.
Their thoughts, their cares, the late-night conversations
will be poured into that child and they will be raised differently.
If you have failed at a project, you will be learning from that
project and regrouping to become the person you need to be at a later stage.
You won't always look like you're changing the world but trust me, you are.
And it's important to be patient with yourself because if you are too obsessed
with looking like you are changing the world, you won't.
Am i right?
If you are too obsessed with looking like you are changing the world,
you can't possibly do it.
It's giving yourself the time to listen, it's giving
yourself the time to grow, to gain the different experiences you need to put
together to do what you need to do at different points in time.
This vision, this incredible vision of where we are and what we're doing here
was not built in a night, was not built in a year.
Vision takes time and takes
everything you are and everything you become to put together.
So you will fall down many times, and you will get up, and you will not always look as though
you are doing what you promised all of these people here you would do with this education.
But you are the change.
You cannot help but change the world by who you are
and what you have done here.
So I thank you not only for coming to NYU Abu Dhabi,
I thank you for leaving.
[ Applause ]
One of the questions one of the students asked me today was:
"How do I go back once I've been here
and had this conversation where a hundred different perspectives
are valued, and listened to, and, you know, merged,
how do I go back to a place where people don't understand,
people don't respect other people's small-minded views,
how do I go back, what do I say to those people?"
And it made me realize that almost anywhere you go from here
will be less diverse, will be less accepting, will be less evolved.
And I heard the pain of the student telling me this,
"how do I leave?"
Forgive me if I use a biblical reference
from my own framework, "how do I leave the Garden of Eden
and go back into the world?"
You're gonna have to be patient with yourself and
with each other, you're going to have to fall down and get up.
You're not always going to look like you're making change
but have faith that you are.
I want to leave you with something that a coach said to me, Warren Whetherell.
And he was not just a ski coach, he was a game changer.
He created a school that was an innovative school like this one.
It was a high school for ski racers.
And prior to this high school for ski racers in the US, the United States Ski Team had had
a difficult time keeping pace with Europe.
We didn't...we didn't create as many Alpine Olympic winners
but since that school was created, we've had
people competing in the Olympics, Mikaela Shiffrin, last Olympics.
It's been a training ground for champions.
So when I was at the school, I got a full scholarship to go to the school.
I broke my leg, actually, on the first day of school, my only leg...
[ Laughter ]
...that's another story.
But while I was at the school, you know, I would ask Warren Whetherall
things like "how do I wax my skis?", you know.
20 years later I got a phone call and he asked me to come back.
He was working as the headmaster of a school in Colorado at that point,
starting a new school and he asked me to come and speak at graduation.
And I flew out to Denver and I had to drive for five hours
with him up to the mountains to get to the school.
one of the students asked me earlier
today how did you go from college and
graduate school and then you went to
work for IBM and then you went to work
for the government in economics and then
you started your own business how did
you do so many different things and I
said you can only do what I did if you
are really willing to look stupid most
people stay in one area because they get
strength and they become professional
and they have their accomplishments and
they don't want to leave and go
somewhere where they will start over and
look stupid and make mistakes I did when
I made those transitions I fell down I
got back up and so the willingness to do
that is such a key part of what it will
take for you to make change so this is
your community of Champions but I also
want you to think about creating your
own communities of Champions wherever
you go because you cannot by yourself
make the change that you want to make
but you can convene groups of people you
can help groups of people to connect
with other parts of the world you can
help create the kinds of conversations
you've had here in other places you
can't force other people to understand
what you learned here but you can help
create the conditions in which they can
learn the same things too you can create
communities of Champions for other
people that you encounter and in the
places that you go you can create the
conversations that will change the world
so if I leave you with nothing else you
are the change you can't help it so stop
stressing about it stop stressing about
being the person that will change the
world
you are you can't help it know that you
will not always look like you are
