NYU’s Daily Student Newspaper
washington square news abhinay ashutosh colin waddell corey harper jamiee foster john catsimatidis Jr. Jules o'connor kevin chung pilar mendez richard hsu sophie lasoff
the most influential students at nyu in
2014 are
abhinay ashutosh cas '16
corey harper poly '15
colin waddell poly '15
jamiee foster cas '15
john catsimatidis Jr. stern '15
influentia letter from the editors NYU is not a bubble. Students are confronted with issues larger than an individual or a university, and discussions about these topics are not only growing, but also are being driven by students themselves. Through clubs, movements and student outreach, this year’s 10 most influential students take
these topics and make them NYU. They change and build our communities. These students are NYU. They may not be the ones that everyone has heard of, or the ones that have been publicly recognized for their achievements. They are the ones taking action, the ones speaking out for them-
selves and on behalf of other students. They have evolved university life, expanding the power of the student voice and providing a space for all students. In past years, WSN has given each of the influential students a title of sorts, almost a descriptor. We decided to take away this title. We wanted to highlight
emily bell
Jules o'connor cas '15
kevin chung poly '15
pilar mendez steinhardt '15
al 2014 the complexity of each of the students and the complexity of our community. We would like to thank the members of the selection committee, who have given valuable input from the start. The issue is infused with the energy and dedication of Editor-in-Chief Nicole Brown, Web Managing Editor Kavish
richard hsu steinhardt '15
sophie lasoff gallatin, fourth-year
studio photography by SAM BEARZI
Harjai and Assistant Managing Editor Bryna Shuman. What you are seeing in front of you is a direct result of the vision of our creative director for special editions, Lyanne Natividad, who perfected each visual aspect of this issue and encouraged and guided the multimedia and
dana reszutek
management teams. We could not be prouder of the writers, photographers, videographers and editors that contributed to this edition. With their drive, skill and long hours, we are be able to create the ambitious issue, matching the ambitious students that fill the pages.
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Real innovation ... comes from bringing two seemingly different communities together.
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They are the little plastic blocks you step on in the dark that make you curse under your breath — the pieces of castles before they fit together. They satisfactorily click into place to prove to you that what you build will last. Lego blocks were what started it all for Abhinay Ashutosh, a CAS junior who majors in computer science and minors in business and math. Ashutosh’s obsession with creating mini universes with plastic pieces turned into a love for Java, which provided new building blocks — this time in the infinite world of computers. This interest led to the creation of computer games, iPhone applications and improvements to NYU Albert. “The summer after ninth grade, I had the idea of just building a game. I played games online ... so I thought, why don’t I make one myself?” Ashutosh said. With this willingness to create, Ashutosh taught himself the fundamentals of Java in just three months by creating his first game, called “Dodge It,” which involved
controlling a small cube to avoid lasers. After arriving at NYU, Ashutosh saw that he could build beyond entertainment and create something that students could integrate into their daily lives. His first project was a calendar and time management application for the iPhone called Caleido, which now has about half a million downloads and around 250,000 active users. “There was recently a review on the app from someone who has difficulty seeing,” Ashutosh said. “And they just said, ‘Hey, I really love this app because it is easier to see and use on my phone, thank you so much.’ For me that was just like, wow — even if I helped just one person, it is amazing to help them interact with their world in a different way.” After seeing how his technology could be essential to everyday life, Ashutosh created the NYU Events app, hoping to connect NYU’s many communities on a daily basis. “Everyone is kind of siloed into their own
communities, and I think that creates a boring way of life,” Ashutosh said. “Real innovation, real creativity and real fun comes from bringing two seemingly different communities together.” Ashutosh hopes to leave behind a closer community through these apps, as well as through his involvement with TEDxNYU. While being vice president last year and president this year, Ashutosh has planned conferences and events to involve NYU students and make them excited about what their colleagues are doing, regardless of their field of study. Stern alumnus Griffin Dooling, who was TEDxNYU president last year, saw firsthand the effect of Ashutosh’s plan to focus on school-specific events that interweave students who might normally never interact with each other. “When Abhi came in, he built an entirely new strategy,” Dooling said. “We always had strong community engagement because of the TED brand, but when Abhi built his team
abhinay ashutosh by hannah treasure
STAFF PHOTOS BY hannah luu
we started becoming much more about individuals within the organization having the opportunity to connect with topics they were most passionate about on a local basis.” Ashutosh’s goal to foster community and make things simpler and easier for people to communicate is best shown through one of his current projects, Kipin Hall. The company focuses on education, retention and adherence through an online platform of over 60,000 users. “We started off with the idea of communication — professors, students and alumni, communicating in general,” Ashutosh said. “The big thing there is keeping kids in school through technology.” Despite Ashutosh’s commitment to education, he does not consider being a student his first priority at NYU. Instead, his interest in connecting to students has guided him throughout his college career. “Honestly, I’m not the kind of student who likes school,” Ashutosh said. “For me school is more about the connections, the people that you meet here and the conversations that you have. My real goal is to, yes go to school, yes get a degree, but use the connections that I have here to build other things.” Steinhardt junior Alexandra Cardinalem, who worked as a director at TEDxNYU with Ashutosh, said he exhibits pure excitement when developing new ideas at TEDxNYU and in the tech community. “He was telling me about his latest app and was actually giggling about it,” Cardinale said. “He’s the kind of guy who thrives off of knowing he could make something better, more perfect.” Recently, Ashutosh won two awards at NYU — the All-University President’s Service Award for fostering the tech community through Tech@NYU and TEDxNYU and the Max Goldstein Computer Science Award for his creativity in redesigning Albert. “It went from building things with Legos to building things with computers, and things you can do anytime, anywhere, as long as you have a computer, which is why I still love it today,” Ashutosh said. “With computer science, it’s just on-the-go building. It’s creating.”
