While You Were Here

You are exceptional. You are angry. You are a woman. You are a millenial. You are queer. You are going places. You are liberal. You are privileged. You are cynical. You are trans. You are ugly. You are brown. You are an artist. You are limitless. You are a minority. You are arrogant. You are going to change the world. You are average. You are an entrepreneur. You are skinny. You are black. You are young. You are blissful. You are straight. You are fat. You are transcendent. You are basic. You are a man. You are brown. You are rich. You are radical. You are a scientist. You are conservative. You are unique. You are sad. You are a leader. You are white. You are gay. You are ignorant. You are not good enough. You are naive. You are an inspiration. You are shallow. You are full of life. You are rebellious. You are cynical. You are fluid. You are bi. You are enlightened. You are here.

W h i l eY o u

W e r eH e r e

You are here. You are at the end of one chapter and the beginning of another. For the

past four years, you have been walking the streets of Greenwich Village and writing the

story of your college life.

And for all the time you have spent at NYU, the word “student” does not even begin to

encompass going to college in this city. When you walk out of your dorm you are part of the city. You have done it all — the jobs, the in-ternships — but most importantly you have

connected with those around you.

The friendships, relationships, break-ups, drunken adventures have all become a part of you. These moments will follow you wherever

you decide to go.

Over the past four years you have made your mark on NYU and it has made its mark on

you. You are here. You are on the precipice of life outside the college bubble.

As you leave these four years behind you, I hope this issue serves as a reminder of your

experiences while you were here.

-VALENTINA DUQUE BOJANINIEditor-in-Chief

You have made your

M A R K

They tell you that you are all these things.What is the only truth? You are Here

c o n g r a t u l a t i o n s

c l a s so f

2 0 1 5

PHOTO VIA FLICKR

Andrew Ark

CAS, Economics

Megha Sachdeva

Stern, Business and Political Economy

S: Any advice for young Sternies out there?M: Young Sternies? Get out of the building and go get a life. Everyone just cares so much about the job they’re gonna get or the future that they forget that NYU is bigger than Stern and the city is bigger than NYU and the world is bigger than the city. I want people to go out and explore and go on an adventure.

S: So you’re a senior now, what’s going on in your head as graduation comes closer and closer?B: One thing is I love the college bubble and I’m ready to work, but college is awesome. I feel like I’m closing doors of like the best four years of my life, but I’m ready to move on to what’s next.

T h i n g s y o u

l e a r n e d

W h i l e

Y o u

W e r e

H e r ePhotos and interviews by Shawn Paik

Kathryn Bonifield

Tisch, Film and Television

Jona

than

Moo

nG

alla

tin,

Bus

ines

s M

anag

emen

t

Char

les

Taba

sso

Poly

, Com

pute

r G

raph

ics

Alex

Sw

erdl

owe

Tis

ch, F

ilm

and

Tel

evis

ion

Dominique Tolbert

SPS, Hotel and Tourism Management

Zach pope

CAS, English

S: You’re a senior now, what’s that like? What’s that all about?K: Honestly, it’s really intimidating. I’m really worried about being a real adult.

S: What’s it like being a senior?C: At this point? When my project’s done? It’s the greatest thing in the world. I just, oh god, that was a lot of fucking coding and shit.S: What was your project?C: It was making an interactive program. I would have a mark on your hand and the computer would read it so that when it showed on the computer, like a 3D hand would form, and it’s not your hand, it looks like a robot hand or a claw. It would change the appearance based on wearing the equipment.

S: You’re a senior, you’re finishing up, what’s that feel like?A: It’s good and bad. I’m really excited to be graduating. I feel like school was a barrier, you know what I’m saying? It was like I was doing school assignments while doing shit in the actual industry and you know like the film world, and school feels like it’s holding me back sometimes. Work vs. school, basically. And I’m going to school to do this work. And when you start doing the work and school becomes a conflict with that it gets a little annoying.

J: Advice?S: Yeah, advice.J: I would definitely say start taking advantage of the city as much as you can. Look for op-portunities like internships or jobs as early as possible just because you’re going to NYU for more the city than the school itself, so use the city as much as you can.

S: Did you have a senior bucket list?D: I mean I have a list on my computer of things that I wanted to do. There’s probably like 50 things on there with only five things crossed off. So no, I’m always working and going to random things, but I wish I had more time to do some of the New York City tourism things, but New York will always be here.

