This is the seventh entry in our “Top 10″ list for you to consider when communicating with our office and applying.

Number 7 – Check out our student, alumni, faculty, staff interview page.

One of the most common requests we get is from prospective students is the opportunity to speak with alumni, students, or faculty. The top priority of our faculty is to work with current students and they often are unable to respond to the high volume of email requests. We generally reserve contact with our alumni to current students for the same reason – sheer volume.

We do have student volunteers but their top priority is to focus on their studies and professional development. We do our best to put applicants in touch with current students but often this takes a bit of time and coordination.

However, you can hear from students, alumni, staff, and faculty by visiting our interview page. We have text and video interviews and biographies available and we continually try to add new content. This is a great way to hear directly from those with experience in our programs without having to wait.

The following video, featuring administrators, students, faculty, and alumni, is a great introduction to all that SIPA has to offer.  Enjoy.

First let me state what this entry is not.  The links you will find below are not the syllabi for new students entering in the fall of 2011.  The syllabi listed below are samples taken from courses taught in the 2010-11 academic year  for some of our core requirements.  Faculty are working over the summer to determine the exact content of classes for the upcoming semester and syllabi will be distributed during the first week of classes.

What this entry is trying to accomplish is to provide you with samples of content of our core degree courses from the past.  Some incoming students have made requests for examples from past courses and our curricular affairs office passed along the following.

So, please feel free to explore the syllabuses provided below to get an idea of the coursework and reading requirements.  Consider this a taste of a few of our offerings to get familiar with the work load and types of assignments you might expect.  Please do not attempt to contact the individuals listed in the documents as these courses have been completed.

Fall 2010 – U6006:  Strategic Thinking and Planning for General Mangers

Fall 2010 – U6005:  Effective Management in the Public Service

Fall 2010 – U6110:  Politics of Policy Making (MPA only)

Fall 2010 – U6800:  Conceptual Foundations of International Affairs (MIA Only)

Fall 2010 – U6500:  Quantitative Analysis

Fall 2010 – U6400: Economic Analysis for International and Public Affairs I

Spring 2011 – U6401:  Economic Analysis for International and Public Affairs II

Spring 2010:  Economics 4201 – Economics for International and Public Affairs II

Our summer reading series continues.  The first part of the entry contains information from a few more incoming students and a list of recent posts from faculty and current students follows.

New Students to Follow or Read

Anna Edgerton (Incoming MIA, dual degree with Journalism)

Twitter: @AnnaEdge4

Recently published on the World Policy Journal website Full project:

http://www.worldpolicy.org/blog/2011/05/27/digital-freedom-control

My article: http://www.worldpolicy.org/el-faro-story-el-salvador-online

Aly Jiwani (Incoming MIA)

Pakistan’s Brewing Sectarian War (Foreign Policy Magazine)

Wendy Lee (Degree Program: Dual Degree MPA from LSE)

Twitter: @wleerpcv

Personal Blog: http://www.asianpolyglot.com

Peace Corps Blog: http://roundtwocameroon.blogspot.com

Other Reading Opportunities – SIPA Faculty and Students

The Bad, the Bad-ass, the Badassilisks: A final project by Emiko Araki, Julia Charavoine, Feng Feng and Jennifer Wilmore in Craig Duff’s multiplatform storytelling course.

Hassan Abbas was interviewed by the Council on Foreign Relations: “A Low in Cycle of U.S.-Pakistan Ties.” He also blogs at the Asia Society and Watandost.

John Lyman guest-posts on “Pakistan-U.S. Relations Going Forward” at The Morningside Post, SIPA’s student-run blog.

Steven Cohen: “The Return of Drill, Baby, Drill” at The Huffington Post.

Gary Sick analyzes President Obama’s speech on the Middle East at his blog Gary’s Choices.

Rebecca Wexler (MIA ’11) writes, “Amateur Aid Causes Trouble in Haiti” at Writing About War, Thanassis Cambanis’ graduate seminar blog.

Polly Cleveland writes, “From Public Meat Markets to Derivatives Markets” at Dollars & Sense.