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they sometimes feel like they’re students of Poly first and foremost before NYU, which is fine, but I feel like they should also feel like students of NYU.
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colin
STAFF PHOTOS BY DANIEL COLE
It is 9:30 a.m. on a Wednesday morning at the Jay Street Metrotech Building in Brooklyn, and Colin Waddell is helping teenagers boil eggs. “All right, does everyone have it running now?” Waddell asks the 17 rowdy high school students he is working with as a teaching assistant. Each group in his lab section is using foil and styrofoam cups to insulate an egg as effectively as possible, which is tested by boiling them on a hot plate. Waddell goes around making sure all the students are ready to boil. “You’re good, you’re good,” he tells the first few groups. “Ok, so guys, you’ve got to make sure your cord is connected for the hot plate to work.” That is most of what Waddell, a Poly senior, does with his time: puts students on the same wavelength — whether it is by teaching them in his lab section or by representing them as the first student senator from the Polytechnic
School of Engineering. In addition to being a student senator, Waddell is the chair of the All-University Events Committee, a Welcome Week captain and vice president of finance of the Class of 2015 Activities Board. He uses these positions to help coordinate events like the ’90s Brooklyn Bash and the NYU Senior Showcase. His hope is that supporting campus life will bring students from both campuses together to create a more integrated university. “I really feel like the way to bridge the gap is through events,” Waddell said. “Getting the students to be face-toface with each other — having a Brooklyn student at an event with a Washington Square student and having them talk.” This kind of cross-college community, however, was not something Waddell thought he would be a part of when he applied to then-Polytechnic Institute of NYU. Waddell said when he was accepted, he knew the
by john ambrosio
waddell
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merger would be complete before he graduated, but assumed he “wouldn’t really be an NYU kid.” “I went on a tour of NYU and I didn’t like it,” Waddell said. “Something about NYU didn’t click for me immediately. But then, when I visited Poly, the girl who was giving me a tour was an electrical engineering major so she talked to me about what
research she was doing, she showed me around the labs, and I just thought it was so cool. It clicked immediately. And I just figured that when I came here, I’d spend all my time in Brooklyn. Clearly that’s not the case. I now love it at NYU.” Waddell said he learned to love the Washington Square campus after he decided to help lead the
Welcome Week before his sophomore year. As Student Resource Center assistant director Zach Harrell recalled, Waddell was not even finished with his Welcome Week training when he decided he wanted to be more involved on both campuses. “Me and my colleague at the time led a training session about how to market yourself as a leader on campus, and immediately after that presentation Colin came up and said, ‘I want to be the first Poly Welcome Week captain,’” Harrell said. “That stuck in our mind, and throughout the week he definitely shined and was very visible and he did end up being our first School of Engineering captain.” Since then, Harrell said Waddell has encouraged other engineering students to get involved as Welcome Week leaders, members of CAB and active participants in alluniversity events. Waddell, too, has benefited from his involvement. In spending more time at NYU’s main campus as an ambassador, Waddell said he was
able to experience more of what the university had to offer. He was exposed to campus life he would never have gotten at Poly, met his girlfriend — now a Steinhardt alumna — and met his closest group of friends through his student leadership positions. After the merger finalized, Waddell started crossing the East River even more for classes at the main campus, his work with CAB and meetings for the University Senate and Student Senators Council. While the Brooklyn campus and the Washington Square campus have cultural differences — including study habits and gender ratios — Waddell said the biggest thing dividing the two campuses is the 20-minute subway ride. “I think that the reason it’s so difficult and the reason it feels so separate is because we are physically separate,” Waddell said. “They sometimes feel like they’re students of Poly first and foremost before NYU, which is fine, but I feel like they should also feel like students of NYU.”
COREY HARPER
STAFF PHOTOS BY stefanie chan
by Valentina Duque Bojanini With a warm hug and a smile, Poly senior Corey Harper greets two members of the Native American and Indigenous Students Group. He and his co-presidents would be meeting with those in charge of diversity initiatives at NYU to discuss how the university can attract and support indigenous students. For Harper, inclusion is the goal. Harper helped start a space for students to speak out against racism as the co-founder of I, Too, Am NYU — the social media movement to contest micro aggressions against minority students created earlier this year.
