From staying home with family to researching abroad, students are finding valuable ways to spend their few months off. In these final weeks within the confines of Sama Tower, The Gazelle spoke to a few students about their summer plans.

After fifty years of little human presence, the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea has become a wildlife safe haven that is, in some way, healing the wounds of war. Freshman Min Joo Kim will be working at the DMZ Ecology Research Institute in the demilitarized zone, helping to keep a log of plants and animals in the area while doing educational outreach with schools that benefit from seeing nature in a highly political zone.

Kim was introduced to the institute in high school and, believing in its mission to promote the wildlife, wanted to go back to work there.

“People were like, ‘Oh my god are you crazy?’” as they were concerned about her safety in the area, Kim said. “But letting [the students from neighboring schools] see life flourishing there has a significance … this institute has a focus on getting this message across to the next generation.”

After a year abroad, junior Abhishek Mehra is returning to India for the summer to work at a local steel company.

“It’s been a really long time since I have seen my parents,” said Mehra, “I wanted to work back home so I could spend some time with them before I hit senior year because it’s going to be crazy with capstone and being an RA.”

For soon-to-be seniors, working at home offers opportunities to connect with potential future employers. “I want to work in India after I graduate so I think working in India is a better bet [than abroad],” explained Mehra.

Sophomore Mohit Mandal will be interning at a social research institute in Budapest this summer. He will be taking community innovation surveys from various companies throughout Europe and analyzing the social impact of new health care technologies.

“The good thing about the internship is that it’s only during the day so I will have the afternoons and weekends to explore the city,” he explained, “I’m really excited to live by myself, learn cooking and explore the Schengen a bit.”

Sophomore Jaén Ocádiz will be bundling up and heading to Greenland this summer.

“I am going to the Arctic station,” he said, “to spend ten days there and learn about field research and collecting data.” Working alongside three other NYU Abu Dhabi students, Ocádiz will be researching with the Center for Global Sea Level Change, NYU Courant Institute professor David Holland’s project.

The Center combines Ocádiz’s interests and his two majors, chemistry and mathematics, and he hopes for more insight into future career paths with those fields in mind. For the rest of the summer, Ocádiz will be researching metal organic frameworks at the Center for Science and Engineering lab in Abu Dhabi.

Junior Andrew Pitts will be heading home this summer to spend some much needed time with his family and to renovate his basement. Pitts explained he wants to “get back in touch with my family … It’s so easy to forget what it’s like to live a normal life.” Renovating the basement, he explains, “is just something I always wanted to do.”

The project will last between a month to the full summer and he hopes to install a drop ceiling, put up drywall and lay down laminate flooring. He may get help from his grandfather but, if not, he will be working alone, “that is, unless anyone happening through the area wants to help me out.”