Archive for Meet Seeples – Page 86

Washington D.C. Recruiting Reception

On Tuesday, June 16th in Washington, D.C. SIPA will join four other policy schools for an evening reception featuring admissions representatives, alumni, and current students enrolled in our programs.  The event will be held at the Johns Hopkins SAIS Nitze Building.

The other schools attending are:

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

The doors will open at 5:30 P.M. and the main event will take place from 6:00 P.M. to 7:30 P.M.  There will be some brief presentations, followed by mingling with drinks and light hors d’oeuvres.

The address of the event is:

The Nitze Building
1740 Massachusetts Avenue
Washington, DC 20036

There is no charge to attend the event, but you must register to attend. You can register for the event by clicking here.

The Morningside Post Announces/Celebrates Launch of New Site

Students at SIPA have their own blog, The Morningside Post (TMP), and have recently completed a redesign of the site.  If you are prospective student who lives in the New York city area and you wish to attend a launch party please see below for details.  The following comes from SIPA student Kristen Coco.  There will even be a raffle for an iPhone and the first drink is on the TMP crew!

Community blog for Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs features student, alumni and faculty voices utilizing Web 2.0 technology.

The Morningside Post, the community blog for the School of International and Public Affairs, welcomes prospective students to attend its launch party on Monday, February 23, 2009, right here in the Morningside Heights neighborhood. The student managed site features unique perspectives from nearly 100 SIPA students, faculty and alumni and is read in more than 100 countries around the globe. You’ll have the chance to check out the enhanced features of the new site, find out about our collaboration with The Huffington Post and win a new iPhone in the raffle giveaway (raffle at 8:30 p.m.).

Enhanced features of the website include video recordings of notable speakers at SIPA; subscription services to posts according to author, region, and topic; RSS feeds; links to SIPA News; and space for student groups to post their own stories and events. TMP will also be cross posting content with dozens of other blogs that feature perspectives on international affairs, including The Huffington Post.

Established in 2004, The Morningside has become a leading blog among graduate schools of international affairs and public policy in the United States, featuring intellectually curious and passionate bloggers, as well as readers from the SIPA community and throughout the world. Columbia professors including David Epstein, Andrew Gelman, Brigitte Nacos, Sharyn O’Halloran, Jagdish Bhagwati, Anya Schiffrin, Thomas Lansner, Thomas Glaisyer, and Tanya Domi have provided their expert opinions on issues ranging from globalization and trade in the developing world to human rights and political development.

The Morningside Post has also teamed with partners of the Global Public Policy Network (GPPN), including Sciences Po Paris, the London School of Economics and Political Science and the National University of Singapore Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, to expand the global reach of student perspectives associated with SIPA. Student bloggers through GPPN hail from more than 10 countries, including the United Kingdom, France, Singapore, Germany, Mexico, Japan, Russia, India, Switzerland, Canada and Brazil.

Recently, select student bloggers in GPPN schools participated in a live blog session facilitated by The Morningside Post on Election Day, offering opinions and analysis for the election’s implications in their respective countries. Additional participating schools included The Hertie School of Governance (HSoG) in Berlin, University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Public Policy (GraSPP), Fundação Getulio Vargas, Escola de Administração de Empresas de São Paulo (FGV-EAESP ), Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas (CIDE) in Mexico City and The Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO-University)

So come on out, meet the bloggers behind the posts, and learn more about the innovation in international affairs that’s taking place right here at SIPA!

What:               TMP Launch Party

When:              Monday, February 23, 7 – 10 p.m. (raffle at 8:30)

Where:             Village Pourhouse982 Amsterdam Avenue,         between 108th and 109th Streets

Contact:           [email protected]

SIPA Student Groups

Kelly Heindel is a student working in our office this year and I asked her to highlight some of the student driven opportunities at SIPA.  Below is a brief description of some of the formal student groups that have been put together by our students.  To learn more about student life at SIPA, visit the Student Life Web page.

An integral part of a SIPA education is participation in student organizations.  Currently, we have over 40 student groups and there is always the opportunity to start your own.   These groups cover a wide range of topics and interests and are an excellent supplement to coursework and internships.  In addition, they provide students with valuable networking opportunities and other career development forums.  Students can join these organizations at anytime throughout the school year; however, elections for leadership positions are typically held in the late fall or early spring semester.  You may contact any of the group representatives for more detailed information.