S: What’s it like being a senior?Z: Yeah, don’t go here, it’s too expensive.

6 WASHINGTON SQUARE NEWS | THURSDAY, MAY 7, 2015 | NYUNEWS.COM

Freshman year:2011-2012

26- In anticipation of Hurricane Irene, NYU postpones freshman

move-in day.

6- Burger Studio opens in the basement of University

Residence Hall.

17- The Occupy Wall Street protests begin in the Financial District’s

Zuccotti Park.

November 2011 17- Students protest tuition hikes outside the NYU Stern

School of Business and march down Fifth Avenue to meet with Occupy protesters.

January 2012 3- The department of city planning approves NYU’s

expansion plan.

18- News breaks that the NYPD is monitoring Muslim students at NYU

and other colleges

February 2012

23- The Global Center for Academic and Spiritual Life opens on West Fourth Street.

March 2012 1- Students protest the

presence of a Chick-fil-A on campus after it became public that the company

donates to anti-gay groups.

April 2012 12- After a breach

of contract involving underage drinking, over half of the 15 Resident Assistants in Hayden

Residence Hall are fired.

16- Ten departments in the College of Arts and Science

and Tisch School of the Arts vote in favor of NYU

2031 resolutions.

May 201218- The university installs

barriers inside of Bobst Library, which many

speculated was in response to recent student suicides.

August 2011 September 2011

NYUNEWS.COM | THURSDAY, MAY 7, 2015 | WASHINGTON SQUARE NEWS 7

Soph

omor

e ye

ar:

November 2012

October 2012

January 2013

March 2013

May 2013

September 2012 3- NYU Sydney holds its

first day of classes.

4- James Franco teaches a group of Tisch students in a class called Directing the

Thesis.

12- John Votta, NYU’s unofficial timekeeper, dies

at the age of 70.

29- Hurricane Sandy hits New York City, resulting

in the evacuation of some dorms, the flooding in

university buildings and the cancellation of classes.

28- Citi Bikes arrive in New York City.

11- The university offers the option for gender

neutral housing on the housing application.

10- The faculty of the College of Arts and Science

is the first of five NYU faculties to hold a vote

of no confidence in NYU President John Sexton.

28- The university begins to use NYU Classes, retiring the

old Blackboard site.

28- Questlove, drummer from The Roots, teaches a course

in the Tisch School of the Arts called Classic Albums.

27- Class of 2015 student creates the NYU Secrets page.

26 Max Wiseltier, Stern sophomore, accidentally

causes Reply-Allpocalypse.

6- President Obama is reelected after running against

Republican Mitt Romney.

2012

-201

3

8 WASHINGTON SQUARE NEWS | THURSDAY, MAY 7, 2015 | NYUNEWS.COM Junior year: 2013-2014

November 2013

April 2014

January 2014

March 2014

May 2014

August 201312- NYU Shanghai opens

for the first semester.

14- John Sexton announces he will step down in 2016.

25- Brittany Residence Hall reopens after renovations.

25- Members of NYU Students for Justice in

Palestine delivered mock eviction notices to students

living in Palladium and Lafayette Residence Halls.

6- NYU cuts ties with JanSport after repeated protests by the Student Labor Action Movement about workers abuses in

Bangladesh factories.

Hayden Residence Hall closes for renovation and incoming freshmen are

housed in Palladium. NYU places students in the

Affinia Hotels, providing MetroCards to students

living in each of the three hotels.

2- Seven NYU Divest members are arrested in Washington, D.C., after

protesting the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline.

1- The Polytechnic Institute of NYU completed its merger with the university, changing its name to the Polytechnic

School of Engineering.

5- Bill de Blasio is elected mayor of New York City.


Senior year:2014-2015

19- Aristotelis Orginos is revealed to be the

administrator of the NYU Secrets page.

1- Shakespeare & Co. closes its doors after rent hikes.

21- 400,000 people gathered as a part of the People’s

Climate March., the biggest climate march in history.

29- The NYPD and National Guard place New York

City subway stations under increased security measures

after multiple threats from ISIS.

November 2014 25- Following a Missouri

grand jury’s decision to not indict officer Darren Wilson for the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, protesters

took to the streets in cities across the country — including

Ferguson, St. Louis, Los Angeles and New York City.

