Midterms…! Excuse me? Where in the world did the time go! I just finished learning all of my classmates’ names, and you speak of midterms! For shame! That is just how quickly time flies around here. You haven’t seen how fast time can fly until you’ve been in New York City (NYC).
With weeks full of academics, a job, a play, and tutoring, I have no need to wish for the weekend to hurry and get here, because I know it will arrive before I know it. I believe that being in NYC as a visiting student heightens this sense of time speeding by because you want to do it all. I’ve been to plays, lectures, and conferences while trying to keep up with everything else. I will not make you believe that I have some magical plan that I use to organize my life because I don’t. I often find myself working until the last moments towards a deadline and running (I’m not kidding) from place to place. I make it work with my Google Calendar, my Passion Planner (a free giveaway from NYU), good walking shoes, water, and lots of prayer. All of these are necessary when you become a NYC juggler. Don’t come to NYU without tools for juggling.
I may have just scared you away, but I want you to know that you will not be alone. When I first arrived at New York University, I reached out to our dear President Mary Schmidt Campbell to ask if she had any resources for me to contact. President Campbell, being the former Dean of NYU Tisch School of the Arts, connected me to Dean Sherrill Antonio and Dean Kaiko Hayes. These two women opened their arms as wide as they could, and welcomed me wholeheartedly into NYU. They love President Campbell and they love Spelman women.
Through them, I and the other Spelman and Morehouse domestic exchange students were able to have lunch with Spike Lee, and attend one of his graduate level lectures. Can you say #momentofalifetime! They will be a great resource for you. You also have available to you Dean Fatiah Touray, who is currently the liaison between Spelman College and NYU. A fun fact is that as an undergrad at NYU, she participated in domestic exchange to Spelman. She understands the major shock that can occur when moving from our beloved gated school of 2,000 women to the city-wide school of over 40,000 students. When the lightning-speed pace of NYC gets to you, she will be a great resource to speak to as well. More importantly, you may have Spelman sisters who are here in graduate programs as well. Jaycee Holmes and Ari D. Knox are the sisters here currently guiding me through my journey. Make sure to reach out via alumnae networks to make these connections during exchange.
I had the opportunity to attend an event, Afrotectopia, that Jaycee helped plan through Tisch’s (Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP). Anyone of my friends can tell you that I am not too keen on technology, but this conference had me sold. These black sisters and brothers were teaching me about Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR) and teaching coding in a way that non-techies can really understand. Then, there were Lighting Talks at which young entrepreneurs came and spoke about merging their artwork with technology, and how they made it work for them in spaces that weren’t created for them. IF YOU PARTICIPATE IN DOMESTIC EXCHANGE AT NYU, YOU MUST COME TO THIS CONFERENCE!!!!
All in all, NYU has been a breathtaking experience, and I’m using every single resource before I get up outta here! #domesticexchangechangeslives