The first meeting of the First Year Planning Committee was held on Tuesday, Oct. 10. The committee, responsible for crafting and organizing events for freshman students and voicing freshman concerns in the student government, is chaired by Class of 2021 Representative Carlos Riofrio. There were over 28 students in attendance, a turnout Riofio called “unprecedented compared to previous years.” This year is the first time that applications for the committee are open to all students in the class, which was likely the cause of Tuesday’s robust attendance.

In addition to a promising turnout, the meeting was productive in identifying the committee’s first project, tentatively planned for some time this month. The event will be a reincarnation of a phone home event from previous years; international phone lines will be available to students to call home for free and contact relatives who may not use internet-based apps like Facetime and Skype. Riofrio said he is “optimistic about the committee’s ability to ... improve the freshman first year experience” and “excited to get to work.”

As part of an ongoing partnership between the NYUAD Music Program and Abu Dhabi Classics facilitated by Assistant Professor of Music Gwyneth Bravo, 121 NYUAD students and 12 faculty and community members attended a concert on Friday night at Emirates Palace featuring the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra in a program of works that included Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No.2 and Johannes Brahms’ First Symphony. Student tickets were available for only 50 AED with support from the Music Program, which provided transportation. Students took the opportunity to dress up and filled five buses to the Emirates Palace. The concert was a good opportunity for both musically experienced students to enjoy the intricacies of performance and less experienced listeners to be exposed to classical music.

“The concert was a really cool experience. The music allowed for a much needed break from studying for midterms, and the Emirates Palace is amazing,” said Samantha Jasen, Class of 2021.

“The orchestra was amazing, especially the Rachmaninoff. The pianist, Nicholas Angelich, was so good that the audience demanded an encore,” said Ramón Wrzosek, Class of 2021.

“For me, the most wonderful aspect of attending these concerts is seeing the joy it brings to our students and how it serves as an important space for relationship-building among our students and faculty, as well as with the members of the Abu Dhabi community,” wrote Bravo, who has been responsible for facilitating the program since its inception four years ago.

Bravo confirmed that the next concert open for NYUAD students at Emirates Palace will take place during the first week of December and will be announced soon.

On Monday afternoon, the Fall Fitness Games took place in the performance gymnasium to raise awareness for breast cancer. Students participated in a wide range of athletic events, bonding with other members of the community and contributing their time and effort for the cause.

“In previous games, we would have 40 to 50 people show up but this year we had 72 participants and some spectators. In total, we had about 100 members of the community, including Fitness Center staff, students and faculty, which is a record for the Fitness and Wellness Department,” said Carlos Escobar, Class of 2018 and an organizer of the event.

The organizers of the games are hoping that the event continues to grow, boosting awareness and community bonds. Next year Escobar hopes to have even more participants, as the games are “a fun and nice way to exercise and meet members of the community.”

On Saturday afternoon, students hoping to cross through the marketplace found themselves unable to do so as it was packed with participants from the Technical and Vocational Education Training Youth Forum. The first TVET Youth Forum on campus took place on Aug. 15, working toward preparing a presentation for global ministers at the WorldSkills Abu Dhabi event beginning on Oct. 15. WorldSkills Abu Dhabi is expected to attract more than 1,200 vocational students from 77 countries to Abu Dhabi to compete in simulated work challenges in TVET fields. Saturday’s forum was attended by more than 80 UAE Nationals and youth from more than 50 countries online, as per the Abu Dhabi Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training Twitter feed.