Archive for August 2010

New Student Photo Series 2010 – Post #29

This entry will likely conclude our series on new student photos for this summer.  Thank you to everyone that participated!

Timothy Sandole is responsible for the first set.  He will be pursuing his MIA degree.

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A Sarajevo Rose is a concrete scar caused by a mortar shell’s explosion that was later filled with red resin.  Because Sarajevo was a site of intense urban warfare and suffered thousands of shell explosions during the Bosnian war of the 1990s, the marked concrete patterns are a unique feature to the city.  If time was taken to fill the concrete scar with the red resin, this marked where an individual lost their life.

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Jahorina Mountain was the site of the 1984 Yugoslavian Winter Olympics for women’s alpine skiing.  The moutain is located directly southeast of Sarajevo.  In this picture, a military installation of the Bosnian-Serb army is left in ruins possibly due to the bombing campaign by NATO forces during 1990’s war.

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Baščaršija is the main street of Sarajevo and one of its landmarks. It is located in the old town part of Sarajevo, designed in the OttomanTurkish style. It has souvenir shops and public fountains, and contains a bazaar that sells metalwork, jewellery and pottery. Each street is dedicated to a craft. It was built in the 16th century.

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Stari Most is a 16th century bridge in the city of Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina that crosses the river Neretva and connects two parts of the city. The Old Bridge stood for 427 years, until it was destroyed on November 9, 1993 during the Bosnian War. Subsequently, a project was set in motion to reconstruct it, and the rebuilt bridge opened on July 23, 2004.

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This next set was submitted by Gregg Sgambati, an incoming EMPA student.

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US-Mexico border in Nogales, AZ / Nogales, Mexico – US/Mexico border pictures are interesting to me, not because of the contrast of poor, undeveloped infrastructure on one side in comparison to the other, but because of the Mexican population living next to the wall and the disparity with the US side–in this case: Nogales, US population: 20,0000, Nogales, Mexico population, 159,000.
GAS to SIPA Admissions Blog-1
Photo #4: A huge Buddha phantasm floating in the Kadamapa Buddha temple in Glen Spey, NY.  A wonderful retreat for city dwellers to enjoy solitude and have a chance to learn the introspection that Buddhism teaches.
GAS to SIPA Admissions Blog-4
Homeless or perhaps sleeping, this person huddles on the stoop of an abandoned building in Brooklyn, NY.  New Yorkers are immune to the sense of human defeatism on their front stoops and streets.
GAS to SIPA Admissions Blog-5
Off of the northern coast of Honduras, a group of Garfiunas take to sea to gather a particular type of sand from a remote
shore to use for building a home.  The Garifunas are descendants of African slaves (brought to Honduras to work on the sugar plantations) and the Carib (indian) people whose history is rather legendary.  Look them up!
GAS to SIPA Admissions Blog-6

Spring Admission Notes #1

With the spring admission deadline only a month away I thought I would spend a few entries to elaborate a bit on the time line and details related to spring admission to our MIA and MPA programs.  I will offer my thoughts on compiling the best application possible in a different set of entries, these entries will be more about the  nuts and bolts of the process.  First off will be a few notes about the submission of documents and the time line.

The deadline to submit materials for spring admission is October 1st.  This means everything needs to be submitted on the application site or received in our office by October 1st at 11:59:59 P.M.  As a reminder, 100% of your application materials can be submitted online and this is our preference.  The reason is that this allows us to print your application all at one time without having to complete a matching process which can be time consuming.

Related to the deadline, applicants are directly responsible for submitting all of their information except for letters of recommendation.  Without fail, the biggest hindrance to completing an application on time each year is the on time submission of letters of recommendation.  Every year near the deadline we receive panicked emails from applicants informing us that for some reason a letter of recommendation will not be in by the deadline.

With this in mind, do everything in your power to ensure that letters of recommendation are submitted on time.  My advice is to ask the recommenders to submit the recommendation a minimum of one week prior to the actual deadline.  Thus it would be wise to reach out to these individuals and and ask them to submit the letters by September 24th.

We prefer that recommendation letters be submitted online because as I stated, we print the application all at one time.  If all of the letters are submitted online, they print with the rest of your application.  If the letters are mailed, we print your application and if the letters are not present, we have to then look to see if the letters were received by mail which takes additional time.

As a reminder, everything else can be self reported online by the application.  Applicants self report test scores on the application and upload all of the required documents.  We do not require that official test reports be received in our office by the admission deadline.  More details on what happens after the deadline passes in future entries.