changing the world and yet you are you
will fall down you will mess up you will
have to pull yourself back together and
tape yourself back together so stay in
touch with your community of Champions
here because they will help you do it
and they will be able to say yeah I did
that too
fall down get up build communities of
Champions
wherever you go and thank you you have
already changed the world
I have to say one more thing I wanted to
say I'm so excited that you're joining
the NYU family but we are - our youngest
daughter is starting at NYU New York in
fall and accept accept that she'll spend
her first year in Paris and so she too
will get a taste of being a global
student at NYU and we are so happy to be
part of the family
thank you mommy st. John in appreciation
for your inspiring and memorable words
and a recognition of your extraordinary
contributions towards a more inclusive
and empowered world on behalf of the NYU
Abu Dhabi and NYU u NY New York
University it is our great privilege to
confer upon you the NYU Abu Dhabi Global
Leadership Award
it is our ardent hope that this award
will bring you even closer to help us
form the my UAE community that you speak
so hyoyeon's thank you
ladies and gentlemen this evening we are
celebrating a great milestone for our
graduates as they begin a new chapter in
their lives but there is someone else
actually there are two people in the NYU
Abu Dhabi community al bloom and Peggy
bloom who are also embarking on a new
chapter in their lives as al bloom
prepares to step down after serving for
more than a decade as NYU Abu Dhabi's
inaugural vice-chancellor he leaves a
tremendous legacy magnificent legacy at
this institution he helped take NYU Abu
Dhabi from a vision to a reality and his
vigorous standards of academic
excellence his personal integrity and
his unwavering belief in the power of
global education set the course for NYU
Abu Dhabi's amazing success he has laid
the strongest of foundations on which
his successor can now build now we have
a special thank you tribute video to
Vice Chancellor al bloom from his many
friends in Abu Dhabi
I'm honored to call al Blum a very dear
friend and join all his many friends
here in Abu Dhabi celebrating his many
accomplishments as founding
vice-chancellor of NYU Abu Dhabi over
the course of his career now Pattabhi he
has challenged young minds and made the
university an exciting place for
students staff and faculty NYU Abu Dhabi
has become an important academic and
cultural landmark of the UAE and example
of tolerance and the genuine expression
of human fertility in their programs it
offers for all staff to learn and to
improve their prospects in work and in
life
NYU Abu Dhabi also does what a lot of
good universities should do which is
basically enrich their surroundings
and I think this is done actively
through quite excellent speakers
programs being part and parcel of the
community this mix really of education
plus social interaction plus ability to
create and express views and so on so
forth is a happy mix and I think this is
really because of alumina and others how
made NYU ID what it is today because he
has at his heart a humanist he put
students he put academic life he put
everything that's important about NYU ad
before himself and that essential
humility combined with the intellectual
rigor and frankly intellectual honesty
that he has is really what made him the
perfect person to lead I'll built built
it in a way that you feel that it's a
base that many young people aspire to be
in
to be to study and why you up will I be
or to to perform its in its art centers
I'll did create a beautiful legacy I'm
sure he's gonna look back as mine we're
gonna look back at adds legacy inspired
I'll coined the term ethical
intelligence driving the idea that
society should bridge the gap between
the intention and the outcome of their
actions focusing on the true purpose of
those actions the UAE is looking at its
role in the region and the world in the
same way it's one of the reasons the UAE
and NYU collaboration on NYU ad works so
well he had this personality which is
very friendly and open and ready to be
there every day every minute not as a
president or a vice chancellor sitting
in the in an ivory tower distant from
what is happening around him and the
fact that academically he was very
serious so he knew what was expected was
to create truly this dream of a
first-class educational institution that
could compete globally his passion that
came from from a deep commitment to the
institution but but more importantly to
the people and you talked to anybody
that's interacted with out over the last
ten years from former students to
current students to faculty former and
current
there is such a deep appreciation for
him and for the role he plays daily ours
has been an amazing individual but you
know it comes also hand-in-hand with
with Peggy her role in the institution
in the wider community with all the
stakeholders also cannot be forgotten
that desire to connect with the
individual to understand them without
trying to convert them to their point of
view I mean that's the real definition
of cosmopolitanism if you're already
