I first came to terms with the fact that I had moved away from what I then, easily and without hesitation, called home when I wrote my “I am From” poem during a First Year Dialogue session. Since then I’ve rewritten this poem many times, but as a First Year Dialogue Facilitator and each time I’ve come to appreciate the moment of self-reflection it offers.

The FYD program was conceived as a way to support first year students in their transition to university by connecting them with a group of peers at NYU Abu Dhabi. The program has been through many iterations and currently consists of three main parts: intergroup dialogue, also known as IGD, relating to inclusion and belonging during Virtual Marhaba, group discussions surrounding adjustment skills and individual check-ins during the fall semester and, if public health guidelines permit it, city outings.

While I understand and deeply appreciate the vision behind FYD — the creation of a space founded on bravery, community and self-care — its current structure and execution needs to be reassessed. Our current FYD curriculum attempts to combine three different programs into one. In doing so, it prematurely exposes first year students to dialogue based on language and ideas that are not as relevant during the Marhaba week.

The intergroup dialogue component of FYD is one of its defining aspects and it plays a crucial role in conveying to first year students the makeup and expectations of our community. The curriculum prompts students to think beyond diversity in terms of numbers and statistics to create an inclusive and empathetic community. For example, one of the very first activities during FYD is “Name Story,” in which participants share the origins of their name. It’s a relatively low stakes activity, but one which allows first years to connect their past with their present and to see connections beyond cultural differences.

However, what must be kept in mind when creating these sessions is that FYD is not an opt-in program. It’s mandatory. There is even the possibility of failing FYD and having to take it as a sophomore. All sessions are based on the principle of “Challenge by Choice,” which means participants share as much as they are comfortable and willing to. But as Marhaba progresses, the curriculum gently nudges first years to engage in conversations requiring higher levels of awareness and vulnerability.

Many of us came from countries that, compared to NYUAD, are ethnically, religiously, culturally and linguistically homogeneous. The exposure and knowledge that each participant brings to this space is vastly different and the relevance and importance of conversations surrounding social identity and positionality become apparent through our time at NYUAD. While an activity such as the “Social Identity Wheel” will prompt first years to think of the various social identities that they belong to or that others assume they belong to, for many, this will be the first time that they think of their identity and how they choose to express themselves in such terms. There is a necessity to be vulnerable and reflexive during FYD and this expectation is at odds with the comfort and knowledge first years bring into this space during Marhaba week.

I never knew what it meant to speak a language spoken by approximately only 20 other students on campus until halfway into my first semester. I never truly understood the privilege I had carried with me in Sri Lanka, where I’m from, by virtue of my ethnicity and religion, until I was in a country in which I was a minority. I did not know what it meant to unpack the racism present within my own community until I came to NYUAD.

Marhaba does a great job of introducing first years to the campus, of letting them know which departments on campus can be used as resources, of building a network between first years and upperclass students. But it is only once Marhaba is over and students are facing the daily realities of living within a community such as ours, that we begin to learn that identity is nuanced, complex and contextual. Marhaba — a week-long program — alone cannot prepare students for this and this is why intergroup dialogue sessions should not be limited to Marhaba alone. Instead, especially given the hectic schedule of Marhaba, FYD sessions during Marhaba should be reimagined more as a reflective and grounding space.

The FYD curriculum for the academic year 2021-2022 reflects this change with the fifth Inter Group Dialogue session which is based on a Restorative Circle Process. Derived from practices of Native Americans, First Nations and indigenous peoples, the circle process moves away from Western frameworks and language to honour non-Western ways of sharing. This attempt to include and emphasize non-Western ideas of community and listening is important, for it reflects an understanding that our student body can and should be able to express empathy and care in more inclusive ways. The circle process also provided a much-needed moment of grounding and self-reflection, which stood in contrast to the other sessions that required more active energy.

This does not mean that IGD sessions should be completely removed from the curriculum. Rather, they should occur throughout the semester and provide first years with a space where they can come together over shared experiences, making the content of these sessions far more relevant. More importantly however, FYD should work in close collaboration with other departments on campus, especially Spiritual Life and Inter Cultural Education, abbreviated as SLICE, to ensure that there is more intentionality in terms of basing the curriculum on inclusivity, community and care.

A key component of the FYD program is the presence of student facilitators. While the decision to switch from staff facilitators to student facilitators is a step in the right direction because it makes FYD more peer-to-peer focused and creates greater potential for sharing and honesty. But we must also acknowledge the limitations that come with having students as facilitators. First, as students, we come into this space with our own biases and prejudices, which will inform, knowingly and unknowingly, our reactions to the conversations taking place within FYD. Ribka Tewelde, Class of 2023 and a current FYD facilitator spoke to The Gazelle of the importance of having “radical empathy training” for student facilitators. She argued that this training needs to focus on “allyship and intersectionality, alongside a curriculum that solely uplifts students and doesn’t passively allow others to overstep their boundaries.” According to Tewelde, these are non-negotiable aspects that need to be included to ensure that FYD focuses on community building.

However, despite the possibility of revamping the training, there are certain conversations that should not be left to the discretion of student facilitators alone. A clear example of this is the Bystander Intervention Training that student facilitators are expected to conduct for their FYD group. The goal of this training is to provide participants with tangible bystander intervention skills to navigate social situations on campus, in a virtual world and beyond and the hypothetical situations involve sexual harm, alcohol and drug misuse.

Given the gravity of this training and its importance in being able to successfully navigate college life, this training needs to be conducted by a qualified professional. Student input and experiences are of immense value in conveying to first years what to expect, but they should be seen as complementary to the training itself. This training can also be triggering for both the facilitator and first years. While facilitators are trained to lead this workshop, a one-time training is simply not enough to teach student facilitators to lead this session with the care, sensitivity and respect it requires.

The FYD program is a defining aspect of the NYUAD experience for it facilitates the creation of a space where first year students can transition to college life, keeping in mind the expectation of the community, in terms of sharing, accountability and honesty. But for this program to be truly effective, for first years to gain the most out of this experience, it must be restructured so that the conversations surrounding belonging and community occur with more intentionality and care as the semester progresses.