After seeing a post about a similar project at Harvard, Harper posted on Facebook about creating the campaign at NYU. “I made a status saying ‘I feel like an I, Too, Am NYU is coming soon…’ then I tagged Alain Balan, he was the president of the Black Student Union,” Harper said. “I wanted it, but I didn’t realize how badly I wanted it until it actually started happening.” Two weeks after the Facebook post was made, the first photos from the I, Too, Am NYU campaign were published online. Within a week, the Facebook page reached 1,000 likes.
“We were just sitting there when we released the first picture and we just saw how many people liked it and how quickly everything was going,” Harper said. “We couldn’t get off Facebook. It was so addicting.” As part of the I, Too, Am NYU campaign, Harper participated in one of several meetings with the NYU administration to discuss ways in which the university could better support minority students. “The fulfilling moment was when the administration suggested we have a meeting to tackle this issue head on,” Harper said. “It really started to get those discussions flowing that we wanted, and right now some of the underclassmen are still meeting with administration in tackling those head areas.” Since then, he has been focused on his work with the NAISG — the only Native American student group on campus — to help create a community for those who identify as indigenous. The club has eight to 10 members who attend meetings on a regular basis. Harper originally got involved as a freshman and later became a member of the club’s executive board in his junior year. Selima Jumarali, assistant director of the Center for Multicultural Education and Programs said Harper provides a much-needed voice for the Native population at NYU as a part of I, Too, Am NYU and the NAISG. “Especially serving as a representative of the Native American and Indigenous group, and because it’s a small community, his voice being part of that was really important,” Jumarali said. “He saw the level of that importance and took it on himself to fulfill that need.” A descendant of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, Harper said he was initially hesitant to join the group since he was not connected to his Native American background before NYU. “I was apprehensive to join because while I am of Native American descent, still growing up with one parent, that wasn’t the culture I was raised with, I was like ‘I don’t have a tribal number, I’m not enrolled, I don’t dance’” Harper said. After participating in several events and becoming involved with the larger Indigenous groups in Manhattan, however, Harper realized what mattered was caring about the communities he was involved in. Teresa Montoya, a GSAS student and NAISG co-president, underscored the importance of Harper’s involvement in the club. “The Native students group is the smallest it has been for the past few years,” Montoya said. “Corey has been very dedicated to the problem facing NYU with Native student recruitment and retention.” Harper’s passion for the communities important to him has inspired those around him. Genesis Tuyuc, CAS senior and NAISG co-president, said she first met Harper over email, and from that moment could see Harper’s dedication. “I could tell how passionate he was to be involved with the NAISG at NYU,” Tuyuc said. “He is committed to connecting communities of students of color on NYU campus, manifested through his participation in the Black and Brown Coalition and I, Too, Am NYU movement. He, as well as the other copresidents of NAISG at NYU, has influenced me in becoming a better student leader and Native scholar.” As for Harper, he hopes one day students will be able to embrace all of the aspects of their identities and feel included in their groups, and in the larger NYU community. “I identify as African American, I identify as West Indian, I identify as Portuguese and I identify as Native American,” Harper said. “All those things I didn’t really celebrate until I got here, where you are encouraged to do so.”
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I id Afric I iden Indian Port I iden Americ things celebr here, w enco
dentify as can American, ntify as West n, I identify as tuguese and ntify as Native can. All those s I didn’t really rate until I got where you are ouraged to do so.
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There was an NYU Secret where this girl was like, ‘I’m getting help because of body positive program.’ Even if it was just one person, that made it worth it for me.