December 2014 1- Protesters gathered in

Herald Square as a part of a boycott of Black Friday

in response to the Ferguson grand jury decision to not

indict Darren Wilson.4- Protests follow after the

Richmond County grand jury’s decision to not indict New York police officer Daniel Pantaleo for the death of Eric Garner.

April 2015 16- The Nardello & Co.

report on labor conditions at NYU Abu Dhabi is released. Investigators revealed that

10, 000 workers were exempt from NYU’s labor standards, leading to labor violations.

30- Protesters gather in Union Square in solidarity

with Freddie Gray protesters in Baltimore.

August 2014 September 2014

March 20153- NYU revises housing

procedures, allowing Poly students to live in

Manhattan dorms.

10- The Graduate Student Organizing Committee negotiates a last-minute

tentative agreement with NYU, avoiding a strike.

17- Professor Andrew Ross barred entry into NYU

Abu Dhabi.

18- Vice Chancellor of Oxford Andrew Hamilton is appointed

president of NYU.

26- Following a massive explosion and seven-alarm

fire on Second Avenue between Seventh Street

and St. Marks Place, NYU students were evacuated

from Green House at Seventh Street Residence Hall and

Tisch Dance Company.


There are moments when I forget I live in New York City. I know that probably sounds ridiculous, but sometimes it is easy to get caught up in the daily routine. The alarm goes off, then it is subway, school, work, homework, repeat. I caught myself walking the same streets, seeing the same sights, going to the same place for the same sandwich, every day. But then

a cab would honk, or I would look up at the Empire State Building beaming above the city. The flash of clarity: you’re here. Here, where I’ve spent a majority of the past four years of my life, I have felt invisible in plain sight. Others will probably feel it as they sit in their purple or black gown. Maybe

they’re wearing a cap — a baseball cap or graduation cap. I liken living in New York to one thing: when you and a best friend know each other so well that when you hang out, you don’t even need to say anything. You can just sit together

without uttering a word. You’re not necessarily trying to communicate, and there is no need to anyway. Nothing to fill the silence, no awkward pause, no obligation to make small talk. The silence is more profound and comfortable than noise, but in New York there is so much noise you almost don’t even hear it.

When walking on the crowded streets, surrounded by millions of people, it is this beautiful moment when you’re in the middle of something, but you do not feel the need to stand out.

Sometimes, that is too comfortable. Sometimes you have to say goodbye to all that. Nothing great was ever accomplished by being comfortable. No one wrote their best essays with plenty of time to spare. When I look back on my time here, I realize everything great I have ever done has come from moments when I pushed myself to my greatest physi-

cal and mental limits. It came from the heart and the soul. It came from staying up and studying with friends until 4 a.m., when the library isn’t even open but people hid so they could continue working.

We did it because we knew we weren’t alone. In college, and at NYU especially, we could feel this collectiveness. People say there’s no school spirit at NYU, but there is certainly an unfathomable motivation to do and be and create and live, to the best of our ability with no regrets.

In the syllabus for Shelley Rice’s Toward a Critical Vocabulary, a cross-listed Art History and Photography seminar offered every fall semester, a five-paragraph description is given but barely scratches the surface of what the course covers. The course was about critical theory, specifically as seen through photography — or at least that was what I thought when I

signed up for it. There was some art theory on the syllabus. Our first reading was Marcel Duchamp’s “The Creative Act,” a two-page knockout about how the artist’s genius is secondary to his or her

ideas. Those ideas don’t just sit there, Duchamp says. They need interpretation, which is where the viewer comes in. Ideas plus object equals art. The artist is the catalyst in that equa-tion. According to Duchamp’s ideas, Toward a Critical Vocabulary’s texts were the objects, and we had to find the art by pulling out the ideas.

Shelley, who unlike most professors lets her students call her by first name, called me an “art historian” because I was one of three art history students in the class — the others were “photographers,” or photo students. My academic background taught me to pick up a text like “Camera Lucida,” Roland Barthes’ ode to the mysteries of photography and death, and

begin using its nutty ideas — which, of course, are given Latin names — to point to things that aren’t really there in photographs. Barthes’ book is smart, but the more you use “Camera Lucida” like an art historian, the less it makes sense. I had to start looking at photographs like a photographer — which is to

say, through experience. As Barthes describes photography’s strange power: “It is what I add to the photograph and what is nonetheless already there.”Toward a Critical Vocabulary became a process of unlearning, and one that, for me, is not yet finished either. Many of the texts we read after “Camera Lucida” were less scholarly,

but all of them drew upon the same ideas of images and experience. Marjane Satrapi’s “Persepolis” — an autobiographical graphic novel about an Iranian girl who ultimately makes art to get away from an oppressive political regime. John Neihardt’s “Black Elk Speaks” — the somewhat true story of a Lakota chief who had visions and saved his tribe. Anne

Carson’s “Autobiography of Red” — a postmodern epic poem about a Greek hero with red wings, now recast as a young gay photographer, and the most moving tale ever about being haunted by colors.

