Via NYUAD Public Affairs

Early this month, two NYU Abu Dhabi students were named the inaugural Falcon Scholars, an independent scholarship administered by the Rhodes Trust. Seniors Charlotte Wang and Shamma Sohail Al Mazrui will be a part of the same Oxford College program as their Rhodes-scholar counterparts. The program and was created to allow UAE students, who would otherwise be ineligible, access to the prestigious program.

The scholarships are not awarded on a purely academic basis but also take into account demonstrations of leadership and participation in the intellectual community.

According to the Rhodes Trust website, “the Selection Committee will be seeking young women and men of outstanding intellect, character, leadership, and commitment to service.”

This is the first year the scholarships have been awarded, part of a trial period for the trust to determine whether a permanent program would be created. A maximum of two scholarships are to be awarded each year and are contingent upon acceptance to an Oxford University program.

Wang, who was born in Austria but mainly lived in the United States, developed a deep curiosity for the differences between societies as she travelled and met family members from China and Taiwan. This led to her passion for sociology, which she credits to a select group of faculty.

“The moment when I became really inspired and really understood what sociology was, was when I was working as a research and teaching assistant at Princeton with a couple of my classmates … we were working on this online course called Introduction to Sociology, one of those massive online courses … and [the professor] gave a lecture about what sociology is and what the sociological imagination is,” Wang said.

Wang is currently majoring in Social Research and Public Policy and completing her capstone project on religious communities in Abu Dhabi.

“My capstone is more about storytelling and about how the telling of stories helps [people] form a community and how the way you tell your life history changes once you’ve converted from not having a religion to having a religion or changing from one religion to another,” said Wang.

By being part of the inaugural class of NYUAD, Wang has had the opportunity to shape the university into the kind of community she wants to live. She cites her experience as a senior editor of the NYU Abu Dhabi Journal of Social Sciences as an important part of building the intellectual space in which student research can be shared and discussed.

Outside of the academic realm, Wang is a long-time cello player, leads the curriculum development team for Advocacy’s English as Second Language program and has been involved with numerous other Student Interest Groups during her time at NYUAD.

On her end, Al Mazrui, an Economics major, has focused her work on gender inequality in the Emirati workforce. With the vast majority of Emiratis working in government jobs, unemployment has begun to rise as the public sector has become saturated with university graduates while the private sector remains dominated by expatriates. Of these unemployed Emiratis, most are female.

“Two-thirds of university graduates are female … they are more educated, so why are they not working?” asks Al Mazrui. “I am a believer in the power of education and self-actualization. I want to set an example for Emirati females.”

Al Mazrui is grateful for the experience NYUAD has given her, explaining that she had many opportunities here that she would not have had in other universities in the UAE.

Wang expressed a similar sentiment.

“We have an incredible education. It is one of the only educational institutions in the world where, regardless where you come from, you have an equal opportunity — at least within the school — to grow in certain ways, [to] have research opportunities and [to] take all these courses.”

“It’s such an incredible opportunity and I’m really happy to be going with Shamma and Alex. It will be a good way to stay connected to our experiences here and the community here,” Wang said.