Stuart Gottlieb comments on the announcements by Mike Huckabee and Donald Trump at The Arena, Politico’s daily debate with policymakers and opinion shapers.

Howard Friedman writes, “Discrimination in Plain View: Walking out of a Restaurant” at The Huffington Post.

Michelle Chahine (MIA ’12) and a few SIPA students try to define “ambition” at her blog First Generation.

John Mutter talks about “Growing a Better Bike” at OnEarth.

One question we typically get from admitted applicants this time of year is advice for summer reading prior to the start of the fall term. There are generally two opinions from those I ask at SIPA about this topic.

The first group says something like, “Do as much fun reading as you can!  You won’t have any time to read “fun” stuff while at SIPA because you will be so busy.”  Of course your SIPA reading will be meaningful, but it might not be like reading a page turning popular novel.

The second group offers advice on reading that is directly related to what SIPA is all about.  This can be divided into reading materials specific to courses and reading that is just related to topics in international and public affairs.  A future entry will be posted with information on accessing class listings and example syllabi so you can look forward to that, but for now here are some digital resources for you to consider reading and following in the coming months.

SIPA Faculty Blogging and Online Forums:

Steven Cohen: The Huffington Post
Steven Cohen is director of SIPA’s Energy and Environment concentration; director of the MPA program in Environment Science and Policy; executive director of Columbia University’s Earth Institute.

Stuart Gottlieb: The Arena on Politico

Stuart Gottlieb teaches American foreign policy and counterterrorism.

Gary Sick: Gary’s Choices on Tumblr
Gary Sick is a senior research scholar at Columbia’s Middle East Institute and an adjunct professor at SIPA. He served on the National Security Council for three presidents, and is one of the nation’s foremost authorities on Iran and the Persian Gulf region.

Hassan Abbas: Asia Society and Watandost
Hassan Abbas is Quaid-i-Azam Professor with SIPA and Columbia’s South Asia Institute. He teaches courses focusing on politics, religion and security in South Asia.

Guillermo Calvo: The Ecomomist
Guillermo Calvo is the director of SIPA’s mid-career Program in Economic Policy Management (PEPM).  Professor Calvo’s main field of expertise is macroeconomics of emerging market and transition economies.

Rodolfo de la Garza: WNYC
Rodolfo de la Garza specializes in immigration, Latino political behavior, and public policy. He directs the Project on Immigration, Ethnicity, and Race and is vice-president of the Tomás Rivera Policy Institute at the University of Southern California.

José Antonio Ocampo: Project Syndicate
José Antonio Ocampo is director of Economic and Political Development concentration at SIPA, and a Fellow of the Committee on Global Thought at Columbia University. Professor Ocampo previously served in a number of positions in the United Nations and the Government of Colombia.

Jagdish Baghwati: The American Interest

Jagdish Baghwati is the Arthur Lehman Professor of Economics and a professor of political science.

Benjamin Orlove: Earth Institute’s State of the Planet
Benjamin Orlove focuses on environment and climate change. He is an anthropologist who has conducted field work in the Peruvian Andes, East Africa, the Italian Alps, and Aboriginal Australia.

Tanya Domi: The New Civil Rights Movement
Tanya Domi is Senior Public Affairs Officer at Columbia University’s Office of Communications and Public Affairs. She teaches human rights at SIPA.

Howard Freidman: The Huffington Post

Howard Friedman works as a statistician and health economist for the United Nations, currently focused on the areas of maternal and newborn child health, health expenditures, and fertility at UNFPA. He teaches health economics at SIPA.

Anne Nelson: PBS Media Shift
Anne Nelson specializes in international media development and has worked extensively as an analyst, evaluator, and practitioner in the field.

Ralph Da Costa-Núñez: The Huffington Post

Ralph Da Costa-Núñez is President and CEO of Homes for the Homeless, and President of Institute for Children and Poverty, an independent think tank which focuses poverty, homelessness, and the impact on children and families.

Student and alumni blogging:

SIPA’s student-run blog: The Morningside Post

Thanassis Cambanis’ graduate seminar blog: Writing About War.