By the end of the course, I realized that for all of Shelley’s crazy-talk about me being a “theoryhead” because I was so quick to believe all the French philosophy I could get my hands on, she was onto something. Many times, unlearning is learning, and Toward a Critical Vocabulary tore apart everything I thought I knew about how to interpret images and put

them back together again. To look is to experience, I realized, and then only through that experience could I begin looking again. As it is written at the end of “The Tibetan Book of the Dead,” one of the strangest and hardest books I read for that class, “Even if the buddhas of the past, present and future were

to search, they would not find a better teaching than this.”

While I was unpacking in my freshman dorm room in Brittany Residence Hall — this is before it was swanky — I decided to pop in a movie. As a nostalgic sort of 18-year-old, I was determined to choose exactly the right film accompaniment for this once-in-a-lifetime experience. After a bit of deliberation, I picked “Big.”

For those who haven’t seen this 1988 cinematic masterpiece, it is about 12-year-old Josh who makes a wish to be big and wakes up the next morning as 30-year-old Tom Hanks. Understandably troubled by this development, Josh tries to find the magic wish-granting machine in order to retract his request, but to no avail. With a little help from his friends,

Josh finds a great job at a children’s toy company and an apartment big enough to fit a full-size trampoline. He eats whipped cream straight from the can and spends a lot of time at FAO Schwarz. Despite his good fortune in adult life, Josh longs to be a kid again. He finally tracks down the machine and makes a new wish, giving a bittersweet ending to the adven-

ture of a lifetime. As a now-graduating senior, the parallels are almost too obvious, even without mentioning the fact that I would kill to find a fun job and a gigantic apartment. There is a certain

conception of college as a wish-granting machine — you should enter ready for adventure and exit prepped to be an adult. The reality of college isn’t so different, but it is easy to get ahead of oneself.

Josh thought the easiest way to make it to glamorous adulthood would be to just hit fast-forward, and that’s a huge risk at NYU. The brochures love to tell us that we’re “in and of the city,” but that doesn’t mean we should live exactly like New Yorkers. We hear that it is hard to find community on this “campus,” but that just makes it too easy not to try. Unlike Josh, we don’t have the option to reverse the aging process, which means we have to enjoy things as they come along. At NYU there is a temptation to skip ahead and get

several internships, a job and an apartment in Brooklyn. The challenge is remembering to enjoy the undergraduate experience, however unconventional it may be at our school. You may have come to New York looking forward to the life of 30-year-old Josh, but take a lesson from his 12-year-old self: don’t grow up too fast.

There are milestones to pass here as there are at any other college: getting your first tattoo, weathering your first hurricane, living in your first apartment, writing your first published work. Let NYU be a phase of your life rather than just a machine that spits you out with a purple stamp on your diploma. Take classes you like, don’t over-schedule yourself, maybe

even find time to visit the giant piano at FAO Schwarz. Being a student should be your first objective — leave the big stuff for later.

Jordan Melendrez, CAS, Journalism and Politics

Alex Greenberger, CAS, Art History

Clio McConnell, CAS, Classics


Rachel Kaplan, Tisch, Photography

I can’t believe my four years at NYU have already come and gone. When I think of my time here, I think of the things I’ve photographed. As a photo major, most of the things I got involved with in and out of school were related to photography. I got to strengthen my skills by shooting different types

of events ranging from protests and park happenings to concerts and runway shows during Fashion Week. Being in the city and surrounded by so many venues, I was able to translate my love for music into pictures by shooting live music for WSN and other publications. I kind of run a concert calendar. I might not be able to tell you what I learned last week in class, but I would be able to tell you which

artists are playing in New York City three weeks from now.Most of my school spirit came from attending sporting events. I’ve been a baseball fan for as long as I can remember. I grew up following the Yankees

even though my parents liked the Mets and I managed the baseball team in high school with my best friend, so it was cool to hear that NYU’s baseball team was going to be playing varsity for the first season in 41 years. Shooting some of those games out at MCU Park in Brooklyn and seeing Sexton

throw out a first pitch during the home opening series were great ways to welcome the spring. I was lucky enough to cover a bunch of graduation ceremonies over the last few years, and in less than two weeks I will be attending my own. It’s sur-

real but I’m confident that my time at NYU has readily prepared me for the future, because going to NYU means living in the real world.


