Author Archive for Emily Tao – Page 11

Learn About Policy & International Affairs Graduate Programs at Summerfest 2018: Boston, Washington, D.C. and NYC

Posted by Emily Tao 
· Monday, June 11th, 2018 

This summer we’ll be joining four other top graduate programs in public policy and international affairs for Summerfest 2018! These mini graduate-school fairs will be in Boston, Washington D.C. and New York City. Representatives from the following graduate programs will be available at each Summerfest to discuss admissions requirements, the application process, financial aid, and more:

  • Columbia University– School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA)
  • Georgetown University– Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service
  • Johns Hopkins University– The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS)
  • Princeton University– The Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs
  • ​Tufts University– The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy

If you want to learn about SIPA in-person, you can always visit us at an on-campus event. And this summer and fall, we’ll be traveling globally for graduate school fairs and other events. Until then, I hope you’ll join all of us at a Summerfest!

Summerfest Boston
Wednesday, June 20, 2018 | 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University
160 Packard Ave.
Medford, MA 02155
*Transportation from Davis Square will be provided.

Summerfest Washington, D.C.
Wednesday, June 27, 2018 | 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Georgetown University Law Center
Gewirz Student Center, 12th Floor
600 New Jersey Ave.
Washington, D.C. 20001

Summerfest New York City
Wednesday, July 18, 2018 | 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM
International Affairs Building, Columbia University
420 West 118th Street, Room 1501
New York, NY 10027

Summerfest Washington, D.C.
Thursday, July 19, 2018 | 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies
1740 Massachusetts Ave. NW
Washington, D.C. 20036

Categories : SIPA

Interschool Fellowship Applications Due by June 22

Posted by Emily Tao 
· Friday, June 8th, 2018 

Congratulations to all of the winners of the Columbia Graduate Global Policy Fellowships! Among the winners are seven SIPA students, two of which are are Human Rights and Humanitarian Policy students, which is one of the submission requirements for this fellowship.

Interschool Fellowships are open for application. 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.

Click here for the Interschool Fellowship application. The deadline is Friday, June 22, and any documents that require original copies of official sealed documents should be delivered directly to the SIPA Financial Aid Office by the that date.

Since these awards are for all Columbia University students, SIPA nominates eligible applicants but does not choose the recipients. The decisions will be made later this summer. We encourage SIPA students to click here for more information about the fellowships and application process. Here are some descriptions of the available fellowships:

  • Clifford and Siegfried Upton Scholarship — Requirements: Children, adopted children, and step-children of the employees of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Company (Boston-based), its subsidiaries, or successor companies.  Available to graduate or undergraduate students.
  • Leta Stetter Hollingworth Fellowship — Requirements: Columbia graduate student who is also a woman graduating from or has graduated from the University of Nebraska.
  • Paul Nichoplas Scholarship Fund — Requirements: A male or female student in any area of the University who has attended college or university in Greece.  Available to graduate or undergraduate students.
  • Vladimir and Olga Poder Fund — Requirements: Estonian-speaking students attending Columbia. Available to graduate or undergraduate students.
  • George W. Ellis Fellowship — Requirements: Graduate students who are residents of Vermont or who have graduated from an accredited Vermont college or university.
  • The Lydia C. Chamberlain — Requirements: Students who have resided at any time in the State of Iowa and graduated from a college or university located in Iowa. The award is based on scholastic standing, seriousness of purpose, moral character and the real need of financial help and used to pursue advanced and graduate studies in Columbia University.

Pretty specific, right? So if you meet the full criteria for any of these Interschool Fellowships, click here to apply. Again, the deadline is Friday, June 22, and applications (and any necessary documents) must be submitted to the SIPA Office of Financial Aid by then. And of course, contact us if you have any questions at 212-854-6216 or [email protected].

Categories : SIPA

A View from the Class: The 2018 Award-Winning Capstone Workshop Team

Posted by Emily Tao 
· Monday, June 4th, 2018 

The SIPA Office of Alumni and Development is pleased to share another installment of A View from the Class, a SIPA stories series featuring current SIPA students, recently graduated alumni, and SIPA faculty.

Here, we feature the Capstone workshop team that was awarded this year’s Dr. Susan Aurelia Gitelson Award for Human Values in International Affairs for their work with UN Women on the project “Using Twitter Data Combined with Traditional Survey Data to Measure Societal Dynamics Related to Violence Against Women in Brazil.” Awarded annually, the Gitelson award was created by SIPA alumna, Dr. Susan Gitelson to recognize outstanding work by SIPA students related to human values in international affairs.

For this project, six SIPA students were partnered with faculty advisor, David Dabscheck. UN Women was interested in the use of Big Data; specifically, to understand the potential of using Twitter data combined with traditional survey data to measure societal dynamics related to violence against women in Brazil, where the rates of homicide have continued to increase since 2007.

Alejandra Baez MIA’18: At SIPA, Alejandra concentrated in Human Rights and Humanitarian Policy with specializations in Latin America and Technology, Media, and Communications. A Thomas R. Pickering Foreign Affairs Fellow, she will join the U.S. State Department in September 2018 as a Foreign Service Officer.

Wajeeha Bajwa MIA’18: Wajeeha grew up in Tokyo and Moscow and completed her undergraduate education in Germany before returning home to Pakistan to pursue a career in independent consulting. At SIPA, she specialized in Gender and Public Policy to complement her international field experience. She hopes to join an international organization working for women’s empowerment globally.

Gabriel Barrientos MPA-DP’18: At SIPA, Gabriel focused on quantitative analysis, education policies, and behavioral economics. Recently graduated, Gabriel is joining Concordia in New York City as a Partnership Development Manager, working with key partners, industry leaders, and other stakeholders to foster and strengthen public-private partnerships for social impact.

