Spring 2016 NYU Florence Stern student Alex Deng secured an internship this summer with Wamda Capital in the United Arab Emirates. Wamda Capital is one of the Middle East´s main venture capital firms, which supports early stage entrepreneurial initiatives across the Middle East and North Africa. It was founded by Fadi Ghandour, one of the Middle East´s most important businessmen and philanthropists, founder of the major transportation and shipping company Aramex, who visited NYU Florence this past Spring to talk about the community development work he supports through his non-profit community development organization Ruwwad. Alex introduced Mr. Ghandour at the Dialogue and introduced himself to Mr. Ghandour during a break. Alex made the initial contact and the rest is history! Congratulations Alex on turning an unexpected opportunity into an internship! We can´t wait to hear about it!

On Sunday, November 8, 2015 a group of NYU Florence students were invited to address assembled mayors, municipal representatives, and distinguished guests at the City of Florence’s global mayor’s conference ‘Unity in Diversity’ in Florence City Hall’s historic Salone dei Cinquecento. The proceedings were projected for the general public onto a big screen in Florence’s central square Piazza della Signoria below. Over 4 days, mayors from Africa, Asia, the Americas, and Europe were brought together to discuss how culture, education and intercultural dialogue can be vehicles for peace and the role that city governments can and should play to support policies that foster these processes at the local level. Speakers included Nobel prize winners and distinguished special guests like U.N. Messenger of Peace H.R.H. Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein, actors Forest Whitaker and Tim Robbins; Nobel Prize Laureats Tawakkol Karman, Shirin Ebadi, and Betty Williams; and NYU’s own Awam Amkpa. Learn more about their presentation and watch the video here.

Read Carmen´s article at The Florentine.

Read her article Examinging Polls. Engaging Voters, Enlightening Republicans.

Congratulations to Sahel on the publication of her article ´Florence embraces historical prestige, offers modernity´ in the Washington Square News. Sahel was part of the Documenting Eco Acupuncture: Urban Interventions team. You can read the article here.