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jamiee foster
STAFF PHOTOS BY rachel kaplan
Jamiee Foster knows what it’s like to be the new kid. The CAS senior had moved from Las Vegas to small-town Arkansas to Baltimore by the time she was in second grade. “The experience of being the new kid twice so early on in my childhood really made me more empathetic because I knew what it was like to start over and be the one who didn’t know anyone,” Foster said. That empathy is clear to this day when Foster interacts with others. At club meetings, she greets everyone warmly. She uses their name, and if she does not know someone’s name, she takes the time to find out. She pays attention to and is constantly engaged with the people around her. Foster is president of the Class of 2015 Activities Board and a resident assistant in Founders residence hall. She aims to create a sense of community at NYU, and to teach people in the process. Coming from two parents in the academic field, Foster has the uncanny ability to bring students together for what would normally be social activities and add some deeper value. Last year, she organized a coloring night for her residents, and on the bottom of each page were facts about different services offered at NYU and statistics about college students and depression, as well as the Wellness Center phone number. She also created a program about portion distortion and alcohol awareness. Using root beer, she asked participants what they thought a shot or other measurements of alcohol would look like. One of the most influential programs Foster created as an RA came from a personal cause — eating disorder awareness. She created programming for all of the freshman residence halls as well as other dorms at NYU to commemorate Eating Disorder
by bailey evans
Awareness week in February 2014. “I had an eating disorder for a long time — all through high school — and I came to college and I didn’t really get help for it until my junior year,” Foster said. Foster used her experience with an eating disorder to recognize what has helped her the most in her recovery, and used that knowledge to figure out how she could support other people with eating disorders. “Talking to other people has helped me so much, what if other people could go through the same thing?” Foster said. Over 600 pictures were taken at the event, which created a photoshoot that promoted body positivity for students. One of the major themes of the event was to encourage students to reach out if they needed help with an eating disorder. “It’s something that’s personal for me, and it helped me get over all of these things and learn all of these things, but it was also very important to me,” Foster
said. “I think it’s programming that’s very important, but it’s not talked about.” For Foster, it is less about the quantity of participants and more about the quality of the support they received during the event. She goes into most of her endeavors seeking simply to help people. “There was an NYU Secret where this girl was like, ‘I’m getting help because of body positive program,’” Foster said. “Even if it was just one person, that made it worth it for me.” Foster often leaves her peers and superiors in awe with her commitment to everything she is involved in and her ability to balance those things. Her friend, Steinhardt junior Jordan Aanrud, uses Foster as a gauge to determine whether or not something is possible. “When I’m feeling like I’ve bitten off more than I can chew, I tend to think, ‘Could Jamiee make this work?’ If the answer is yes, I know it’s possible,” Aanrud said. Paula Zwillich, resident hall assistant di-
rector at Founders and Foster’s supervisor, points out that the common theme between all of Foster’s involvements is her commitment to helping people. “Everything she does in her role as an RA is to help others,” Zwillich said. “In her role with CAB, it’s putting on these large-scale programs and events for the senior class and just being there to provide something for other people … She wouldn’t be able to manage all of those things if she didn’t genuinely want to help other people.” Foster’s enthusiasm and dedication rarely falter, but like all students, she sometimes has bad days. Foster recharges much like she does everything else — with other people. “There are days when I’m probably not as ‘rainbows and sunshine’ as normally, but I think it’s just a matter of getting through and surrounding myself with good people has really made all of the difference,” Foster said.
At the front of a crowded room, Stern senior John Catsimatidis Jr. stands in a navy suit and red tie, the picture of a future political leader. Welcoming students into the room in the Kimmel Center for University Life before the evening’s speaker takes the podium, he chats with students as they walk through the door. A small, red dot of conservatism at arguably one of the most liberal schools in the country, Catsimatidis has served as president of the NYU College Republicans since 2013. Catsimatidis has dedicated himself to overcoming any liberal bias or negative views of Republicans. When someone starts to attack Republican ideals, his goal is to delve deeper into their beliefs and knowledge. He tries to help the person understand the conservative stance, as he believes understanding both sides of a political argument is key to progress. “If someone learned everything about Republicans and everything about Democrats and chose to be a Democrat, I would still be the happiest guy in the world,” he said. “I want to make sure that people realize that we’re not just, as my sister would call it, ‘the old fogey Republican,’ or whatever the media outlet that they’re following at the time portrays.” Catsimatidis strives to represent the spectrum of the club members’ political views in the speakers he selects, which have included Rob Astorino, Deroy Murdock and Ed Cox. Club membership has increased from 10 to 70 regular members during his time as president. “I am inspired at every meeting when I see that passion emanating from our members,” Catsimatidis said. “When members are happy, they will encourage their friends and others to join, which is what I think the main reason for our success.” Megan Powers, vice president of the NYU College Republicans, described Catsimatidis as both one of the most intelligent yet patient people she knows, and she attributes his success to these qualities. “It is not us versus them, and it never has been,” Powers said. “John’s main focus is getting people involved. He chose not to isolate our group and instead tried to make it accessible to the student body at large.” Catsimatidis expanded his efforts beyond NYU when he was elected chairman of the New York Federation of College Republicans last February. As chairman, he helps manage, fundraise and allocate resources for Republican clubs in approximately 37 universities in New York State. He credits much of the success on the state level to his support system at NYU. “The university provided me with invaluable resources to try and empower the community,” Catsimatidis said. “I think that NYU gives anyone with the passion to affect positive change in the community the opportunity to do so.” Although Catsimatidis is now majoring in finance and management, his career goals were originally in computer science. His interests shifted over time as he started educating himself on finance, business management and politics through both exploration and the guidance of his father, 2013 New York City mayoral candidate John Catsimatidis Sr. Catsimatidis explained that the choice to shift his focus was all his own, however. “My parents always told me I could do whatever I like to do and never pushed me in a certain direction,” Catsimatidis said. “I can always go to my mom for advice, for love, for family. And from my dad I learned
how to pursue the American dream, and how to have a strong work ethic.” Starting his sophomore year, Catsimatidis chose to live at home with his parents, a decision he said ties him to his Greek heritage, the wisdom and company of his family and his mom’s great cooking. Despite a close relationship with his father, Catsimatidis is not planning to immediately pursue a career in the public sector by running for office. For the time being, he plans to focus on the private sector and creating jobs. “I’ll never run for office just to run,” Catsimatidis said. “Only if I can truly add value
to the system, I’ll definitely run.” Catsimatidis said he chooses to spend his time working with the College Republicans, both in the state and at NYU, because he believes an early education in American politics is one of the most impactful ways he can put his experience and talent to use. “As of right now, working with College Republicans is probably the best way for me to help the future of America, because we students are the future of our country,” Catsimatidis said. “There’s a lot of ways to serve your country, and I think, right now, this is the best way that I can.”
joh catsimatid by larson binzer
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As of right now, working with College Republicans is probably the best way for me to help the future of America, because we students are the future of our country.
