On the evening of Nov. 16, the West Forum was packed with an audience of both staff and students eager to celebrate the highly anticipated Diwali festival. The night was full of various performances, including dances and song covers performed by NYU Abu Dhabi students.

All acts had been in the works since early October, when students who signed up to be a part of the event began rehearsals. During the live performances, other students and staff in the audience were also welcomed to the stage, filling the dance floor to the brim. After all of the performances had finished, the audience was served various Indian delicacies. The West Forum was decorated with various art pieces created by students to cultivate a celebratory atmosphere.

“Diwali was spectacular this year,” said Bhrigu Bhatra, Class of 2021. “The dancers put on riveting shows, Raghav’s voice was a pleasure to listen to and I had a really good samosa.”

On Friday, Nov. 16, NYUAD hosted another edition of the long-running poetry open mic night, Rooftop Rhythms. Various artists from around the UAE, as well as NYUAD, showed off their art on stage to the large audience of students, faculty and off-campus visitors.

The event was the second Open Mic Night of Rooftop Rhythm’s seventh season, hosting many up-and-coming musicians and poets eager to share their original material with the audience. This edition of Rooftop Rhythms did not have a specific theme, which allowed a more free space for artists to express themselves. Dorian Rogers, the founder of Rooftop Rhythms, MCd the event and engaged the audience with each of the performing artists.

“I really enjoyed the event,” said Maitha Alsuwaidi, Class of 2021, who attended the event. “One of the performers actually sang one of his original songs. He seemed to me very professional and the artist seemed to have a lot of experience in terms of performing and creating music. I also liked how genuine a lot of the performers were. One of the performers got on stage to perform his poem and he was like, Okay guys, I’m gonna tell you something, I’m getting married this month and I’m really happy, and the poem he performed was also about his fiance, and that was really cute and heartwarming.”

On the evening of Wednesday, Nov. 14, the Torch Club Terrace hosted over 80 organizations from different fields to provide NYUAD students with the opportunity to work on their networking skills at Networking Night. The students came dressed in business casual attire to chat with representatives from numerous industries, all of whom wore name tags color coded by industry.

The event aimed to allow students to connect with professionals from their chosen fields, to explore their career options and most importantly to improve their networking skills. Students mingled with professionals, alumni and fellow peers at the terrace, while getting to enjoy some music and light refreshments. The industries present at the event ranged from Media to Business, Consulting to the Arts, Finance to STEM and more. Organizations such as Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, Emirates Nature WWF, UNHCR, TwoFour54, Visa Middle East and many more made themselves available to students at the networking evening.