Confusing and Harrowing?

When I talk with prospective students about the application process there is often a bit of palpable stress in the air.  By this I mean applicants often seem intimidated by the process of applying.  I have heard words such as “harrowing” and “confusing” tossed into conversation when describing the admission process.

I think people are programmed to think of the application process as difficult, however I could not disagree more.  The process is incredibly simple.  Now when I say this I am referring to the actual process of submitting the application.  I am not referring to the actual “degree of difficulty” in putting together documents that best represent your skills, abilities, and potential.  One could say that the process of applying can be divided into the technical realm and the preparatory realm.

In the technical realm, the online application is straightforward.  One must:

  • Fill in biographical information
  • Enter the names of three recommenders
  • Upload transcripts, personal statement responses, and two résumés
  • Self report the necessary test scores
  • Pay the application fee

That’s it.  The actual process of filling in the application and uploading the necessary documents should take no more than one or two hours.  I would argue that it is less harrowing than setting up a Facebook profile and figuring out Facebook’s user interface.  When applying to SIPA there is no need to have test scores or transcripts mailed, no interview, and no trips to the post office needed.  Full details can be found here.

I can understand the outcome of the admission process being described as harrowing; after all, you are talking about your future.  The future is unknown and thus by definition is harrowing.  However, do not be intimidated by the process of working through our on line application.   The preparatory part of the process (constructing your personal statement, putting together your resume) can be a bit daunting and I will offer advice on these topics in future entries so stay tuned.

Back in the Swing

During the summer the SIPA building is a very quiet place.  The reason for this is that we do not offer summer courses.  Each student that graduates from SIPA will have a minimum of 30 weeks of professional development experience.  15 weeks come through an internship and 15 weeks come through a workshop.

Students are responsible for finding their own internships, but we offer a lot of assistance through Career Services, faculty, alumni, and current students.  We want students to be able to go anywhere in the world to complete their internship and thus we do not offer summer courses so that students can focus full time on professional development and resume building.  Workshops are group projects composed of 5-6 students working for an outside client.  The workshops are set up by faculty and administrators and students pick from a predetermined list.  Workshops take place during the academic year.

Back to the point of this entry . . . the quiet atmosphere of SIPA will cease next Monday as we welcome new students for Orientation and the following week returning students will be back for the start of classes.  Once classes start the building buzzes with activity each and every day.  It is typical for there to be 10-15 events each week featuring amazing speakers.  Here is just a taste of what will be featuring as the semester starts.

We will have Leaders in Global Energy lecture series starting on September 15.  Opening remarks will be given by Nabuo Tanaka of the International Energy Agency.  He will be followed by the Portuguese Prime Minister, Jose Socrates, in late September.

CH Tung, the first Chief Executive of Hong Kong and one of SIPA’s Global Fellows will be speaking on US-China Relations on September 17.

EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso will be speaking at the World Leaders Forum on campus and will likely address SIPA students following the main university event.

We will have updates on the blog regarding events so stay tuned.

New Student Photo Series 2010 – Post #28

This week we are wrapping up our summer photo series featuring submissions by incoming students.  Thank you to everyone who has participated, it’s been another great summer of photo submissions.

The first three photos were submitted Salinthip (Joyce) Tangpanjapon, an incoming international dual degree student.

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Each year on Aug 12th Thailand not only celebrates the birthday of Her Majesty Queen Regent Sirikit, but it also treats this day as the national mother’s day.  As a traditional custom, fresh flower garlands (refer to “garland”
photo) are given to Mother as a symbol of respect and love.

Moreover, as a tropical country, Thailand has many exotic plants and flowers. For instance, the pink/white lotus grows naturally in a river or lagoon, coconut trees mostly found near to the beach, and the red flower. Thai flowers are in high demand as common export product.

Pink Thai Lotus

Garland

Coconut

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And the last photo comes from Emily Loebelson, an incoming MIA student.

This photo was taken in Kashgar, Xinjiang Province, China.  The photo shows Uighur children playing in the old part of Kashgar, the westernmost city in China.  The old town is quickly being razed to make room for the construction of a new modern city.  I had been living in Shanghai for almost three years before I was able to get out to Xinjiang, and I was wandering the streets gobsmacked at this totally different civilization in western China when I ran into these lively kids.

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"The most global public policy school, where an international community of students and faculty address world challenges."

—Merit E. Janow, Dean, SIPA, Professor of Practice, International and Economic Law and International Affairs

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