STAFF PHOTO BY rachel kaplan
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Even after a long day of student government work, Jules O’Connor is all smiles on Dec. 4 as she leads the monthly University Committee on Student Life meeting, introducing speakers from her seat, front and center. Serving as chair of both UCSL and the Student Senators Council, her leadership style includes interjections of encouragement — usually, “Awesome.” In her role at the forefront of NYU’s student government, O’Connor, a CAS senior, routinely spends four to five hours a day working on committee matters. She often finds herself to be one of the few students in the room when administrators hold a meeting. In particular, O’Connor has been helping with two major projects: the development of the Coles Sports Center site and the search for a new university president. O’Connor wants to make room for as many student voices as possible in these discussions. “I’m excited to be in the conversation right off the bat, making sure that, moving forward, there are students at the table throughout the process,” she said. Each month, O’Connor and other student senators, meet with the University Senate to represent the voices of students on UCSL, as well as the broader student body. O’Connor said she is glad to foster collaboration between
NYU’s many governing branches. “What I hate most about NYU is the feeling that your voice is never heard, and I want to address that front-on and say, ‘I’ll be happy to be that voice,’” O’Connor said. O’Connor has been working to publicize resources like the SSC and UCSL to students. Jessica Hawk, vice chair of UCSL, said O’Connor has been consistent in her vision for the committee. “She came into her role with the hopes to make NYU’s student government more approachable and empower the students to speak up about their issues with trust in the system,” Hawk said. In interacting with the NYU community, from students and faculty members to deans and administrators, she has won the admiration of her colleagues. Pascha McTyson, the director of the Center for Student Activities, Leadership and Service and an SSC adviser, noted O’Connor’s efforts to be inclusive of all student voices in discussions. “She is approachable, aggressive in all the right ways, caring
and driven,” McTyson said. Before finding herself at the head of student government, O’Connor played basketball during her freshman year and studied at NYU Washington, D.C., and NYU London. Upon returning to New York in the spring of her junior year, O’Connor was the chair of the Global Affairs Committee and helped form the Global Student Council. “We pride ourselves on this global network, yet there are still so many hurdles that students have to jump,” O’Connor said. “It’s one thing to say we’re a global network and it’s another thing to be one. And I don’t think we’re there yet.” Despite deciding not to play basketball anymore, O’Connor emphasizes teamwork, for which Michael Hengerer, her fellow committee member and vice chair of the SSC, is grateful. “Jules warned us that, due to her background in athletics, she would be saying ‘We got this’ all the time,” Hengerer said. “At first I thought it was corny, but as the year goes on … her catchphrase has made
its way into the fabric of the SSC, instilling a positive, team-building spirit that motivates us all.” O’Connor identified several initiatives that she is trying to start before she graduates this spring, including addressing the system of academic advising. Originally double majoring in math and politics, O’Connor had to reduce her course of study to only a minor in math, and she sympathizes with the academic difficulties students often face. “The thing is that we’re in a very big academic network, so there are a lot of different pathways that students can take,” O’Connor said. “And as a student
jules ’ o connor by clio mcconnell
STAFF PHOTOS BY felipe de la hoz
here I think that’s exciting, that you have so many doors in front of you. But to me, in higher education you should always be told ‘yes’ to pursue something academic, and it’s frustrating when we’re continually told ‘no.’” Remembering the confusion of her earlier years at NYU, O’Connor recently raised the
subject of a mentorship program in which students could consult recent graduates about getting through college and making it in the real world. “Now that I’m toward the end of my college career, I want to make sure that no one feels that ‘lost’ feeling,” she said. By interacting with diverse
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facets of the university community, O’Connor understands it will require a team effort to achieve her goals. “When I came in, I was an athlete, but then I wanted to try something else,” O’Connor said. “And that’s the nature of NYU, is that we all have our own trajectories. One way isn’t the right way.”
We’re in a very big academic network, so there are a lot of different pathways that students can take. And as a student here I think that’s exciting.
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I really think people shouldn’t be so focused on finding a career because when you do that, you get tired.
STAFF PHOTOS BY christian forte
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kevin chung by jonathan keshishoglou
Speaking quickly but concisely and occasionally cracking a witty one-liner, Poly senior Kevin Chung gives a presentation on Physical Security to the Cyber Security Club. He explains that to improve security, one needs to understand its flaws as well as its strengths.
