Six students from NYIT's global campuses traveled to the United Arab Emirates as delegates to the 2011 Education Without Borders conference with a common goal: helping underserved communities.

The students, chosen as a result of a highly competitive selection process, joined NYIT President Edward Guiliano and First Lady Mireille Guiliano, who served as mentors at the conference. More than 1,000 students and practitioners across 129 countries attended the event, held March 28-31, which focused on networking and collaborations to solve global problems with education and technology.

"If you put a thousand people together who all have good intentions, then good things are going to happen," says Jonathan Pekor, a physical therapy student from NYIT-Old Westbury. He shared his model for a national fundraising program that would provide opportunities for health care students, previously discouraged by the high cost of travel, to volunteer overseas.

Nursing student Margarita Koutsouras, also from NYIT-Old Westbury, developed a toolkit for students preparing for service in world health initiatives. "I am dedicated to global health and collaborative humanitarian efforts," she says. "This opportunity increased my passion to offer service to others abroad."

Elyas Kashfi, a computer science student at NYIT-Bahrain, shared his ideas on how cloud computing can help promote a greener, more sustainable world by reducing infrastructure costs. He also discussed how cloud services can empower developing nations through less reliance on the latest technology to improve efficiency.

"This was the first conference I participated in. It was very interesting to learn about what other students have achieved so we can share knowledge with one another," he says.

As head instrument engineer at a chemical plant in East Amman, Dhirar Al-Mukhtar discovered a way to transform traditional oil and gas plants into solar energy plants, reducing the cost of power transmission. Presenting his findings at the conference, he says "this experience was a great way to learn about new ideas and improve my knowledge outside of the library." He is pursuing his master's degree in engineering and computing sciences at NYIT-Amman.

"I gained an invaluable amount of knowledge and experience," says Valerie Suttenberg, a mechanical engineering student at NYIT-Old Westbury. "By meeting so many students and innovators, I made important connections that will surely help me throughout my career."

Perhaps Christopher Jewth, a mechanical engineering student at NYIT-Old Westbury, summed up the global experience best. "It was a great opportunity to travel to one of the richest parts of the world in order to connect with students of different cultures, yet similar educational backgrounds, and learn how they explore issues and solve problems," he says.

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Spring 2011 Table of Contents