New York

We fly to New York and have a welcome dinner.

We spend the morning exploring Central Park and other famous green spaces in the city, beginning our trip by experiencing New York as New Yorkers do–out in the streets exploring. We’ll also visit indoor farms and other social enterprises working to promote sustainable lifestyles in a megapolis.

In the morning, we’ll visit iconic spaces like Soho, Little Italy, and Ground Zero. Beyond checking off the ‘must-sees’ of NYC, we discuss the historical significance and meaning of each location for New Yorkers’ identity, as well as their symbolism for the world.

In the late afternoon, we visit Union Market, exploring the market and sampling international foods and spices. Interested students have the opportunity to stop by New York University, where we meet with admissions officers and administrative leaders to learn about how they work to best serve the enormous diversity of students at their institute.

In the morning, we explore the city’s “Five Points” neighborhoods, and learn about the complicated ethnic and religious struggles for migrant families in the nineteenth century. We’ll visit several sites that help us understand the struggles these communities faced after coming to America through Ellis Island.

In the afternoon, we turn our attention to the modern side of politics through a guided tour of the United Nations. We visit the newly renovated General Assembly Hall, the Security Council Chamber, the Trusteeship Council Chamber, and the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Chamber in the renovated Conference Building, and learn about how the United Nations addresses issues such as disarmament, peace and security, human rights, and the Millennium Development Goals.

During the morning, we visit the spectacular indoor Chelsea Food Market, experiencing the sights, sounds, and flavors of this 118-year-old historic landmark building (the birthplace of the Oreo Cookie!). We taste our way through one of the world’s most diverse and most popular indoor food markets, trying different specialties and learning about the work and passions of the various artisanal vendors. In the afternoon, we enjoy some creations by some of NY’s best pizza chefs.

We visit a social enterprise in Brooklyn where we’ll learn about twenty-first-century approaches to business that benefits the public good.

Taking advantage of our newly developed comfort with NYC, we push students to expand their comfort zones and sense of adventure! Dividing into small teams, students are given City Missions to complete within the city environment. The nature of the challenges require interacting with the people and places in a different way than they have been previously used to, asking questions, conducting observations, and learning things about the city and themselves. Each team has a different ‘mission theme’, and, at the close of the activity, the team members separate and meet with other teams to debrief on their experience and learnings.

We spend our final day in New York touring the Statue of Liberty and other iconic landmarks that symbolize the deeply global and cosmopolitan spirit of NYC.

We close off the program in the morning, and catch our flights back home.