Samantha Barthelemy (MIA ’11/Sciences Po dual-degree): SAMANHATTAN.

Michelle Chahine (MIA ’12): First Generation.

Josh Gartner (MIA ’06): China Policy Pod.

Francisco Noguera (MPA DP ’12): Next Billion

The following post was composed by Brittney Bailey.

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For those of you that have been admitted to SIPA, congrats! I know that many of you are in the midst of weighing the many pros and cons of each program to which you’ve applied.  So I wanted to address one of the more common questions we get in Admissions from admitted students just to help some of you manage expectations and to get a better understanding of the SIPA experience.  Incoming students always ask- what type of advising do students receive at SIPA?  How much guidance is provided from faculty and staff?

First, I will say that no matter which way you cut it, I think that a masters program requires much more personal planning and less faculty assistance than an undergraduate degree.  Nevertheless, in terms of advising, I do think that the SIPA program calls for very independent students.  Perhaps this is due to the fact that SIPA tends to attract older students, who have presumably honed their skills to use resources, extract guidance and may be a lot clearer when communicating what they want out of the program.  Or maybe it’s because of a general culture of independence within Columbia University.  The school is large and located in the most metropolitan, “rough and tough”, city in the US.           NYC demands a lot from its inhabitants and it makes sense that this same expectation would permeate the walls of this university.  Whatever the reason, here are a few pointers that might be helpful when trying to maneuver through the advising process at SIPA:

Do Your Research

Although this seems like an obvious pointer, it’s definitely worth noting.  Personal planning is the key to making sure that you can extract specific guidance from the resources around you, especially from the Deans who also serve as advisors.  Most Deans are in charge of various administrative and operational duties around the school so they have limited time to devote specifically to advising.  If you’ve done your own personal planning and can come to them with direct questions, it usually results in a much more fruitful advising session. For instance, this might seem a little extreme, but when I walked into my first meeting with a simple excel  listing classes I wanted to take and what requirements they would fulfill,  my advisor was ecstatic.  He then walked me through the list, told me who I could speak with to clarify certain requirements, and it helped us build a solid rapport for future sessions.

Befriend the Deans and Support Staff

Again, speaking from personal experience, I’ve found that being close to SIPA administration not only helps with advising, but guidance overall. From facilities up to the deans, many of my questions on how to maneuver through the Columbia bureaucracy have been answered by someone who was not necessarily an advisor.  Also, checking in regularly with the administration, even when it’s just to report concerns in a class, progress on a job search or something completely external from typical advising, really helps.

Sit Down with Professors

Although professors are not formally advisors, they are experts in their field that can guide you on what type of coursework would align with your planned career track. Also, I’ve found that when I have professor support for a class that doesn’t necessarily fall within the core requirements, it’s much easier to get SIPA advisors to find ways to apply the course to my degree program.

Use Your Biggest Resource- 2^nd Years

Lastly, the biggest resource you can use in selecting courses and maneuvering through the day-to-day at SIPA are 2^nd year students.  2^nd years can tell you everything- which classes are the most practical or theoretical, which professors are great, which books to actually purchase, who to contact for summer internships and how to make the most use of the few elective courses you have.  I know that this seems intuitive…but it’s probably one of the most under-utilized resources at the school.

Much like the “real world,” advising and building relationships with faculty at SIPA are really what you make of it.

“I can keep it brief. You should definitely come. Any questions?”

On that lighthearted note, Professor Sachs began his keynote speech on Tuesday’s Admitted Students Day. The topics he discussed after this initial joke weren’t always so sunny, though.

Climate change. Public health. The tsunami and nuclear disaster in Japan.

They are, as he put it, “a new set of complexities that our current leaders have not been trained to solve.” But that doesn’t necessarily imply a completely bleak worldview.

Watch this video of Professor Sachs’ speech to see the rest of the story:

It is not uncommon for SIPA faculty to be featured in the media.  Here is a recent compilation of some appearances.