Michael Domanico, CAS, Politics

Michelle Lim, Silver, Social Work

Martin Carboneau, Gallatin

Trying to sum up what I’ve learned in college in 500 words or less seems ridiculous. How can I condense the last few years of my life down to some profound truth that other soon-to-be-alumni will read and think, “Yes, he gets it”?

I suppose that leads to the first lesson I’ve learned from college: trying to please other people is exhausting and, in the end, probably not worth it. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do good deeds or be a positive force in the lives of friends and family. What it does mean is that we’re all responsible for our own happiness. Every morning when you wake up, there’s a conscious decision to go into the day with a positive or negative attitude. Realizing that you’re in charge of your own happiness is half the battle. The other half is helping the people

you spend time with come to the same realization. Work with your friends to make sure you’re all doing your best to be happy and helping each other when you’re down.Second: get to know yourself. Know what you like, what makes you tick, inspires you, scares you, upsets you, calms you down, makes you laugh. Take yourself out for something fun, just the one of you. Get lost in a museum or go see a movie alone. Both of those activities are a lot less sad than they sound. If you don’t know yourself, you’ll never be able to under-

stand others. Third: like yourself. There aren’t a lot of things to be sure of, but this much I know — you’re stuck with yourself. Not even “’till death do us part” applies here (I have prepared for

exactly that by planning to be buried in a gray suit to match my hair, my favorite rainbow tie and a nice bamboo coffin). If you don’t like something about yourself, be confident in your ability to grow and evolve. If you like everything about yourself, take it down a notch. There is such a thing as too much self-confidence.

Fourth: if you’re in a situation you don’t like, do something about it. There’s something to be said about sticking out something you find unpleasant — there’s also something to be said about making a change if you’re unhappy. Whether it’s a professional commitment or personal relationship — I even seriously considered leaving NYU at one point — I know I’m

not going to be my best if I’m miserable.Fifth: dream big, but enjoy small. Dream of changing the world, curing cancer, reforming the criminal justice system, eliminating prejudice, ending world hunger. Enjoy grabbing

coffee with a friend, dancing in your room, going on a first date, waking up at noon, debating which season of “30 Rock” is the funniest (the fifth). Chances are, everything in the first category won’t happen, so don’t attach your well-being to them. If that sounds bleak, just remember that everything in the second category happens each day. Don’t take them for

granted. Tomorrow’s another day, until it isn’t.Graduate, go out and find your best self. It’s out there, as long as you put in the effort to find it.

Just as the weather is getting warmer, the air is relaxing to a sweet breeze and the fountain turns back on, I’m taken back to a quiet place in my memory, three years and one semes-ter ago. The Freshman Me, sitting at a Washington Square Park bench on a sunny — but not hot — day with my then-brand-new laptop, trying to capture a specific moment. That

week’s assignment was to observe something happening at the park and to see if that scene recalled anything in my brain space. The piece we read in class was about how language is actually a series of symbols conceptualized in our minds; different images represent different things to each of us according to our own unique experiences. I ended up writing an essay

about my grandfather.The course was Writing The Essay, one most NYU students take and one that challenged me to take bits and pieces of my past to relate to the present, which leads to forming beliefs

about the future, all while articulating this process. I still remember my professor Katie; she was beautiful, warm, friendly and so smart. I really hoped she would become big one day.That’s not to say WTE was all revelations and awakenings — I can’t count all the nasty exercises and endless write-ups due each class, but I think it really was the beginning of it all.

Summer of 2014 I actually told a friend — who had recently graduated from the school I might have gone to instead — about this course. She was fascinated, “Wait, you were learning that at 18? I am only learning how to connect anything together now.”