“Knowing how to pick a lock doesn’t make you a thief,” Chung insisted. In fact, he continued, a lock-picker is more likely to fully understand a lock than a locksmith. The same can be said of computer security. Chung’s presentation took place in the Information Systems and Internet Security laboratory, which he has run for the past two years. The lab is a cyber security hub at the Polytechnic School of Engineering. There are about 15 to 20 student-regulars, but they are not the only people who walk into the ISIS lab on a daily basis. “People have told me that they’ll poke their heads into the lab, and if I’m not there, they won’t go in,” Chung said. Chung quickly added that this is unfortunate, as there are often others in the lab who can help. Most of these students will ask questions about how to make sure their phone, website or computer is secure. The lab hosts weekly, informal workshops called Hack Nights. Chung personally leads the web Hack Nights, where students come in and learn how to identify vulnerabilities in websites and, of course, hack into them. “Some people ... liken computer security to computer mastery,” Chung said. “We’ll help you identify bad coding practices and help you take advantage of them.” This November, Chung and the rest of
the lab once again managed Poly’s annual Cyber Security Awareness Week, welcoming schools from all over the nation. During the week, Brooklyn Athletic Facility was converted into a competition floor, and the Cyber Security Club hosted the world’s largest Capture the Flag hacking competition, along with competitions for local high schoolers. Chung, a Brooklyn native, won the high school forensics competition as a senior in high school, making this technically his fifth year of involvement with CSAW. During CSAW, the rules of Capture the Flag are as follows: Chung and others write up intentionally vulnerable code, called challenges, and upload them onto a server while teams attempt to hack them. This year’s theme was “programmable logic controllers,” similar to the ones involved with the Stuxnet virus that attacked Iranian nuclear facilities. While the challenges use relevant topics, they are never from real websites or official programs due to an industry code of honor known as responsible disclosure, which discourages revealing real vulnerabilities until the error has been fixed. The previous head of the ISIS lab, Poly alumnus Julian Cohen, said Chung has been fulfilling his responsibilities excellently. “Kevin has been doing a great job motivating students and running lab activities,” Cohen said. “The ISIS lab has large
public presence and influences many other student organizations around the world. Running the lab on a volunteer schedule is not an easy task.” The cyber security program at Poly is a Master’s program, meaning the classes are composed of mostly graduate students. Chung, however, has been taking these courses since his freshman year. In fact, Chung now works as an undergraduate teaching assistant for the graduate Network Security course that he took as a freshman. He grades assignments for the online version of the class taught by Keith O’Brien. “Kevin has a very bright future ahead of him in the information security field,” O’Brien said. “He not only has a mastery of the subject, but can lead. This is a rare and valuable combination.” When he is away from coding, Chung has a number of hobbies, most notably strategy games such as chess and locksport, the art of competitive lock-picking. Chung can quickly tell people how strong the lock on their door is. Off the top of his head, he identified the locks in Lafayette residence hall as mediumstrength. He is an avid video gamer who owns a number of consoles, almost all of which he can hack into. “I’ve picked up lots of hobbies,” Chung said. “I really think people shouldn’t be so focused on finding a career because when you do that, you get tired.”
pilar mendez by david bologna
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Being able to actually work with people to create change was something I really appreciated.
Steinhardt senior Pilar Mendez didn’t always know she would venture to five different countries, conduct critical research and spend her college career as a public health major. “I was actually a theater kid,” Mendez said. Now, theater is only a hobby for Mendez, and she feels no need to steal the spotlight — she shines in her actions, putting a spotlight on the needs and concerns of others. While seeking ways to fulfill high school community service requirements in her hometown of Honolulu, Mendez was surprised when she realized how much she enjoyed working at a women and children’s hospital. She began conducting studies at the Hawaii State Department of Health and decided to follow a pre-med track in college. Over the course of her college career, Mendez’s focus on public health evolved through classes, research and trips. Mendez found a mentor in her professor Diana Silver, with whom she immediately connected. Silver, the director of Undergraduate Studies in Public Health, said the most intriguing part about watching Mendez transform since she has come to NYU was hearing her thoughts along the way. “That intellectual openness, that personal vulnerability … was really inspiring,” Silver said.
