From Beirut to the Big Apple: College life at NYU with Naya Karnaby

From Beirut to the Big Apple:

College life at NYU with Naya Karnaby

Every year, IC seniors have been accepted into top universities all around the world. From the well-rounded education and access to top resources, IC students are guaranteed to graduate with success and pursue a future full of opportunities. When going out into the real world, IC has prepared students to start this new chapter in their lives. Starting college is always an exciting time in a young adult’s life, and hearing it first hand from one of IC’s own recent seniors goes to show how great university life is, and how time at IC has a positive impact on the future outside of school.

Naya Karnaby is one of IC’s most recent graduates, and she entered a new season of her life when she started university this fall. She is currently completing her first semester at NYU Tandon, in the borough of Brooklyn, New York City. She has had quite an exciting last few months as she navigates through university life and living in a big city. In this feature, Naya shares moments of her life in New York as an NYU student, and positively reflects on her current first semester in university. In addition, she shares her thoughts on IC’s impact on her life, while giving some advice to current IC students when it comes to preparing for university.

Why NYU?

For Naya, NYU was the perfect choice all around. Her father is already here in New York, and she already had some familiarity with the city. Plus, she has always wanted a city life and why not New York, the city that never sleeps?

On a personal level, Naya wanted to expand outside of what was her familiar Lebanese community. “I chose NYU because like I said I wanted this city life experience. I really love New York and I come here often. I wanted to change. I wanted something new and different. Plus you’re in NYC so, why not?” Being at NYU is also a place to meet all kinds of different people from all over the world. “I love the diversity”, she tells me.

Not to mention, the school’s academics aligned with her career goals and interests.

“I love my major”, she states. “It combines everything I wanted to do, like engineering and business together. My major is BTM, Business Tech and Management

engineering.” Essentially, she is studying the business and technology side of the engineering field. from Manhattan to Brooklyn since her courses are at the Tandon branch of NYU. “I love driving!” she exclaimed.

Naya loves being in New York, and being an NYU student is a big part of that. “There’s always something to do. You’re never bored.” she states. “ You feel like you belong in the city because you’re in NYU. You have privileges everywhere because you’re an NYU student”, Naya also adds, “I love Tandon, our campus. You feel like it’s more campus than the buildings in Washington Square.” Naya has got a full schedule this semester.

“On Mondays, I have 2 classes in the morning and then I go back to Manhattan, and I have an online course. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, only one class. And on Friday only one class. I have classes every day basically.”

First Semester Thoughts

For every college student, their first semester is one of the most foundational times in their university journey. From learning about classes and navigating a social and personal life, there is a lot to learn. I asked Naya about how her current semester has been going, and she gave an honest answer. As happy as she is, being somewhere new does take an adjustment period.

“The first few weeks were a bit overwhelming. With a little bit of effort everything got better.”

When it comes to joining extracurricular activities, Naya tells me she’s looking forward to doing more of this next semester. Given how overwhelming the first semester has been on the academic front, finding time to do more takes a bit of effort. Naya spends her time being productive while still seeing her friends. “When I go back home, I like to study with my friends in Bobst, NYU’s library. It’s so nice because we get to hang out and study at the same time.”

Naya spends time with friends she’s made in class and through others in the NYC university community, like Columbia. She’s even maintained friendships with two other IC graduates who are also living near her. On weekends, she sees friends out in Brooklyn, where the night life is great, and sometimes they also come her way into Manhattan.

When there’s free time, Naya and her friends love to explore the city and eat out. Her favorite cafe is Spring Cafe, where she gets smoothies and also spends time studying. She loves shopping and walking around the Soho area too. “There’s this place in Soho called parm. We like to go there every Saturday. They have the best pasta and mozzarella sticks.”

Currently, Naya has wrapped up her midterms, and her final exams are around the corner.

Regardless of the workload and the change, Naya is content. “To be honest, it went by so fast. Like I really liked this semester.”

This first semester has taught Naya a lot of things.

