NYU Global Equity Fellowship

Asata Spears is a sophomore majoring in Early Childhood Education/Special Education with a minor in Educational Theatre. She has a passion for intersecting the arts and traditional education to stimulate student engagement, knowledge retention and work to eliminate the achievement gap. Beyond her studies, Asata is involved in the NYU Step Team, the theatre club Lamplighters, and has worked as a Peer Mentor for the T&L department. 

As the Global Equity Fellow in Accra, Asata plans to engage and listen to her peers, navigating conversations and events that will allow all students to have a better understanding of culture and communication. With the support of Global Programs’ initiative in Inclusion, Diversity, Belonging and Equity she looks forward to a great semester in Ghana.

Diya is a rising junior studying Global Liberal Studies, with a concentration in Politics, Rights, and Development. She is also pursuing minors in German and Psychology and will be spending the year at NYU Berlin. An international student from Bengaluru, India, she believes that a truly global education is one that includes multiple narratives. She is passionate about listening to and amplifying marginalized perspectives to create a more inclusive, equitable world.

Diya’s commitment to dialogue and inclusivity is reflected in her activities on and off campus. She has been a member of the Liberal Studies Student Initiative for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion since its inception, working towards diversifying syllabi and creating spaces for conversation between students, administrators, and faculty. In being a Liberal Studies Peer Mentor, she has helped to create a support system for international students in the Liberal Studies Program. She partnered with Go Project NYC as a Liberal Studies Service Ambassador in order to give back to New York City in the field of education and provide resources for the next generation of New Yorkers to grow academically. In India, she has conducted theatre-based workshops on dealing with sexual harassment for underprivileged children and worked to restructure gender education curricula in universities in her city. 

As a Global Equity Fellow based in Berlin, Diya is looking forward to exploring the city in a multidimensional way by engaging with different communities and getting to know her fellow students while working to uphold the values of diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Sydney Lin is a 2nd year Steinhardt student pursuing a double major in Early Childhood Education and Spanish and a minor in Dance. Originally from Durham, North Carolina, Sydney has enjoyed expanding her horizons at NYU’s New York campus. However, she is even more excited to study in Buenos Aires for Spring 2020 to further her Spanish fluency and to investigate questions surrounding inclusion, diversity, belonging, and equity. 

As a student who is passionate about helping her community and her peers grow, Sydney is prepared to be a voice for NYU students in Buenos Aires as a global equity fellow as well as a friend. Sydney is always open to grabbing lunch and talking, whether about life in Buenos Aires, dance, or dogs!

Tiana Urey is a freshman in the Liberal Studies Core Program with the plan to pursue a major in English Literature. Originally from Maine, she relishes the opportunity to step into a new life in Tuscany. In Florence, Tiana volunteers with young children in the community and is an active member of the Identity, Diversity, Belonging, and Equity (IDBE) Student Committee. 

Tiana has always been deeply committed to working on IDBE issues and considers them to be a guiding influence in her work. Her past experience as a student school board representative, Seed of Peace, and equity facilitator for Maine Youth Action Network have prepared her for this position. During her first semester at NYU, Tiana co-organized an art gallery on gender-based violence titled “Break the Silence.” She plans to extend her focus on gender issues into her work as an Equity Fellow. Through this position, Tiana is eager bridge divides and forge connections even in the face of adversity. She plans to bring empathy and competency to this important role.

 I am a third year Photography and Journalism double-major. I come from an ethnically Tibetan region in Nepal known as Mustang. Growing up within the Mustangi diaspora in New York, I got the impression that pursuing anything outside the medical field was not actually a career. This made me all the more adamant on become a photo-journalist. Growing up, I also saw foreigners telling the stories of my people, I wanted to change that and bring about an insider perspective. In London, I hope to explore journalism's deep-seated history within the United Kingdom. 

As a GEF, I want to uphold the sense of inclusive community that the program was founded on. I want to provide a platform for students to enhance their knowledge of their own cultures and other cultures. 

Fun Fact, I recently designed my first children's book about a Tibetan nomad girl. 

Sania is a self-described “nonconformist oddball” from Karachi, Pakistan. She is majoring in Media, Culture and Communication and minoring in Film.

Sania has been an active debater both in high school and at university. She has served as Vice President-Membership of the NYU Parliamentary Debate Union. Through debate, she has developed a greater awareness of sociopolitical issues and has also worked with her team members to bring feminist issues to the forefront of conversations. She strongly believes that social justice is about macro-level change as well as the “little things:” being conscious of the language we use, the jokes we crack, the lyrics we sing along to.

As a storyteller, Sania cares deeply about telling stories that resonate with meaning—woven from voices that have historically been silenced. At Los Angeles, she hopes to explore the representation of national, religious, and gender identities both on the screen and behind it.

