On Sunday, March 25, Residential Education and the Office of First Year Experience at NYU Abu Dhabi organized an event titled Face to Face with John Sexton. This was an opportunity for the Class of 2021 to engage in a conversation with Sexton, former NYU New York President and founder of NYUAD.

The event was held in Conference Room 001 in building A6. The event also attracted upperclassmen and visiting students who saw it as an important opportunity to learn about the history of the university and interact with John Sexton.

“I attended a similar talk in my Candidate Weekend. This one is a great reminder of what NYU Abu Dhabi was created for as we sometimes might forget. It is a project with a much larger purpose than just education. [Sexton] was a reminder of that aspiration,” said Miren Aguirre Salazar, Class of 2019.

The impression made upon Class of 2021 was generally positive.

“I knew very little about Professor Sexton before. I don’t want to exaggerate, but it was life-changing, in a sense. It touched me a lot, the way he was talking. He can really connect with people. You can see that he gives a lot of importance to tolerance and cultural diversity,” said a student from Class of 2021.

John Sexton covered the history of the creation of the campus and described the university’s guiding idea of cultural diversity in pursuit of a better world. With the support of Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, the connection between NYU and the UAE began with the Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Scholars Program and later expanded to become NYU Abu Dhabi. Sexton made the conversation very intimate by incorporating his own personal stories.

“He was very remarkable. Some people even cried during his stories. I think he did such a great job in telling the history of NYU Abu Dhabi and relating it to his personal life. That made it very significant,” added the student from Class of 2021.

The students who attended also got a chance to sign a T-shirt that was later offered to Sexton as an expression of love and appreciation from the student body for Sexton’s years of commitment.