that way yourself and you embody that
and you're living by example for the
students and you're teaching them how to
be that way then there's an enormous
amount of hope for the future I mean I
love him we all love Him is the original
the original pioneer and to give 10
years of unflagging commitment is really
something that we and UAE have so much
gratitude for
we truly appreciate what he in what he
accomplished and because of his
leadership this is what and why you are
oblivious today
well thank you for having devoted the
last 10 years of your life to creating
something that I think will outlive all
of us
you've helped change the face of Abu
Dhabi you've helped to educate our kids
our friends you've created a community
at times maybe it seemed effortless but
I'm sure it was quite tough Thank You al
thank you for the leadership you have
shown at NYU I would love you since day
one
NYU I will W will continue to grow
because of the legacy you are leaving
behind thank you very much
first of all for being such a true
friend and thank you for making this
dream come true that will have an impact
on the region in the UAE as a whole was
you a huge debt of gratitude we were so
lucky to have you and Peggy and I
personally will miss you my friend and I
hope that you always feel welcome and
keep returning to UAE you're now part of
our history you're part of the fabric
it's been an amazing journey and you've
been a great leader
we will deeply miss you but at the same
time you will always have a place here
and in your second home I really miss
sitting next to you al during the Art
Center performances the laughs and the
cries and the claps something we shared
and
please know that you'll have friends for
life my dear thank you very much for
what you've done to the league and your
contribution much appreciated by
everybody god bless you my dear friend
thank you all so deeply appreciate
having known you having worked with you
seeing what all of you looking will
accomplish as this school grows on as
the UAE continues to great gain great
contribution from its presence here but
also to add its confidence and its
belief in an way you rapid re you are an
amazing community and one that will just
create as our speaker spoke to amazing
communities in its future which will
continue to spread across the world so
thank you all ladies and gentlemen the
deans of each division will now present
their candidates for all degrees in
course to president Hamilton all
candidates and their guests are
requested to remain at their seats until
the end of the presentations which are
followed by the official conferring of
all degrees by president Hamilton
Pinelli kokkonen interim dean of arts
and humanities
president Hamilton Vice Chancellor bloom
I am honored to present to you the
candidates for the bachelor's degree in
the arts and humanities
Lorraine a Brar Mira aljalja Roger
al-mansouri
matha al Sayyed Mohammad r-ucifee Sarah
Elmira
May bajo margarita BTech
Willem James can't
Jacob Shimon bar Chapman Yun dong zhuo
Leon choy chanooka Korea Victoria
Critchlow David carrucha Beth Sarah
daher our third Oliveira rain DeFranco
Jack Delano dou Xiao Xiao
Josefina do mine
Anita douche cava Lina el Moussa Gorga
lie
Leslie gray Alice one lay Inara me smile
Hawking Conqueror
Ethan David Lee Alena makka local fish
maria lara Mirabelli and Ramadi my
amorous Lee Aram Nagi
Sakura Kanaka talents are Mary koneko
Julia piss calisca ir a-- she'd Rivera's
dan kita sir our Josie Suganya Sutra he
father safar
Diana Yahoo qingxue Luis Carlos
sahtouris Angela marina
squillacote Qi or Shia Santo
hamaji idea book Vuckovich Simon wilts
Jane one you yard run
and Robin's our subordinates Dean of
engineering president Hamilton Vice
Chancellor bloom am honored to present
to you the candidates for the degree of
bachelor in engineering I'm Ali my alma
Yahoo a baby
Mohammed Moony Basel ahead of met Maria
Miller Moody
nah he'll miss Roy Sarah
Avari Hany Hassan Al Hassan II know
royal mummy and Massey Ben say hi Raja
Akina and bogu a melba dream
Alberto Castillo good chef Daniel Sarita
amarga mean hello voluma Stefan halter
Mohammed mobile Peter even Oh Janet
Jackson son Sookie kisara
Raghav Kenya Mohamed Osama hon Walker
fun
Raghav Kumar
Veronica Lee Alexander McKay pratik my
surya
Pranav meta Chandan Mishra Stephanie
house
Victor ACOs Joseph Opie right is Packers
up the rough man
Elbert Ruka purl row area federal sign
the Mujahideen Herbert sorry Georgie
simmer jaga Narayanan Subramanian
who said engineers are boring
sad Sultan on a song quest
Halil would cool
which now smile Jotham sajan varghese
congratulations to all david chiquita no
dean of science president hamilton vice
chancellor bloom i'm honored to present
to you the candidates for the bachelor's
degree in the areas of science and
mathematics elise i falda harry khalid
al khazzani muna al Kazaam
use an owl odds learning Fatima al shami
Jude Alhaji Ghani BA Ali Sarah
Alma's Rui Sandra and rich hulu cow
arroz Aslan Ian Thomas Bach horse
Alexandra Cristina borrow Vaska Shawn -
no Bhatia
sandra Boutros Janish allah
you know Chang Christine dianchang
Raluca Georgia Dugan Sabina Faisal GU
