On Jan. 28 the Office of First Year Experience held the second annual Istakshif Scavenger Hunt, branded as an amazing race throughout the city. The event filled many students’ social media profiles with pictures of classmates jumping in front of Emirates Palace, posing with fish and recreating the Beatles’ famous Abbey Road album cover. Participants spent a day going around Abu Dhabi fulfilling Scavify app tasks. Each team was provided with a personal driver and 500 AED to complete assignments that ranged from taking pictures at Marina Mall to answering questions at the Umm Al Emarat Park.

This year’s hunt involved over 190 participants in 32 teams, which included first year students, upperclassmen, faculty, staff and visiting students.

“My friends and I laughed and shared moments around the city, doing some cool sight-seeing and just having a good time,” said Oscar Bueso Asfura, Class of 2020. Ushna Usman, Class of 2019, added that the scavenger hunt allowed her to relive freshman year memories.

The scavenger hunt’s success can also be attributed to how it brought many different groups of our community together to collaborate as equals for a common goal. The teams were encouraged to invite faculty, staff and upperclassmen for extra points.

Elena Beretta, a visiting associate professor of Mathematics, appreciated the opportunity to connect with students.

“The best part was in the interactions with the students, who were really lovely," said Beretta.

Not all agreed that the event brought different people together.

“The [selection] system simply made people utilize their existing connections, rather than reaching out to someone new," said Katarina Holtzapple. For future Istakshifs, Holtzapple suggests there either be a list of interested upperclassmen, professors and staff members that students could reach out to, or have interested parties be randomly allocated between groups.

Istakshif’s primary purpose was to encourage students to engage with Abu Dhabi.

“It was a great way of introducing students to spots other than the NYUAD shuttle stops,” said Jacinta Hu, Class of 2020. Hu added that Istakshif made her realize that getting off campus really isn't that difficult.

However, the rush to get to each spot limited engagement with particular sites.

"[the scavenger hunt] was a lot more fast-paced than I expected and we were running around the city frantically the whole time,” said Mariam Hany, Class of 2020.

Bueso Asfura thinks that Istakshif helped his class start bursting the Saadiyat bubble. The one- day scavenger hunt helped students realize that there are many accessible places to go to and explore that stretch farther than just Corniche, Yas Mall and World Trade Center.

While hosting scavenger hunts at this scale on a regular basis is not sustainable, those interviewed wished there were more opportunities that recreated the best aspects of it. Holtzapple suggested that a forum should be created where people who are more engaged with the community can post about events and invite students to come on walks, dinners and tours with them.