It’s Graduation Week at Columbia University, and we couldn’t be more excited for SIPA’s Class of 2015! This Thursday, May 21, 2015, our students will graduate from SIPA and will become a part of our 20,000+ outstanding SIPA alumni. And I’m pleased to say that they’ll be in some pretty impressive company. Read More →
Author Archive for Kaitlyn Wells – Page 37
If you’re interested in learning more about cybersecurity, then tune in today (and tomorrow) for SIPA’s Conference on Internet Governance and Cybersecurity.
Hosted in collaboration with the Global Commission on Internet Governance (GCIG), the wide-ranging agenda touches on a series of pressing policy issues that affect Internet governance and cyber-security. Among these are privacy, security, innovation, international trade and cross-border data flows, data protectionism, human rights, freedom of expression, and much more. Read More →
Congratulations to John Olderman, MPA ’16, recently selected as a 2015-16 Citizens Budget Commission Public Policy Fellow. The paid fellowship will give the International Finance and Economic Policy concentrator an opportunity to conduct in-depth research and produce a final report on a certain type of post-employment benefits.
“I’m really excited about this,” Olderman told SIPA News. “It’s an opportunity for me to learn about a really important issue that I’m currently not an expert in, and give back to the New York City community in a positive way.” Read More →
![[Photo courtesy of Rashid Dar]](https://i0.wp.com/blogs.cuit.columbia.edu/sipa/files/2015/05/Rashid-Dar-featured.gif?resize=610%2C310&ssl=1)
Rashid Dar, MIA ’15, who’s concentrating in Economic and Political Development, recently developed a free iOS and Android app, called Musallah (which means “a space for prayer” in Arabic). Musallah makes it easier to find a prayer spot on the go, by mapping out nearby prayer areas for app users. Read why he created the app in an excerpt from The Muslim Observer:
“It starts to feel less like a blessing and more of a burden,” he tells Muslim Observer. “At times I’ve prayed in the dressing rooms of H.M. with music blasting everywhere and a mirror directly in front of me and I can’t tell you my heart is entirely into that prayer. Essentially what I’m doing is discharging an obligation and not getting as much out of it.”
Routinely experiencing these kinds of uncomfortable scenarios and tired of not giving prayer its due importance helped give birth to the idea of Musallah. “A thought hit me: we all have smartphones these days, so why couldn’t we use them to crowd-source musallahs for Muslims everywhere?”
Read the rest of Dar’s story here.
This is an open call to all of our incoming Fall 2015 MIA/MPA students. We’d love to hear about why you chose SIPA and your expectations for the upcoming academic year. Please email us at [email protected] to share your personal admissions story, what your summer vacation will entail/did entail, or anything else you think your peers would enjoy reading about! You may submit a blog post of your choosing, or submit the New Student Survey with pre-populated questions to get you started. And don’t forget to submit a photo or two to help us visualize your story!
We look forward to receiving your submissions.
"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