STAFF PHOTOS BY jonathan tan
One major factor in deciding to pursue the public health field was Mendez’s family history, her maternal side having a close relationship with the medical world. “My mom’s a nurse practitioner. My grandfather is a retired pediatrician. My grandmother’s a nurse,” Mendez said. “I had a health background on one side of my family, which was an interesting dichotomy.” Mendez’s paternal side, however, was less comfortable with the medical field, living in the South Bronx where they did not have a primary care physician. “It was an interesting experience of growing up with people who were afraid of medical health and wanting to go into health,” Mendez said. Once at the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development, Mendez pursued everything from working at the Center for Multicultural Education and Programs to becoming the executive vice president of the Class of 2015 Activities Board. She has also devoted time to countless international programs, and is currently a resident assistant in Lafayette Street residence hall. Mendez, along with her friend Adam Brulhardt, a CAS senior, used their passions in education and public health to collaborate on an upcoming January Term program abroad. Work-
ing with Nicaragua’s Foundation for Sustainable Development, students will build a pharmacy and hold health fairs to inform citizens about sustainability. Brulhardt said Mendez was the obvious choice for him to pick in spearheading the trip. “Who else would I want to lead a trip with?” Brulhardt said. “She’s passionate about the social issue, and I know she’s already a good leader and also one of my best friends.” When Mendez was a freshman, she journeyed to Panama. The Steinhardt School Professional Development Grant funded her trip to provide HIV testing and counseling to rural communities. From there, Mendez continued her critical research on refugees and disparate communities studying abroad in London, during an Alternative Breaks trip to Florence and during a service trip to Guatemala. “A lot of times you go to these places and you really see the impact that you can make on even just one person’s life,” Mendez said. “Being able to actually work with people to create change was something I really appreciated.” Mendez serves as a research assistant at NYU Langone Medical Center, enjoying the typical conditions of lab coats, mice and test tubes. Assisting Silver’s studies on city tobacco policies, Mendez conducts research on a geographical location’s effect on obe-
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sity in racial and ethnic communities. She has also participated in public disparity studies of Philadelphia neighborhoods through Drexel University. By working with Mendez, Silver noticed strong attributes in her mentee, and believes she is certainly a force to be reckoned with. “Pilar is both approachable, and she’s thoughtful, but she’s not intimidating, despite having, at this time, a rather intimidating résumé,” Silver said. “I’ve seen her … at Kimmel with a good 800 people, and she’s up there at that podium. And she’s not shaking, she may be nervous because this is probably the largest audience she’s ever spoken to, but she’s not paralyzed. The voice doesn’t quaver the entire time. She’s kind of amazing.” The personal aspects of her activities have caught Mendez’s eye, making her realize that collecting data in a lab is not enough for her research. Her time as an RA, an ambassador and a student have inspired her to discover the human experience in every study she conducts. “Research is defined differently for different people, but within that public health context I’ve always found it important to be actually going out and talking to people and experiencing,” Mendez said. “I hear the numbers, but I have the stories, too.”
A group of students joke and chatter on their way to the fourth floor of the Silver Center on a Tuesday night as though they are about to go to a party. They are actually heading to a meeting of NYU’s chapter of the Asian Pacific American Medical Students Association. Despite the jovial atmosphere, the promptness of the proceedings and the food sitting on a table near the front of the room, Steinhardt senior Richard Hsu, the co-founder of NYU APAMSA, still seems a little uneasy. He is nervous and wants everything to be perfect for the guest speakers coming to the day’s meeting. “Sorry this was a very stressful event,” Hsu said, a strange comment to make about a highly organized, informative and enjoyable gathering. His worries make sense, however, when contextualized in his track record of accomplishments. Hsu maintains a busy schedule of working in the emergency room at Bellevue Hospital Center, serving as a member of the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity and the vice president of administration of the Interfraternity Council, leading APAMSA, serving as senior class president of the Steinhardt Undergraduate Student Government and holding a college re-
cord in weightlifting. Hsu grew up with expectations of professionalism and excellence — members of his family attended Johns Hopkins, Yale and Cornell universities, and many are in the medical field. “I’ve always felt like I have a lot to live up to, but I think since college I’ve formed my own identity, which has really given me a sense of meaning,” Hsu said. “When I was a kid, the last thing I wanted to be was a doctor because I wanted to do my own thing, but it ended up being that I actually loved medicine.” Hsu learned his love for medicine and passion for helping people while on a January term trip to Guatemala during his sophomore year. While there, he provided health services and worked in a soup kitchen. He learned about the inequalities in the Guatemalan health system and the widespread malnutrition among the lower class. “When I worked with a lot of people in the soup kitchen, they told me their stories and I was really touched by that,” Hsu said. He recalled talking to one of the soup kitchen patrons. “He said one of the main things about his struggle was that he hadn’t seen his family, and he started crying,” Hsu
said. “It was one of those epiphanies for me, like, ‘This is what I want to do.’” Hsu took his passion for outreach to co-found the NYU chapter of APAMSA with CAS senior Safi Ali-Khan when they were juniors Now in its second year, NYU APAMSA has over 50 active and diverse members, as well as six members on its executive board that plan outreach with other organizations including Be the Match and the Albert Einstein Medical School. Hsu was the recipient of the All-University Individual President’s Service Award this past spring because of his efforts with APAMSA and his other involvements on campus. Ali-Khan, who has known Hsu since they were freshmen, said there is no one more deserving of the award than Hsu. “His behavior and attitude have always indicated that he does what he does not for selfish reasons, or to fuel his own ambitions, but because he genuinely cares about his fellow NYU students and about the Asian and Pacific American community,” Ali-Khan said. Sustaining the community he created within APAMSA is Hsu’s top priority. He turned down the position of president when he was re-elected this year so he could mentor a younger student in
that role to ensure the club would be in good hands for years to come. “I want the club to be able to outreach more and I want people to feel like they can find a community within NYU,” Hsu said. “I would hope to see the club be able to cultivate strong friendships.” Fellow Phi Gamma Delta brother and co-worker at Bellevue Michael Avigneros, a CAS senior, said Hsu is a role model to other students who want to be involved at NYU. “He is humble about his involvement, but his selfless attitude, attention to detail, entrepreneurial ambition and passion to lend a hand to others at any given moment should not go unnoticed,” Avigneros said. “Without realizing it, his actions constantly influence others around him.” Hsu hopes to continue his service and involvement in public health after his graduation. “My dream is to have a career in preventative medicine and emergency management,” he said. “When I see patients come into the emergency room, they’re at the last stage, they’re already injured, they’re already facing trauma, but my career would be to focus on prevention and what systems need to be in place to protect but also to preserve the community.”