Here is a list of current registered student organizations:

* Arab Student Association (ASA)
* Asia Pacific Affairs Council (APAC)
* Conflict Resolution Working Group (CRWG)
* Education and Development Working Group
* EMPA Forum
* EU/European Student Association (ESA)
* Eurasia Initiative
* Follies
* Gender Policy Working Group
* Grassroots Social Policy Network
* Greater China Initiative
* HRWG – Human Rights Working Group
* Humanitarian Affairs Working Group
* Iranians at SIPA
* Korea Focus
* Latin American Students Association (LASA)
* Media in International Conflict
* Microfinance Working Group
* Migration Working Group
* Net Impact
* Nihon Benkyokai/Japan Exchange Forum (NBK)
* Nordic American Students Association (nasa)
* QUIPASA – Queers in International and Public Affairs
* School of International and Public Affairs Student Association-SIPASA
* SIPA Energy Association
* SIPA Finance Club
* SIPA Pan-African Network
* SIPA Turkish Initiative
* South Asian Association (SAA)
* Southeast Asia Student Initiative (SEASI)
* Taiwan Focus
* UN Studies Working Group

MIA and MPA Curriculum Update

Last year the Dean, working with faculty, administrators, alumni, and students, completed an MIA and MPA curriculum update that will apply to all new students starting in the fall of 2009. The main goal was to restructure our robust curriculum to provide more flexibility, bring faculty closer together, and allow students to package themselves better for work in the policy world.

The core curriculum was refined to ensure that students have access to courses emphasizing strong economic and quantitative analysis skills along with strong management training. Some concentrations were also combined to bring faculty closer together. This will allow for even more professional development opportunities for our students.

A key characteristic of our curriculum is the way we bridge academics to practical policy application. This is accomplished through both internships and workshops. Internships are individual professional opportunities that are completed with an outside client. Workshops are group projects (typically 5-10 students per group) completed with an outside client.

Both of these opportunities provide students the opportunity to develop a professional portfolio to show potential employers. Workshops are set up by faculty members and are included in the syllabus for a course. By combining some of our concentrations faculty will now work more closely on these opportunities so that we may expand the number of options.

The curriculum review also resulted in the addition of what are now referred to as specializations. You can think of a specialization as a minor that focuses on the development of a particular skill set. The goal of a concentration (think of this as your major) is to provide in depth policy knowledge and the specialization (think of this as your minor) will provide a strong set of regional or functional skills to ensure students are able to implement effective policy solutions.

The majority of class offerings have remained the same and students will still have the opportunity to study elements that have always been a part of our programs of study. The main goal has been to restructure things in a way that is more beneficial for students to make an immediate transition into the policy world.

For a complete breakdown of the MIA curriculum click here.
For a complete breakdown of the MPA curriculum click here.

Rob Garris, the Senior Associate Dean of SIPA, recently sat down and gave an overview of the changes. You can view the video by clicking here (Time of Video, 8:40).

SIPA Student Comments on Presidential Inauguration

SIPA student Kelly Heindel had a chance to participate in inauguration activities and I asked her to compose an entry for us.  I am grateful she accepted.  You can find out more about Kelly by visiting her interview page.

During the recent inauguration of President Barack Obama, I worked as a faculty advisor for the University Presidential Inaugural Conference (UPIC).  UPIC is one of numerous educational leadership conferences put on by the Congressional Youth Leadership Council (CYLC).  The students chosen for these conferences have excelled academically and have demonstrated leadership skills throughout their college careers.  The students came from all over the United States and internationally as well.  In total, there were 5,000 university students participating in the conference.  UPIC was designed as a week-long event to celebrate the historic inauguration and allow for the students to have direct participation in many of the events.  As a faculty advisor, I was charged with many logistical tasks (UPIC used over 75 buses to transport the students throughout the DC area) and as a point of contact for students.

The conference had many speakers, seminars, and panel discussions in the days preceding the inauguration.  Colin Powell and Al Gore were the keynote speakers.  Both men gave their specific ideas of what it means to be a leader, and what is expected of the upcoming generation in terms of leadership.   Colin Powell spoke of discipline and planning as important characteristics for a leader, not surprising considering his military background.  While Al Gore took a more fatherly approach with the students simply saying, “The happiest and most fulfilled people I know have dedicated their lives to something bigger than themselves.”

The morning of the inauguration, I took a group of students down to the national mall at 4am.   We were surprised by how empty the streets were and we were able to get a spot fairly close to the capital.  Waiting for the inauguration to begin was definitely the most difficult part of the week.  It was freezing and dark out, and there was nothing to do but wait.  Soon, they began replaying the Lincoln Memorial concert from the previous Sunday and the crowd began dancing and singing to keep warm.  Then the ceremony began.  The energy and passion of all the people in the crowd was like nothing I’ve ever seen.  It was truly inspiring to see people of all ages, races, and creeds being genuinely excited about our new administration and hopeful about our future.

"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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