you fun suniye Farouk Melissa Guyot
t Tosca Reba Tamara gorg Ava mean ago no
coochie hoof aigoo Sneha Diwali empty Oz
Brioni
we're hang her William held Supriya
commas in a carpet on Chooch anastacio
Connors Java Priyanka Luciani Sooyoung
Lee Lee Wendy greener Lin Lin Joo Nisha
Manali tuba mari
Taylor Jade McCarty Liam Meyer sand
Meyers Brandon mo Chama Hayden mount
Castle layin knife Ella no Neela no moon
a chisel Medici Danielle Obagi
Emile goldsmith elacin Sharon cue Aaron
Sam Rodriguez me a cow Rosenthal
Safa Sal in Miraflores illa Santos
ishani son Simon me all gone saw
Jinjiang Nadine Solomon Theodore Kenneth
Cynthia Shindong Alejandra Trejo
Rodriguez
Alexandra or bonnachoven nada
warty shoonya Watanabe Alvaro Yanis
j1u Rivas are far ahead
Pisan heteros Eddie and limbs you
congratulations to everyone
f guess the Dean of Social Sciences
resident Hamilton Vice Chancellor bloom
and honored to present to you the
candidates for the bachelor's degree in
social science alia boot Nikolas
adesh VD Miren Aguilera da
la Mohammed Ali Shah alpha him oh yeah
yeah - Alireza
alpha Rossi Amal Algar GUI majira Al
Maktoum Haneen and women Fatima
al-zahraa maryam al-haj omar al Marzuki
alia and heavy
Sarah Alma Harry Asia all sweaty
Sarah are shimmery cinereous amine Keith
Anto Mahad Asghar Firoz Ashraf I Donna a
Silva cava Virasat wah
may our only Nina
Bambi Shiva gigs Bunga Jakub Aleksandr
borovsky vallata Benoir Raja Bhandari
Gloria bill Billy all done up in Jaffa
daniyar voltage by F sarahbooth Jakub or
Ryan Braun Flavius Reseda huge in show
Laura Alexandra billing Shahi ba him
Elsa we Hasan Ryan Shaka we just lean
Estes Cristobal is TV
Yasu fafa Bora Maria Dolores Fernandez
Flores
Shinichi ofuji Fatima side kibosh
Changsha go fatty hello blue Abraham of
bacillus a head room
hi MA human give Akashi Jessica Ibaka is
a Rabia Imran
Danya is Milan Han Jiang nan Jiang Atoka
Joe mia Johnston Joseph Kahn Oracle
Philip can Faustina Rebecca hace la ruta
caboose Katie Tom Oh Kohala Nadine and
de la see Alan alibied Eva
jean-jacques Lee
Marion lap Enrique Lopez de la pena
Kristina Lowe Puyo if Han maritally
Matilde money
Varda Malik cinema James Kirk Edwin
burrows Mariano Alexandre Markov Hannah
Melvin ray I've met mesh life
yello-ha Maggio jung-hoon Oh Erik Olson
Manas pant marina
Esmeralda Papadimitriou Penelope pang or
exam de Petrus or exam ha please go
each in the Hannukah Hannukah Nicola
Rousseau or exam Hara svenska Diego
Sandoval kashish a jet a Sherpa she can
Nikolai tow
Michael tapas
Mohammed - life
Julia - Katy Chris wheeler
Stanislav Henrik villain Burak Abigail
Wilson Tara's Inman Wang Xun you a shoe
Jansen young Thomas Yates
licinia's Arianna ELISA you
Chao Ying way Kandice chuh chuh
anastacio Zuber ava mabuki
ladies and gentlemen Provost Fabio piano
we now proceed to the formal conferral
of degrees and in keeping with the
tradition of New York University we
highlight this important moment in our
ceremony by the passing of the New York
University Abu Dhabi torch as in New
York the torch is the symbol of learning
the torch will be passed from a member
of this year's graduating class to a
member of next year's graduating class
on stage now holding the University
torch is christine chang as president
hamilton confers the degrees the torch
will be passed from christine chang a
member of the graduating class to m
matachi a member of the class of 2020
may I ask all of the candidates for
degrees to now rise for the conferring
of degrees in course by president
Hamilton members of the NYU Abu Dhabi
class of 2019 through your successful
efforts as certified by the
recommendations of your Dean's you have
met the requirements and thus deserve to
risk
this hallmark of New York University
abu-dhabi
by virtue of the authority vested in me
by the trustees of New York University I
now admit you to the degrees for which
you have been recommended candidates
it's official congratulations
ladies and gentlemen please welcome the
cast of the New York University Abu
Dhabi real ad show who will now perform
we are not strangers
every sniper takes you farther from the
world I know searching the palace I feel
like I'm here on
do I
this chapter
after
this a friend why should we say the same
but can we gain if we're not open to
change Oh panting you lies you raise
your hands
we've got to move forwards the only way
we'll take chances one seven
we are not strange
not stranger
we see the same feel the same sauna when
we wake up all recognize
we are not strangers
we celebrate our lives and every choice
that we make open your doors our eyes
breathing and decide to leave the walls
we being
my Nana
we are not trained
not stranger
I can hear it that song that tomorrow
sing I listen to adapt to adaptation
revelation this is how we generate our
generation
we are not strangers
not stranger
we see the same moon feel the same Sun
and when we wake up already nice we are
not strangers
not stranger
not strangers
not stranger
ladies and gentlemen this concludes 2019
commencement exercises of New York
University Abu Dhabi degree candidates
and guests are asked to remain at their
seats until the procession has left the
hall