________________

Steven Cohen asks “Can Obama Get His Sputnik Moment?”
CNN, January 26, 2011
“By recalling the challenge of Sputnik, the president is trying to summon America to a national effort to retool and revitalize our economy. America brings great resources and great difficulties to this newly competitive environment.”

Jeffrey Sachs gives State of the Union address a “thumbs down”
Wall Street Journal, January 26, 2011
“Professor Sachs … says the numbers won’t add up. That’s because [education, infrastructure and basic research] already take up a large chunk of the more than $600 billion of nondefense discretionary spending undertaken by the government.”

Dorian Warren provides commentary on State of the Union address
NY1, January 25, 2011 (Windows Media Player)

“I think it was a very good speech. I think he was drawing from the Tucson speech where he came across as post-partisan, as willing to reach across the aisle as unifier, that he defined the ‘we’ as a nation.”

Helios Herrera discusses the State of the Union address

Rede TV, January 26, 2011 (Portuguese)

“Obama’s proposed budget cuts will not be enough to cut the whole budget deficit and the Republicans might repeal them for that reason. The climate of bipartisanship at the speech will not change overall the political game. The republicans will do what is possible to make sure Obama does not get reelected in 2012.”

William Eimicke previews State of the Union address
WNYC, January 25, 2011
“Professor Eimicke said the president needs to get more specific. He’d especially like to hear more about the president’s plans for improving the nation’s infrastructure to help boost the economy and create jobs.”

Anya Schiffrin examines “Davos and the Gender Quota”
The Guardian, January 25, 2011
“The air is thin in Davos, and every January it gets saturated with testosterone as economic and business leaders swoop in for the annual meeting, momentarily replacing the resort town’s sea of ski parkas with a cloud of black suits. But we didn’t know how bad things were until it was reported that sponsors of the meeting have been told to make sure they bring one woman for every four men in their delegation.”

David Dinkins discusses his legacy as the first black NYC mayor
NY1, January 24, 2011
“Sometimes you will feel criticism is inaccurate and unfair. And sometimes you might feel, you know, you’ve got a point.”

William Eimicke presents the Picker Center’s police consolidation report to the City of Schenectady, NY
Albany Times-Union, January 25, 2011
WNYT-TV, WTEN-TV, WXXA-TV, YNN
“You’re spending less on rent, you’re spending less on technology, you’re spending less on equipment.”

Joseph Stiglitz comments from the World Economic Forum in Davos
Washington Post, January 24, 2011
“’If you work in emerging markets, you feel the energy. If you are in the U.S. or Europe, you see the numbers and it’s hard not to feel depressed.’”

Scott Barrett comments on Bill Gates’ donation to polio eradication
Associated Press, January 24, 2011
“Professor Barrett said if the World’s Health Organization’s next polio deadline is missed, it may be time to abandon the efforts  ‘Eradication cannot continue indefinitely. The situation is very fragile and at some point the alternative needs to be examined more carefully.’”

Diane Vaughan addresses NASA and the Challenger disaster, 25 years later
Orlando Sentinel, January 23, 2011
“Professor Vaughan, who researched NASA’s culture after Challenger and Columbia, says NASA has taken a different approach after Columbia: ‘Look at the recent attempts to launch Discovery and how long they’ve stood down for that. It doesn’t mean they [NASA engineers] are doing poorly. It means they identified a flaw and are taking safety seriously.’”

Gary Sick writes, “While You Were Reading About Ukrainian Nurses…”
Foreign Policy, January 19, 2011
“Real news was buried in WikiLeaks — like this revealing cable on Iran’s nuclear ambitions.”

Patricia Gorman Clifford discusses “What Do Business Schools Want?”
Washington Post, January 24, 2011
“The fact you are realistically evaluating your current skill set is a great place to begin. Some prospective students are so focused on gaining admission that they don’t think enough about managing the hard work and specific types of tasks that they’ll be expected to complete as a student.”

Jeffrey Sachs discusses the outlook for the European debt crisis
Bloomberg TV, January 18, 2011
Professor Sachs talks about the outlook for the European debt crisis, the economic growth outlook for Africa, the impact of globalization on U.S. society, and climate change.