Zina Karas is a rising junior, double majoring in Global Liberal Studies and French. While she is part Liberian and part American, she grew up in parts of both East and West Africa, namely Rwanda, Kenya, Djibouti, Ghana, and most recently, Tanzania. As the daughter of U.S diplomats, she is strongly considering a career in the Foreign Service herself, UN Women being of particular interest. She has interned with the U.S State Department, the U.S Agency for International Development and with UN Women through an internship with USAID. 

Regardless of the organization, her goal is to live and work all over Africa.

Having been in the French school system up until 9th grade, she is fluent in French, spent 3 semesters at NYU Paris, and is looking forward to exploring NYU Madrid and Spain as a whole. She is eager to learn more about how minorities find their place in Spanish society, namely the Roma community, and the racial and socioeconomic factors that can make this difficult. She is also passionate about women’s rights, led the Feminism Club at NYU Paris, and is eager to learn more about feminism in Spain.

Lastly, having grown up in countries and spaces that offered her tremendous diversity and acceptance, she hopes to work towards making that a reality at NYU Madrid as the Fall 2019 Global Equity Fellow.

Oyetunde “Oye” Olubowale is a junior at NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study. She is pursuing an individualized concentration in Global Marketing, Media, and Propaganda. She is also working towards a Minor in Francophone Studies. Oye owes her exposure to diversity and various cultures to her travels to Switzerland, Kenya, Myanmar, Côte d’Ivoire, Rwanda, and Nigeria. As a Nigerian immigrant to the United States and extensive traveller, she is no stranger to culture shock and difference. Oye further developed her understanding of diversity and inclusion at the Wheeler School in Providence, Rhode Island where she served as head of the Black Affinity club and attended national student diversity leadership conferences.

During her first year at NYU, Oye was a part of the Rubin Poverty and Affluence stream where she researched and wrote about the disparities in the US public education and the barriers to voter access in New York. She also was a volunteer tutor with the New York French American Charter School in Harlem.  At NYU, Oye serves as the treasurer for UndocNYU( formerly known as Dream Team), a student activism club dedicated to advocating for and creating community with undocumented folks at NYU and beyond. As the Paris Global Equity Fellow, Oye hopes to explore media’s relationship with multiculturalism and diverse representation in France.

Shoshana Ehrenkranz is a junior studying Film and TV and minoring in Irish Studies. She participated in the Bridges Interfaith trip her freshman year, working with Jewish and Muslim peers to help communities in Houston affected by Hurricane Harvey. Inspired by interfaith work, she joined Students of Multifaith Advisory Council (SoMac) in 2019. Shoshana hopes to use her studies to encourage difficult but necessary conversations between diverse communities.

In addition to her religious and multifaith interests, Shoshana values humor in storytelling. She participated in NYU Portraits during Welcome Week  2018 speaking of her experience growing up in a Jewish bubble. She also holds a spot on one of NYU's improv teams and values her job as an America Reads tutor- a position she has proudly held for five semesters with the same middle school.

Nia Harris is a second year studying Global Public Health and Anthropology in CAS, along with a minor in Food Studies. She is a proud native of Charlotte, North Carolina. Nia's personal experiences with healthcare have encouraged her to pursue a career in holistic and herbal medicine to implement sustainable health practices in low income communities. 

Nia serves as a Program Assistant for NYU's Academic Achievement Program, a program centered on enhancing the experiences of underrepresented students. She is the Public Relations Chair for the Black Women's Health Collective and a Writing Tutor at NYU's Writing Center. Nia also works at the Avery Fisher Center of Music and Media in Bobst Library. 

Nia is passionate about learning and exposing herself to different cultures and backgrounds. As NYU Sydney's Global Equity Fellow, Nia hopes to increase her knowledge of different identities and create spaces in which all students feel comfortable and included! 

My name is Katherine and I am a current third year who is spending the year at NYU Tel Aviv. I am studying with a double major in Political Science and Global Liberal Studies, with a minor in Hebrew and Judaic Studies. 

I was born and raised in Southern California but love seeing the world and pushing myself out of my comfort zones. I am thankful for the opportunity to be studying abroad and to be learning so much about the world’s different lifestyles and cultures. 

I look forward to supporting smoother transitions to my NYU TLV peers as a Fellow and hope to offer my experiences as a student who has been living in Tel Aviv for a semester already. I am excited to work towards building a more diverse and inclusive community and a safe atmosphere for all.

I will be interning at an organization called Kav LaOved, a workers hotline in Tel Aviv. In my free time, I love riding my bike, going to the beach, and reading a good book.  

Jolie is a sophomore majoring in Global Liberal Studies with a Concentration in Politics, Rights and Development. Originally from San Francisco, CA she grew up dancing as a student of the San Francisco Ballet School. After advocating for a truant youth Jolie wants to continue fighting for a variety of important causes. She is very passionate about education and wants to become a human rights lawyer both domestically and abroad. During the spring 2020 semester Jolie plans on researching issues in Washington D.C. relating to poverty and education as well as segregation within public, private and charter school systems.