#NYUSteinhardt24 Student Spotlight: 2023-2024 Graduates

Grace Moser

BS in Childhood Education and Childhood Special Education, Minor in Educational Theatre

Tell us about yourself! What did you study at NYU Steinhardt? What kind of extracurriculars were you involved in?

My name is Grace Moser and I am a senior undergraduate student at NYU Steinhardt studying Early Childhood and Special Education with a minor in Educational Theatre. I've dedicated my life to teaching art, literacy, and integrated curriculums to elementary students. While at NYU, I worked as a designer at the Steinhardt Costume Shop and supported incoming students as a residential assistant (RA) at Brittany Hall. My core identity is an artist in every sense of the word. I love composition, theater, crafts, and performance. 

What is your favorite memory from your experience here?

My favorite memory from NYU Steinhardt is the Moonlight Ball, which is a dance welcoming students to housing. Being part of an RA team has truly transformed my experience and built amazing connections I wouldn’t trade for the world. The ball was at the Hall des Lumieres and it was themed with Gustav Klimt’s art. It was just a lovely night with my favorite people. 

What are your plans after graduation? Where do you see yourself in three years?

Post graduation, you can find me in California honing my artistic portfolio and breathing in sea air. I’ll be living with my best friends and working on my artistic disciplines. In three years, I believe I could likely be anywhere, from hiking Mt. Kilimanjaro to nannying in an Italian villa or beginning a master’s degree in studio art. But I think the most important thing is that in three years I hope to be pursuing my biggest passions with wild abandon.

What advice do you have for students in your field or program?

My advice would be to soak up your time with each of your young students. Our program moves quickly and often we become distracted from the impact of our work to complete what is being asked of us. But these days when I sit with my students, I try to hold onto those moments as they will likely feel like distant memories soon. I would advise emerging teachers that they are doing their best and to allow themselves to have pride in their work. 

Xander Brewer

MM in Music Technology

Tell us about yourself! What did you study at NYU Steinhardt? What kind of extracurriculars were you involved in?

I'm studying Music Technology, with a focus on how those with hearing impairments perceive music. As far as extracurriculars go, I was a part of the NYU Rhymez club for a while; we would do freestyle cyphers in the park, which has since spun out into its own non-NYU affiliated activity that I still participate in every Friday. Lots of my closest friends in New York City are from that group. 

I am also the president of the NYU Slam! club, which runs poetry workshops and hosts open mics and slams for spoken word poetry. We're taking the team to our very first invitational slam post-pandemic in St. Louis, Missouri, next month, so we're very excited about that. 

As a part of my work (I'm a full-time tech solutions engineer at a software security company), I also hosted a hackathon at NYU a couple of years ago where we taught students how to harness and find vulnerabilities in open-source software on Github.

What is your favorite memory from your experience here?

I studied abroad in Brazil with a bunch of folks from the Music Business program. It was great to step outside (however marginally) of my field of study and just explore a new country with some really great people. We hiked up to the top of Cristo Redentor!

What are your plans after graduation? Where do you see yourself in three years?

The very first thing I'm going to do is close my laptop and touch some grass. We do so much head work that we forget our bodies. I've been in the tech industry for nine years now, and I'd really like to see myself doing more physical things in the real world. Hopefully that means creating captivating immersive musical experiences for people. 

What advice do you have for students in your field or program?

I've thought a lot about this, and I was torn between saying two equally cliche pieces of advice, namely "Take classes and do work that you're passionate about" vs "Take classes and do work that will make you attractive to future employers." I've definitely done more of the latter and regret not doing much of the former, but I think if things were different, I would probably still regret at least some of the decisions I made. So, I guess my advice is this: No matter what you do, you will probably make the wrong decision at least 50% of the time. That's okay.  It's okay to regret things, as long as you don't get stuck there. That's how we learn where we want to put our energy in the future.

Fabian Froehlich

PhD in Educational Communication and Technology

Tell us about yourself! What did you study at NYU Steinhardt? What kind of extracurriculars were you involved in?

As a PhD student in Educational Communication and Technology, I researched on the intersection of technology and education. When I was not putting virtual reality (VR) headsets on participants for my work, I danced or sailed. 

What is your favorite memory from your experience here?

I remember the first day when I could come to class in person without wearing a mask and showing a daily screener. Seeing my professor and classmates for the first time without a mask was a blessing.

What advice do you have for students in your field or program?

Appreciate your critics, learn how to deal with failure, and follow your dreams.