Dorian Warren on Walmart and New York City
WNYC, January 18, 2011
“They waited until the political opportunity was much more advantageous for them in the sense of an economic recession. It’s muted some of the opponents’ claims about how Walmart will be bad for certain neighborhoods precisely because it’s hard to say we don’t want jobs Walmart would create.”

Joseph Stiglitz discusses “unsustainable imbalances” in emerging nations
El Mercurio de Valparaíso, January 16, 2011 (Spanish)
Professor Stiglitz visited Santiago, Chile to share his reflections on “unsustainable imbalances” in capital inflow with Columbia University graduates and former World Bank officials.

Arvind Panagariya comments on Indian growth and poverty
Times of India, January 14, 2011
In delivering the Raj Krishna Memorial lecture at the University of Rajasthan, Professor Panagariya said, “India’s economy is growing at over 12 percent in dollar terms. It’s $1.3 trillion economy can reach the size of China’s  $6 trillion in 15 years if it continues to grow at the current pace.”

Anya Schiffrin is blogging from the World Economic Forum at Reuters’ Davos Notebook. Read her latest “The Deepest Fear of the Davos Man.”

Howard Friedman blogs for The Huffington Post. Read his latest: “What Would Dr. King Think of Today’s Poverty?”

John Mutter was featured on TreeHugger in an article entitled, “Brooklyn’s Bamboo Bikes Hitting the Big Time in Ghana.”

Anne Nelson posted “Vietnam Fighting a Losing Battle Against Free Speech Online” at PBS’s  MediaShift blog.

Rodolfo de la Garza blogs for WNYC. Read his latest post, “The Case for Nonpartisan Redistricting.”

Gary Sick blogs at http://garysick.tumblr.com. Read his comments on “And Life Goes On: An Iran Snapshot.”

Steven Cohen blogs regularly for The Huffington Post. Read his latest post: “Civility is More Than Symbolism.”

Stuart Gottlieb comments regularly on The Arena, Politico’s daily debate with policymakers and opinion shapers.

What do all of the people in the photo collage below have in common?

They are all students or alumni of SIPA that have recently had either an interview or their biography posted to our web site.  If you did not know already, we have interviews with over 100 students, alumni, faculty, and administrators and you have access to all of them simply by clicking here.

This is a great way to for you to hear directly from those who are “in the know” and I encourage you to take advantage of this resource.

It is not uncommon to see SIPA faculty, students, and alumni in the news.  Below are a few recent examples.

Helping TANF Help Children

Professor Swati Desai has been appointed as a senior advisor to the Urban Institute, on a project to improve state performance measures for TANF – Temporary Assistance for Needy Families.

TANF is a federal program, providing cash assistance to indigent families with dependent children. The program is funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, providing block grants to states, which administer their individual programs.

Desai, an expert in performance management, will spend much of 2011 advising the Urban Institute in choosing and analyzing the data for states that have implemented state-level TANF performance measurement systems that includes both outcome and process indicators and have been identified as having promising practices.

“As planning for TANF reauthorization approaches, there is a focus on improving the program’s accountability structure,” said Desai. “The program was created to help needy families reach self-sufficiency by providing cash assistance, work opportunities, and other services. But under the current accountability structure, it is difficult to know whether the program is actually meeting this goal.  The Urban Institute study will help inform the policy debate by conducting in-depth case studies of a few states.”

Desai is an associate professor at SIPA, teaching public and nonprofit management, and performance management. She previously served in a variety of positions with the City of New York’s Human Resources Administration, most recently as Executive Deputy Commissioner for the Office of Evaluation and Research, which provides cash assistance, food stamps, and Medicaid to residents.

Wikileaks

Stephen Sestanovich writes “America’s Facile, Self-Congratulatory Response to Wikileaks,” in The New Republic.

