The elections for the First-Year Class Representative were held Sept. 14 and 15. The results were announced on Sept. 16 on the NYU Abu Dhabi Student Life Facebook group, with a full breakdown of the votes attached. The winner of the election was Le Thien Phu, Class of 2022, with 110 votes.

The elections saw approximately 50 percent turnout of the Class of 2022 with 210 votes being cast overall. The low turnout for the election was an important subject for Le. “I think it’s really important that people try to participate in the system because it is a democratic system, which doesn’t work unless people try,” said Le.

Le will be planning activities for members of the Class of 2022 in order to increase their engagement with Student Government. “I’ll try [to create] many opportunities for engagement with the year group as possible. I want to create more of a community atmosphere. I have already set up an anonymous form so people can send in submissions, so the aim there is to get people to engage more with Student Government, which is the ultimate goal.”

The Red Theater was filled to the brim with First-Year students on the night of Sept. 16, awaiting the start of the highly anticipated RealAD show. The musical is aimed at familiarizing the Class of 2022 with important topics and issues relevant to the NYUAD campus, which include homesickness, consent, mental health and others.

The show is the result of weeks of hard work and practice by NYUAD students. The creative process took place over the summer in New York, where the students got to work with actors and professionals at the Tisch School of the Arts.

“The freshmen were screaming when we walked in, they were laughing at all the jokes and they were super supportive. It was really reassuring and motivating. [The] nice thing about the show is that we interact with the people, because it’s literally a show for the audience, which is a nice personal aspect. We were all one community in there, which was really nice,” said cast member Shalini Corea, Class of 2021, reflecting on the show.

On Sept. 20, the Career Development Center hosted its semestral Opportunities Fair from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The East and West Forums were buzzing with over 350 NYUAD students networking with more than 80 UAE-based organizations seeking to work with them.

The event allows for students of all years to explore their options in terms of internships, volunteering opportunities and full-time or part-time work in the UAE. The list of employers who attended the event spanned from many industries, ranging from consulting to journalism to technology and beyond. Some notable employers who were present at the event include The National, McKinsey & Company, UNHCR and Turner & Townsend.

“It was my first time going and I got some new perspectives on potential opportunities for me. I hadn’t really thought about consulting before but I got a chance to speak to some consulting companies which gave me some new perspectives,” said Frieda-Luna Schloer, Class of 2021, about her experience at the Opportunities Fair.

From Sept. 21 to 22, the Red Theater hosted the award-winning ensemble Elevator Repair Service for their acclaimed theatrical event, Gatz. The show is an original adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel The Great Gatsby. The whole production lasted eight hours, with two intermissions and an hour-long dinner break in between.

The performance was set in an unnamed office and started off as a reading of The Great Gatsby by actor Scott Shepherd. Over time, however, the entire cast in the office is drawn into the reading, turning into characters from the novel. The lines between narration and dramatization blur, making it unclear whether the main character is still just a reader or has been transformed into the narrator.

“It was an intense experience. Scott Shepherd felt as real as Nick Carraway — I couldn’t stop clapping at the end. Eight hours is too few to watch this,” said Bhrigu Bhatra, Class of 2021, about his experience watching Gatz.