I think that’s when it finally dawned on me that I was truly lucky to be here. Not to trivialize any other universities, but I was just lucky to be here. The other day I saw a picture of my dad when he was an undergraduate student. He left his big personality of a hometown, Busan, South Korea, to be a cosmopolitan in Seoul,

leaving his parents and family behind. Not everyone in his home could do that, but he was privileged and his dad was able to financially support him. During his first year away, he remembers phoning his mom in tears because Seoul was not the Seoul he had dreamed.

As graduation approaches, I can see that Dad’s story and mine are not all that different. We left home to find something newer, to be a part of something scarier, to have it acknowl-edged that we can be city people, too. And though we felt defeated so many times wondering if we really and honestly made the right choice, if all of this was worth it — and by that I

mean the money — if just trying to discover another place where we could belong had any meaning at all. We eventually survived and became conquerors. It is no longer Fall 2011, but Spring 2015, and though the air feels similar, I’m a survivor of WTE, the sophomore slump, years of sleep-threatening internships and the all-too-

familiar senioritis. Dad’s story didn’t end there, but he went onto face even more frightening things — almost being destroyed, struck down, pressed up on every side — but he took it on, thanks to what Seoul did to him, thanks to what his school taught him. Thanks NYU for humbling me, for throwing me out on the streets, for being a tough parent. What you’ve

graced me with is not just a memory, but also a Future Me.

I’m from Mississippi, the blue-eyed black bastard of America’s affair with slavery. Ranking first where you want to be last. Ranking last where you want to be first. The state that is the poorest, fattest and least educated. The state that even other southern states take comfort in by knowing at least they ain’t us. It is the butt of jokes about the South.

America’s fat ass. Of course, I am still proud to be Mississippian. Why? Why the hell am I proud? Pride is ignorant. Pride is unwilling to accept where it was wrong. OK, I’m not just proud. I’m proud and I’m ashamed. There’s got to be a German word that explains how I feel, right? People love to say there are German words that perfectly sum up ideas we can only get across in

sentences, paragraphs, Great American Novels. I don’t have that perfect word, but maybe I can explain it another way. When I started NYU four years ago, I spoke with an accent. My drawl didn’t just announce where I was from, but it made others assume what I believed. Four years later, I’ve dropped the accent and just tell everyone I meet that I’m from Missis-

sippi instead of letting them hear it first. Pride and Shame. Perhaps I should clarify. I’m a southern white cisgender heterosexual male. Otherwise known as the most judgmental and prejudiced group in the United States. This is not a woe-is-

me piece about muting my accent. I understood why, by hearing it without knowing me, people would make assumptions. I mean, have you ever met someone from Mississippi?But that is not who I am — which is ironic because being able to say, “But that is not who I am” comes with the privilege afforded to me by being exactly who I am. I’d like to think I’m one of those rare white dudes who really gets it. Who understands how my race, gender, sexuality and class all inform the way I see the world and how the world sees me. Who

understands that because of arbitrary traits like complexion and attraction, I benefit most from our failed system, and how preposterous, unfair and unacceptable that is. So yeah, I’d like to say I get it. But that’s not true. I am still getting it. Every day. Because of who I am, I can sympathize but I will never be able to empathize. But I will continue to sympathize

and more importantly listen. It is by listening that I started to understand any of this. Hopefully I can use my privilege to help dismantle the white patriarchy from the inside. That would have been a great name for my Gallatin concentration: Dismantling the Patriar-

chy from Within. And that brings me back to the terrible irony — I haven’t said anything that countless smarter people with different skin tones, sexual organs and sexual preferences have already said. But, because of my straight white dick it is likely that I could get more attention for mansplaining it. Screw that. Don’t listen to me. Join me in listening to those who

know better and say it best.All of this is to say that I could not have said any of this had it not been for an enlightening four years at NYU.