Here is short excerpt from the article:

The case for confidentiality in diplomatic communications doesn’t make exceptions. Most negotiations can’t be successful if every move—every embarrassing concession in which you compromise a point today that you declared sacrosanct yesterday—is made in public. By and large, because the United States is so powerful, we actually gain the most from confidentiality. Secrecy can shield the concessions that others make to us. Without it, they are more stubborn, more fearful, less able to act.

On the Front Lines of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”

On December 18, Congress voted to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Veteran and SIPA alumnus Justin Johnson (MIA ’10) writes in the NY Daily News:

“Our battalion faced fierce combat as the 1,000 or so Marines conducted stability and security operations in a city of over 300,000. The bonds we formed in combat inspire and drive me to this day.

“The difficulty of this combat tour … forced me to confront my own mortality and make sense of what I experienced and what it meant for my life. I made the incredibly difficult decision to come out to my family and to leave active duty when my period of required service expired in June of 2005. I wanted to stay in the Marines, but did not want to serve in an environment where my entire life and career could be upended because of who I am – regardless of my performance in the position.” More

I am not what you would call an avid follower of The Simpsons television show, however I do watch it occasionally and have always been impressed with the way the creators integrate “real” people into episodes.

Recently I received an email from an alumnus of our program notifying me that a SIPA faculty member was mentioned in an episode.  Jagdish Bhagwati is professor at SIPA and from what I understand, what you see below is a ballot created on the show to help guess the winners of Nobel prizes.  One SIPA professor, Joseph Stiglitz, actually did win the Nobel Prize in economics in 2001.

This is the seventh entry in our “Top 10″ list for you to consider when communicating with our office and applying.

Number 7 – Check out our student, alumni, faculty, staff interview page.

One of the most common questions we get is from prospective students that wish to speak with alumni, students, or faculty. The top priority of our faculty is to work with current students and they often are unable to respond to the high volume of email requests. We generally reserve contact with our alumni to current students for the same reason – sheer volume.

We do have student volunteers but their top priority is to focus on their studies and professional development. We do our best to put applicants in touch with current students but often this takes a bit of time and coordination.

However, you can hear from students, alumni, staff, and faculty by visiting our interview page. We have text and video interviews available and we continually try to add new content. This is a great way to hear directly from those with experience in our programs without having to wait.

This entry is just a reminder that a great way to learn about our program is to hear directly from our students, faculty, and alumni.  You can do so by visiting our interview page.

Jonathan Burnston, an MIA student concentrating in Economic and Political Development, sat down for an interview during his first year at SIPA.  He talks about what he did prior to attending SIPA and discusses what SIPA has to offer.  Click here to view his interview.

There are a lot more interviews to take advantage of (pictures of just a few below) so be sure to check them out.

John Hughes just graduated from SIPA and during his second year of study worked in our office.  He is spending the better part of the summer in the office to assist with projects and help fill in for a staff member on maternity leave.  John is set up for a job in Washington, D.C. and will be moving there in August (our second largest alumni network in the world is in D.C if you were interested).

I asked John to reflect a bit on his experience as a SIPA student and contribute to the blog over the summer.  This is his sixth entry.

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I just finished speaking at one of our twice-weekly information sessions, where I was asked what sets SIPA apart from comparable schools.  I thought I’d recreate my response here, as I believe that it is true.

First, you have to think about what schools you are setting SIPA apart from.  The MIA and MPA, though largely similar in coursework at SIPA, have different rivals.  On the MIA side SIPA compares with schools like Georgetown, SAIS, Fletcher and GWU.  On the MPA side, however, SIPA compares with schools like Harvard, Woodrow Wilson and Syracuse.  SIPA is a top program in either degree, but the nice thing about it is that both groups of students are fully integrated.  This is one thing that sets SIPA apart.

Though some MPA programs have international components (i.e. Harvard) and other MIA programs have policy components (i.e. SAIS), none of the other top schools can boast that both student groups are integrated under the same roof.  The advantage of this comes in the diversity of student interests and career paths.  Public policy and international affairs are inherently intertwined, so it makes sense that future leaders in both fields would begin interacting in graduate school.

