Archive for May 2014

Interested in a Columbia University Interschool Fellowships?

Each year, Columbia makes a few scholarships and fellowships available to students from all schools within the University. These awards, known as Interschool Fellowships, are the result of donations from generous supporters of the University and tend to have very specific eligibility criteria. To see if you may meet the eligibility criteria required to apply for these awards, please review them at: http://sfs.columbia.edu/grad-institutional-aid.

If you meet the full criteria for one or more of these Interschool Fellowships, to apply please go to: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?usp=drive_web&formkey=dDZqVzNQQVJvUE5EbF9Pc0JqQWFmT0E6MA#gid=0

Please do not apply for an award for which you do not meet all criteria. Applications that do not meet the full criteria, or applications that are incomplete, will not be accepted. If there is any required documentation indicated for the award/s for which you are applying, please submit that to the SIPA Financial Aid Office by Monday June 16.

As these awards are for Columbia students University-wide, SIPA does not choose the recipients, we can only nominate eligible applicants. Decisions are made by central administration, and those decisions are final. Decisions will be made in mid-August.

Please submit all applications to the SIPA Financial Aid Office no later than the close of business, Monday June 16, so that we can properly review all applications.

Yellow Ribbon Program

The Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs is pleased to announce the application for the Yellow Ribbon Program Scholarship, available to eligible veterans of the US Armed Forces, for the 2014/15 academic year.

The Yellow Ribbon Program is an initiative authorized by the Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2008 (the Post-9/11 GI Bill) in which educational institutions provide eligible student veterans with a partial tuition waiver or grant matched by the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs. This program supplements the base educational benefits provided by the Post-9/11 GI Bill. To be eligible for the Yellow Ribbon Program, you must be a US veteran eligible for the maximum level (100%) of benefits under the Post-9/11 GI Bill according to your VA Certificate of Eligibility. If you are a veteran of the US Armed Forces and would like to learn more about eligibility for these benefits, please visit the GI Bill website at www.gibill.va.gov/.

SIPA is committed to honoring those who have served our country by being one of seventeen individual schools at Columbia University participating in the Yellow Ribbon Program.   An application is required and will be available on our website by Monday June 9, 2014 at noon, Eastern Daylight Time. The application will be a Google document that is to be submitted online; no other documentation is required. Those who received a Yellow Ribbon scholarship at SIPA in the 2013/14 academic year and will be enrolled at SIPA for 2014/15 [and have maintained their eligibility] need not reapply, the award will be renewed in an amount based on available funding.

SIPA cannot guarantee funding for every eligible candidate, and funding will be on a first come, first served basis, so please make sure that you complete the application no later than June 27, 2014.

what’s going on this summer

This weekend I went to Baltimore, MD (nicknamed “Charm City”) for a visit with friends and family.  We had beautiful weather and delicious crab (if you like that kind of stuff).  But as I was wandering the streets of Baltimore thinking about how to get from one part of town to the next… I remember that one of our current MPA students is working on getting public transportation to the people.  Anthony Scott, MPA 2015 is back in Baltimore interning this summer with the MTA and working on the Baltimore Red Line development, a $2.6 billion light rail investment that would connect east and west Baltimore.   One of the most anticipated stations is the West Baltimore MARC Station. Located in the Midtown Edmondson (M/E) neighborhood of West Baltimore, this is the only station in West Baltimore that will connect Baltimore’s local public transit directly to the regional commuter rail, which travels to Washington, DC.

As an intern for the MTA and a self-named community liaison between the MTA and the Baltimore neighborhood, Anthony will be attending a lot of meetings, taking notes, and ensuring information is passed along to the community, and that the community’s concerns are communicated to MTA.  The  overarching goal is to ensure that the gains in transparency and accountability that come with improved communication are sustained.  If you are interested in following Anthony on his MTA summer internship, you can read more about it on his “Development Without Displacement” blog,  http://developmentwithoutdisplacement.com/.

 

A sea of blue

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A little rain did not stop approximately 600 of our SIPA graduates clothed in Columbia University blue regalia from celebrating the completion of their degree programs this morning.

This year’s graduation speaker, Thomas E. Donilon, former National Security Advisor to President Obama provided the new graduates with words of wisdom on policy and insight on how SIPA graduates are poised to make an impact on the world.

His parting words to the class was “never stop learning“.

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We have empowered our graduates to serve the global public interest by educating them to serve and lead and by producing and sharing new knowledge on the critical public policy challenges facing the global community.  Congratulations to the SIPA Class of 2014!

Commencement 2014

Graduation is this week.  You can be part of the festivities by watching this year’s ceremonies live online:

University Commencement
Wednesday, May 21, 9:30 a.m.: Watch live »

SIPA Graduation
Thursday, May 22, 10:45 a.m.: Watch live »

If you are planning to visit us tomorrow or Thursday, avoid the morning hours as it will be difficult to get through campus without a University ID (or a ticket for Commencement).

The Admissions and Financial Aid Office will be open all day tomorrow (if you manage to find your way here) but the office will be closed between 9am and 1pm on Thursday, May 22 as we will be assisting with the SIPA Graduation.

 

 

"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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