“It’s normal to get overwhelmed in the beginning but you shouldn’t give up. You should always put in effort in working on yourself and your relationships with other people. Study hard in order to succeed in life.” Around NYU’s main campus is Washington Square Park with the iconic arch, and Naya tells me it’s another great place to hang out.

“There’s streets where there’s a lot of tiny shops and restaurants. They have the best boba, it’s a place next to Washington Square. We love to go there and get boba and sit. It’s like a tiny hidden place but they have really good boba.”

Naya recommends that anyone visiting the city checks out the Moma museum (Museum of Modern Art). She personally loves their gift shop.

A Day in the Life

Naya starts her days early with morning classes. She lives at home with her dad in Manhattan, and she makes the early morning traffic commute daily. She’s brave enough to bear the hectic city traffic of New York City– she drives Now that it’s Christmas season in New York, the city is adorned with decor and festivities and there’s a lot to do. “We go to Bryant Park and Rockefeller, and we look at Christmas decorations and walk around the city”, Naya tells me.

Naya started out at IC Ain Aar, and then transferred to Ras Beirut. She was in the French section throughout her years. Naya tells me that coming from Ain Aar to Ras Beirut gave her a glimpse into what college would look like.

“Going into a new community, meeting a lot of people, making new friends after being in Ain Aar for 10 years maybe.”

Aside from the passionate spirit and community that IC has fostered to its students and alumni today, the educational components have had long term positive effects in the lives of graduates. For Naya, her education at IC helped her successfully through exams and a heavy workload during this very first semester.

“One thing I realized when I was here is that IC prepared us really well to go to college. For example, They give us a lot of group work and presentations to do that strengthens our character. Which was really helpful.”

As all alumni tell me, IC is always going to be a part of them wherever they go in the world. And for Naya it’s the same. “We love IC, really”, she says enthusiastically. “ We love love love IC”.

Advice to IC Seniors

have to be able to manage everything at the same time. Your social life, your work, and everything.” She goes on and insists not to procrastinate, since work builds up and there won’t be time to finish everything. In her social life, being genuine has been important. “Be nice and kind to everyone, because that is how you’ll make friends”, she tells me.

Lastly, when it comes to change and readjusting to a new place, Naya offers a positive perspective while acknowledging the struggle. “It can be a bit overwhelming at first, but you shouldn’t give up. Try, put in more effort to make more friends and go out.”

Naya’s Goals

While Naya is still young with many possibilities ahead of her, she does have some goals and thoughts for her future. In the upcoming year, she hopes to be taking some electives in the Washington Square campus since it’s closer to her home.

Long term, there are a lot of options. “I want to work in a really big company. Maybe as a manager. And be successful in life. Maybe even go to Columbia for my Masters”, she tells me.

Like many alumni who have left Lebanon, the country is still home for Naya. “I want to go back to Lebanon. I hope I can go back when I graduate.” Naya would also love to consider living in New York, because she loves the city.

A year ago, Naya was in the same shoes as many of IC’s current seniors in terms of college applications and making a decision for their future.

She emphasized honesty as a key point. “Be honest with your application. Don’t lie about anything. Be yourself.” Naya isn’t putting too much pressure on herself to figure it all out now. After all, she has time to see where things go. She’s open to letting things fall into place as she continues to work hard and create a life for herself. As she says beautifully, “what comes unexpectedly, is the nicest.”

She also tells me that seniors should look forward to this new chapter in their lives, while also enjoying these moments at IC. “They have to be excited because it’s a very nice experience. But don’t take school for granted. I look back at school days now, and these were the best days of my life.”

Naya also adds some advice from her own experience as a first year student. “You have to be organized”, she emphasized . “That’s the most important thing in uni. You

Conclusion

As Naya’s first semester comes to a close, she has done well and has learned so much. She’s created a positive life in New York City, and manages well between her academic and social life. She still holds onto her roots at IC, and continues to aim for excellence as she continues her journey throughout university. We are so excited to see how she grows, and what she will end up doing in the future!