The single biggest strength of SIPA, in my opinion, lies in its massive alumni network.  This cannot be overstated.  SIPA has 16,000 alumni working in hundreds of different careers in hundreds of countries.  I don’t know of any other single factor that would be more important for a professional school.  SIPA students come here for the purpose of professional advancement, and having such a large alumni network to tap into to help with this advancement is very valuable.

Despite what you may hear or think, the majority of SIPA students find jobs through networking.  I’ve mentioned previously that some get hired through formal recruitment programs, which is true, but many more get jobs by contacting people who are able to put them in the right place at the right time.  I knew this to be the case coming in and therefore a large alumni network was important to me.

I found that every alumnus/a I have ever contacted from SIPA has been responsive, supportive and generally helpful.  Not all got me an interview, but they at least gave me things to think about that helped my search moving forward.  Also, I figured that not going to school in DC was not disadvantageous for my field of interest since SIPA had just as many or more alumni working in DC as the DC schools did.  I found this to be absolutely true.  That said, we also have more alumni in New York, London, Shanghai etc. than any other rival school.  This is something I highly recommend considering in your search.

Another big strength of SIPA I found was the incredible faculty.  It was wonderful to have so many classes to choose from.  However, what made these classes even more interesting was the people who taught them.  Most of your professors will be adjuncts.  Not all, by any means.  SIPA has many dedicated, knowledgeable, full-time professors.  However, there are many more who work full-time doing something else and who teach on the side.  At first blush this may sound like a disadvantage.  However, I should reiterate that it is a professional school.  These adjuncts don’t just have some other job; they have very interesting other jobs.

I had a finance professor who runs a hedge fund during the day and another who is the heading of global emerging markets at a large bank.  I had a security professor who worked for a certain intelligence agency in DC for many years.  I had an energy professor who was the head of scenario analysis planning at a large oil company before coming to SIPA.  There are many more like this.  These people are able to not only give you insight into how things really work in their fields; they are also able to shape the readings and coursework to give you the tools to enter that field.  They also tend to be a great networking resource.

The last advantage, as I mentioned on my earlier post about the World Cup, is the student body.  For me, studying international affairs with students from over 100 countries was a huge draw.  No other school can come close to SIPA’s diversity.  Being able to hear from classmates that have direct experience in the places we are studying adds a valuable element.

The student body is also really, really interesting.  Everybody I knew at SIPA had done something cool before graduate school, and all had (and still have) impressive goals.  After only two years I consider some of my SIPA classmates to be some of my best friends, and I am sure we’ll stay in touch for many years.

As most of the world is aware, perhaps the most well known sporting event in the world begins today.  What you might not know is that Columbia University has a very close connection to the World Cup.  Sunil Gulati, the President of the United States Soccer Federation, just so happens to be an economics professor on our campus.

The time zone of NYC will make for interesting viewing times for games.  Greece plays South Korea for example at 7:30 AM on Saturday and my wife, being a South Korean native, will make sure we are up with coffee when kick off occurs.  Good luck to your country, as for me, if a game between a South Korea and the  U.S.  occurs it would likely result in my wife and I watching the game in different locations =)

In an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, Professor Gary Sick said “As the regime has cracked down harder and harder, they’re getting better at it. Repression does work. And they are now much more organized in terms of keeping things quiet and keeping the opposition down than they were before.  Click here to view the CNN video.

Professor Sick served on the National Security Council under Presidents Ford, Carter, and Reagan. He was the principal White House aide for Iran during the Iranian Revolution and the hostage crisis.

The following blog entry was prepared by Sandhya Chari, an MPA student concentrating in Economic and Political Development.

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When I reflect on what I’ve learned at SIPA, I find myself very appreciative of my opportunity to study under adjunct faculty. While the full time professors have been nothing short of excellent, I would never have anticipated the importance or impact of the practitioners in my academic career. Last year, I had the opportunity to take Tools for Advocacy, taught by two professors from George Soros’ foundation, OSI, and a course in Microenterprise Development taught by a professor who also works full time at Development Alternatives Inc. (DAI). This semester I also have the good fortune of taking a course in Microfinance with a professor who spends the majority of his time working at Oxfam.