Editor-in-Chief VALENTINA DUQUE BOJANINI

Managing EditorTHOMAS DEVLIN

Assistant Managing EditorJOHN AMBROSIO

Digital DirectorHANNAH TREASURE

Creative Director, Special EditionsOLIVIA MARTIN

Copy ChiefMADELINE PAZZANI

MultimediaSHAWN PAIKphoto SAM BEARZI

ADVERTISING

BUSINESS MANAGER ALISON LIZZIO

UNIVERSITY SALES RELATIONSCLAIRE MAHANY

SALES MANAGEREMMA HOWCROFT

SALES REPRESENTATIVESAMY LU, BEN SWINEHART

SALES ASSOCIATESMIKE GROTT, LUXI PENG

GRAPHIC DESIGNERSKALEEL MUNROE

CIRCULATION MANAGERJESSICA TIEN

CIRCULATION ASSISTANTSALEX HANSON, FIONA GORRY-HINES ADVISING

DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONSNANCI HEALY

EDITORIAL ADVISERRACHEL HOLLIDAY SMITH

WASHINGTON SQUARE NEWS

Brendan Bubion, Tish, Film and Television

PHOTO CREDITS

The F train began to pull into its final station in Coney Island. Even though I was unsure of what would happen next, I knew that I was in the right place. That afternoon I was going to film a documentary at PS 329, a school in Coney Island that had been hit by Hurricane Sandy and was now painting a mural to celebrate the community’s resilience. As I walked to

the bus, I wondered what brought a shy, timid kid from the comfortable suburbs of California to travel to a neighborhood far from Lower Manhattan? During my sophomore year, I took one of the most formational classes of my time at NYU, Sight and Sound: Documentary taught by Marco Williams. I knew this was stepping far

out of my comfort zone, but I was up for the challenge. The first day of class, Marco said something I will never forget. He explained that documentary film was not about information, it was about relationships and how those relationships are illustrated through the art of filmmaking. Marco’s statement resonated with me over time, and I found there was more to the

narrative films I had made in my first few semesters. I came to realize that I valued the people I was working with beyond the films we were making.That first day out in Coney Island, I nervously picked up the camera, trying to film children, parents and teachers painting the mural. However, I found that there was a personal

wall between me and those I was filming. Finally, I decided to put down my camera and pick up a paintbrush. As I painted clouds on the bright blue wall, the personal wall began to crumble to pieces. I spent the rest of the day talking to children and families. Hearing their stories, I saw that the most beautiful part of Coney Island and neighborhoods like it were

the people. I discovered a community that is sometimes never found in the isolation of the suburbs, or in the rush of NYU. I saw how what Marco said was true. Relationships were not just the key to documentary filmmaking, but were the most important thing to invest in during my time at NYU.

Now that I am graduating, I plan to move to a low-income neighborhood in Vermont to work in Christian Community Development Association. There I will walk alongside my neighbors through the joys and challenges of living in a neighborhood together. Without stepping into neighborhoods like Coney Island, I would have never discovered my love of

community. Talking to underclassmen that I have met this year, I invite them to experience the beauty that lies hidden in this city. I challenge them to ask not what this city can do for them, but instead what they can do to give back to the city, even if they are only here for a few years.

2011-2012

August2011- Irene- Photo via flickr.com - September2011 - BurgerStudio - File photo by Margaret Eby - November2011 - 99percent - File photo by Margaret Eby - January2012 - GCASL - Photo courtesey of NYU - February2012 - NYPD

photo via Flickr - March2012 - ChickFilA - File photo by Wendi Liu- February2012 - 2031 - Courtesy of NYU - May2011- Bobst - File photo by David Lin

2012-2013

September2012-Sydney - Photo via flickr.com - October2012 - Sandy1 - File photo by Jonathan Tan - November2012 - Obama - Photo via Flickr - January2013 - Questlove - File photo by Jon Packles - March2013 - NoConfidence - File

photo by Rachel Kaplan - May2013 - Photo by flickr.com

2013-2014

August2013 - NYUShanghai - File photo by Casey Kwon - November 2013 - DeBlasioElected - Photo via facebook.com - January2014 - PolyMerger - File photo by Scott Mullen - March2014 - Divest - Photo via facebook.com - April2014 -

Palestine - File photo y Felipe De La Hoz - May2014 - HaydenRenovation - File photo by David Lin

2014-2015

Auguat2014 - NYUSecrets - Photo via facebook.com - September2014 - Strand - File photo by Shawn Paik - November 2014 - Protest1 - File photo by Alanna Bayarin - December2014 - Protest2 - File photo by Shawn Paik - March2015 -

Hamilton - Photo via OUIimages - April2015 - Protest3 - File photo by Sam Bearzi

NYUN

EWS.

COM

NY

UNEW

S.CO

M

NYU

NEW

S.CO

M

NYUN

EWS.

COM

NY

UNEW

S.CO

M N

YUNE

WS.

NYUN

EWS.

COM

@nyunews

Documents

While You Were Here