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I’ve always felt like I have a lot to live up to, but I think since college I’ve formed my own identity, which has really given me a sense of meaning.
hsu
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I know that if I stick and I work hard and passionate, then I ca amazing things
sophie lasoff by MARITA VLACHOU
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In February 2013, NYU Divest hosted its first event — a lecture that featured environmentalist Bill McKibben as the main speaker. The event brought 500 people to Cooper Union. On that day, Sophie Lasoff, founder of NYU Divest, knew her hard work had paid off. “That momentum was what really got our campaign going,” Lasoff said. “I was put into a leadership position that I had never been in before and became kind of the face of the campaign.” Lasoff founded NYU Divest in December 2012. Divest is an organization with the continued goal of convincing the university
to stop investing in companies affiliated with fossil fuels within five years. It also encourages divestment from direct ownership and any commingled funds that include fossil fuel public equities and corporate bonds. In the past two years, the club has grown to include 15 to 20 core members who work on the campaign, and its petition has received 1,800 signatures. Lasoff decided she wanted to start Divest after attending an event where McKibben spoke and encouraged students to start a divestment campaign at their respective schools. Lasoff became deeply concerned with the
STAFF PHOTOS BY jonathan tan
climate crisis and began studying the intersection of environmental and social justice. She began her activism work in 2011 by cocreating Farm to Live, an initiative working to build low-impact farms in northern New Jersey and New York. The initiative was a finalist in the 2011 Reynolds Changemaker Challenge. “Farm to Live … really helped me discover that that was my calling and that that was something I was really passionate about,” Lasoff said. Julianne Lutz Warren, LS professor and Lasoff’s instructor for a foundational environmental studies class, said Lasoff caught her attention from the very first day of class because of her enthusiasm. “She stood out as someone who would stir things up in a good way, asking the hard questions and also having announcements for students to be involved in things she was also involved in outside the classroom,” Warren said. Even in times of personal financial struggle, Lasoff did not stop advocating for change. After her freshman year, Lasoff had to move out of NYU housing. For the next two years, she could only afford to go to school part time. She took two evening classes because she had to work full-time as a live-in nanny to finance her education. She is now a full-time Gallatin student. “I could drop everything because of my own personal challenges,” Lasoff said. “But I care enough about those issues and about the community that I’m a part of, that I’ve made a lot of sacrifices for that and I think that has gone a long way.” Although she is the founder, NYU Divest does not have a president. Lasoff recognizes the importance of sharing responsibility as a team and encouraging other members to speak up. She said she tries to not control everything. “I think it’s actually a lot harder to take the back seat and let people grow in terms of their leadership than it is to just control everything and do everything yourself,” Lasoff said. CAS senior and NYU Divest member Priya Mulgaonkar said Lasoff has been trying to develop awareness on environmental issues across the student body and motivate people to fight for their goals. “So many students forget that we have influence over how the university is run,” Mulgaonkar said. “She reminds people of that and inspires them to do something about it.” Lasoff grew up in suburban Los Angeles, in a family where community values were important, but felt isolated from her peers. Once she came to NYU, Lasoff found her niche by providing a helping hand to students looking for support. “Finding that community was so important to me,” Lasoff said. “Because I feel like NYU is often very isolating and when they come into this work they find a community that really not only cares about real issues in the world, but cares about them.” At the moment, NYU Divest is working with the official University Senate Working Group on Fossil Fuel Divestment, which was established after the organization asked NYU President John Sexton to meet with them last spring. Lasoff hopes the University Senate will approve a divestment resolution and bring the case to the Board of Trustees, which will decide on divestment. In the meantime, Divest is continuing with its campaign to mobilize the NYU community and pressure Sexton to speak publicly on the issue. “I’ve proven to myself my capacity to make change, and that reinforces my desire to continue, because I know that if I stick with it and I work hard and I stay passionate, then I can do amazing things,” Lasoff said.
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