For me, these courses have all provided that necessary real world touch that I wanted out of my policy education. Of course, I know the importance of economics, statistics and development theory and I enjoy those course as well, however these other classes have offered something uniquely different. They have provided opportunities for real world hands on learning, with more feedback for learning without the risks that come with the real world. Like most of my peers, I worked before coming back to SIPA, but one of the biggest reasons for my return to school was that I wanted a shift in my career. As such, a lot of what I hope to do after graduate school will be new for me. For this reason, it is great to ‘get my feet wet’ in an academic setting first.

For example, I had never before encountered a request for proposal or had the need to apply an advertising campaign to a policy issue. My classes taught by professionals currently in the field have given me the opportunity to do these things. They have presented me with work that is identical to what they deal with every day, and have allowed me to learn the basics of creating these things in an academic environment. Further, they have provided a great meeting point of academic theory and practice. The professors assign the readings that they know shape their work and then show how those readings are regularly applied in their professional environment. This makes the experience of doing the reading much more interesting as it shows direct use and application beyond classroom discussion.

In addition to these practical skills, working with practitioners has also allowed for an opportunity to meet with professionals in the fields I am interested in. Having sustained interaction in a non-professional setting with these professors has allowed me to catch a different glimpse into their work lives. It has allowed me also to seek their mentorship regarding career possibilities and to explore other areas that might be of interest to me based on their course or organization. In short, they serve as one stop resources where students are able to learn about their field of interest in setting that is academic and professional at the same time.

These classes have been invaluable to my time here at SIPA, in fact this summer I was able to directly use things I learned in my micro-enterprise course. I found my bosses referencing the authors we had read, and I found discussions at meetings focused around topics we studied in the classroom. I had never before experienced a melding of classroom and conference room in quite that way before. I’m really thankful that I have the chance here to work with faculty who are in the field I see myself working in some day.

The following was prepared by SIPA student Abibata Shanni Mahama, a second year MIA student concentrating in Economic and Political Development.

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Prior to SIPA, my concern was mostly how to get adjusted to a new environment and culture entirely different from Ghana but little did I know that there were resources at Columbia University which could easily make me feel at home. This thought vanished right away after the International Students Orientation organized by The International Students and Scholars Office which is very resourceful in getting international students settled for classes. They touched on every bit of student life in a different environment from academic, expressions, language to social life.  As part of the orientation, they  planned  activities for International students to get accustomed to the City of New York and historical places in the United States. The interactions I got from my fellow students alone boosted my morale and confidence of studying at SIPA which is situated in the heart of New York City with easy access to transport and Broadway shows.

SIPA also has a  rich blend of Student and Faculty of different nationalities from all over the world representing all continents. Each year approximately 50% of the students at SIPA are international. In fact some students from different schools at Columbia University jokingly refer to SIPA as “Mini UN”. The diversity of rich backgrounds and knowledge make learning fascinating as we learn from each others culture aside academic work. I have particularly achieved a lot of understanding of global issues pertaining to policy by interacting with students from regions relevant to my research for deeper analysis of the issues at stake.

For example, before I came to SIPA I had a little knowledge of Africa until I took courses in Economic and Political Development where a wide array of topics are centered on the African Continent where development struggles to address the need of the people that are the targets of the projects. This has given me an insight into the problems and challenges of Africa in terms of development and also paved the direction of the processes to be followed in formulating and implementing policies in the most deprived regions of concern if I ever come across similar issues after graduating from SIPA.

International students at SIPA are treated the same as United States citizens. Every student is equally important and relevant. However, the grading system of SIPA is different from other schools. Therefore it is important to find out from respective professors on their grading pattern.

There are many ways to gather information about SIPA. Our Web site, this blog, and a visit to SIPA are just a few of the ways.

iTunes is another avenue you can use to obtain information about opportunities available to our students. When you open iTunes and visit the iTunes store simply type “SIPA” into the search box and you will find a long list of SIPA lectures, forums, and panels available for download. They are all free and we publish events as they happen so repeat the search on a consistent basis for updates.