Veronique Ehamo MIA’18: At SIPA, Veronique concentrated in Human Rights and Humanitarian Policy with a dual specialization in Gender and Public Policy and Regional African Studies. From the Democratic Republic of Congo, she  will begin PhD studies in the United Kingdom this fall, focusing her research on the utilization of rape as a weapon of war in the North Kivu Region of Eastern DRC.

Lilah Greenberg MPA’19: A dual degree student at SIPA and the Columbia School of Social Work (CSSW), Lilah is pursuing her MPA, concentrating in Human Rights with a specialization in Gender and Public Policy. In fall 2018, she will continue her studies at CSSW, focusing on human rights and contemporary social issues in the U.S.

Marie Wavre MPA’18: An attorney and MPA graduate in Development and Gender Policy, Marie received a Master in Public International Law from Université Paris Assas and an LL.M. in International Law and Justice from Fordham University School of Law. Marie is currently legal counsel for an immigration law office representing Tibetan refugees seeking asylum in the United States.

Categories : Academics, Meet Seeples, SIPA
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A View the from the Class: Audrey Misquith

Posted by Emily Tao 
· Tuesday, May 29th, 2018 

The SIPA Office of Alumni and Development is pleased to share another installment of A View from the Class, a SIPA stories series featuring current SIPA students, recently graduated alumni, and SIPA faculty. In this issue, we feature recently graduated SIPA student Audrey Misquith MPA ’18, Master of Public Administration concentrating in Economic and Political Development (EDP) and specializing in Advanced Policy and Economic Analysis. 

What were you doing prior to attending SIPA?

After graduating from Bangalore University with a bachelor’s degree in financial management and a minor in accounting and taxation, I worked as a deputy manager at a government-owned development bank in India. I led teams through entire credit cycles, specializing in the sectors of agriculture, education, medicine, and infrastructure. On the side, I designed initiatives and managed operations for two education non-profits that served low-income school children.

Why did you choose SIPA?

I chose SIPA for its widely-recognized reputation as a global public policy school. Since my regional interests lay in South Asia, Africa, and the Middle-East, SIPA was a good fit given its vast repertoire of courses tailored to this region.  I was particularly interested in transitioning to the non-profit sector and with my previous banking experience with small and medium enterprises and agriculturists, I hoped to gain solid academic training that would complement the practical skills I had picked up on the field.

Why did you choose your particular areas of study?

The EPD track offered what I was looking for. The workshop component meant applying important skills learned in the classroom on the ground with the opportunity to work with innovative social enterprises and multilateral organizations. I chose Advanced Policy and Economic Analysis as my specialization to further widen my data analytic skill-set.

Please describe some of your SIPA experiences.

My SIPA experience has been fabulous. Highlights include a class on “Global Inequality” with Professor Suresh Naidu, “Advanced Economic Development” with Professor Eric Verhoogen, and classes with political science and humanitarian industry experts, Dr. Lisa Anderson and Dr. Dirk Salomons. My summer internship at Plan International in Uganda was a fulfilling experience as well. My primary responsibility was to inform the operating model of a scale-up of Plan’s flagship economic empowerment program for youth farmers.

This semester, I travelled to Brazil to meet with government officials and the World Food Programme’s staff to assess the World Food Programme’s Center of Excellence(CoE)’s south-south cooperation strategy with the West African region. Recently, my team claimed the runners-up prize for the Dean’s Public Policy Challenge grant and won a $20,000 grant to fully launch a technological platform to raise HIV awareness in India’s rural district of Solapur.

What are your plans after SIPA?

I am most interested in roles that involve a combination of program design and implementation. I like to get my hands dirty, so roles that entail scaling up a development intervention or building an initiative from scratch are most appealing. I lean towards food security and livelihoods and public health.

Categories : Meet Seeples, SIPA
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A View from the Class: Ally Tang

Posted by Emily Tao 
· Friday, May 25th, 2018 

The SIPA Office of Alumni and Development is pleased to share another installment of A View from the Class, a SIPA stories series featuring current SIPA students, recently graduated alumni, and SIPA faculty. In this issue, we feature recently graduated SIPA student Ally Tang MPA ’18, concentrating in Human Rights and Humanitarian Policy with a specialization in International Conflict Resolution.

What were you doing prior to attending SIPA?

I practiced commercial litigation in New Zealand for close to three years and also interned in the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague, working in the Office of the Prosecutor.

Why did you choose SIPA?

I liked its strong focus on global policy, the caliber of SIPA’s faculty with expertise that aligned with my areas of interest, and its location in New York City, a hub of international activity and organizations.

Why did you choose to focus your studies on Human Rights and International Conflict Resolution?

I wanted to build on my legal background to work on human rights policy, particularly in the area of atrocity prevention. The International Conflict Resolution specialization also provides a good mixture of practical skills and theoretical knowledge.

What are some highlights of your SIPA experience?

I have really enjoyed being part of a diverse cohort of students, which created a rich learning environment for sharing experiences and ideas through a comparative lens. I interned with the International Justice Program at Human Rights Watch and was part of the Business and Human Rights Clinic for my capstone project. I have also been a teaching assistant for Professor Robert Jervis and Professor Vicky Murillo at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

How has SIPA impacted you?

SIPA has really broadened my skill set and allowed me to build on my legal training to work in policy areas I am passionate about. The intellectual environment at Columbia is excellent; events and talks on campus have exposed me to an array of ideas and policy discussions from high-level policymakers, heads of state, and leading academics. I’ve also made a number of exceptional friends over the two years.

What are your plans after SIPA?

I will be working as a Research Analyst at the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect here in New York.

Categories : Meet Seeples, SIPA
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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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