GISA, the Graduate India Students Association, was established in 2006 by a group of Indian graduate students to meet the need " of new students coming from India to make a smooth transition" into the NYU- Poly community at large and "to provide an avenue to bridge the social gap among the graduate students at the university" says President and Vice-President.
According to Jain and Parmar most of the new Indian students from abroad are graduate students, 700 strong, while the undergraduate Indian students are very few and have well established family networks in the United States.
GISA makes up for this.
GISA is a surrogate home away from home for the new graduate Indian students. Jain and Parmar say that it's members represent several demographics. They try to enrich their members lives on and off campus "with talent shows, Diwali celebrations, festivals, cultural extravaganza's , movie nights, sports tournaments, and picnics to Central Park and more", says the officers. Also, they will have Bollywood movie nights featuring former Miss World, singer, dancer and actress, Aisswarya Rai, if requested; and several movies.
Jain says the purpose of GiSA is," to provide a forum and common ground for all the graduate Indian students to connect with each other and connect with NYU-Poly community." The idea is to make the fertile and rich Indian history available to the Indian graduate students in the United States.
Jain says they're having this semester a "New Student Orientation" which is going to be at the end of January. With the "New Student Orientation" program GISA assists by signing the new students into GISA, help with mobile phone plans to buy, where to look for places, how to use the MTA map and routine information, renting an apartment, and airport pick-ups.
They are going to have a Spring Festival-Navring (GISA.Poly.edu has all the information on the Navring spring festival and the Diwali fall festival).
Jain says GISA relates very well with the other graduate clubs on campus very well. GISA coordinates with the coordinator of the graduate clubs and director of the Turkish Student Association, Suleyman Cavusoglu and Mrs. Kara Mitchell, associate director for Graduate and Student Services-she is like a mentor, says Jain. GISA has a good relationship with the Chinese Graduate Club, The Turkish Graduate Club, and the Saudi Arabian Graduate Club.
Jain's major is Computer Science and he's graduating this May and looking to enter a Ph.D program in the field of Cyber- Security at most probably NYU-Poly. He is focusing on NYU-Poly strongly because his mentor, Professor Nasir Memon("He is his inspiration" Parmar says) will work with him.
Parmar, the vice-president, will be graduating in Computer Science in May, work for a few years and finally pursue her MBA strongly at NYU-Stern. She wants to work for a well established company.
Parmar has recently has been elected to the NYU-Poly chapter in IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) as their president. |
