Archive for News – Page 32

SIPA 2013 Graduation

It’s a very exciting time of year again. People from around the world arrive on the Columbia University campus this week to celebrate with their friends and family at Commencement.

President Lee C. Bollinger will give the University Commencement address on Wednesday, May 22nd.  Each individual school will also feature a commencement speaker at their graduation ceremonies.

georgeSIPA will feature George Stephanopoulos, CC’82 as the 2013 graduation speaker on Thursday, May 23.  He served as a political advisor and taught at Columbia & SIPA after leaving the Clinton Administration in 1996. Today Stephanopoulos is best known as a co-anchor of Good Morning America, host of This Week with George Stephanopoulos and chief political correspondent and co-anchor of special events for the ABC network.

You may watch the SIPA graduation live on Thursday starting at 10:45 am EDT.

 

 

 

 

a capstone experience

Instead of turning in a master’s thesis before graduation, SIPA students work on a capstone project and turn in an action plan for a client.  Projects vary in scope and depth.

Mariana Iturriaga Cossio shares her capstone experience before she collects her diploma on Wednesday.

During this semester (my last one at SIPA!), I worked on my capstone project “Energy Investment in Criteria in Fragile Emerging States – The Case of Libya”. Libya has the largest proven oil reserves in Africa but during the 2011 revolution oil production suffered a near-total disruption. Although production began to recover by fall of that same year, the future of the Libyan oil sector is highly dependent on the country’s security and political stability. Thus, the project’s objective was to assess the security and political risk conditions under which Libya can attract new investment in the oil sector. Our client was Afren Plc, an independent oil exploration and production company, with a portfolio extending into 12 countries, most of them in Africa.

My team was composed of six other second-year SIPA students from the International Security Policy (ISP) and Energy and Environment (EE) concentrations. Everyone was super committed and had valuable contributions throughout the project. For most of the semester, we met twice per week: on Mondays with our faculty advisor –Professor Adam L. Shrier  – and on Thursdays by ourselves to discuss our findings and next steps. Over the course of four months we conducted desk research with telephonic interviews, which were held both on and off the record with experts in energy issues, Libyan politics, finance and security.  You can read our full report here http://issuu.com/calc-sipa/docs/case_of_libya/1

Mariana I capstone cover image

After an intense semester, and spending more than seven hours per week in my capstone project, I am really happy and proud with the result. We delivered concrete results and findings on one of the most challenging but at the same time promising oil regions in the world. Personally, the capstone turned out to be a great opportunity to combine the two areas that I am most interested in – international security and oil markets – from a more professional and practical perspective.


A new Dean of SIPA has been appointed

Professor Merit E. Janow has been appointed Dean of Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs effective July 1, 2013.

Merit’s strength as a scholar and her deep experience with international public policy make her ideally suited to lead SIPA, the most global school of public affairs in the United States and, perhaps, the world.  A member of Columbia’s faculty since 1994, Merit’s expertise in international trade and investment policy, along with her time spent in Asia and her fluency in Japanese, have allowed her to make significant academic contributions while continuing to play a leading role in national and international institutions.  Merit has had three periods of public service in her career.  Most recently, she has been a member of the World Trade Organization’s Appellate Body, which is responsible for adjudicating appeals in intergovernmental trade disputes.

Currently, Merit directs SIPA’s International Finance and Economic Policy (IFEP) concentration, is a co-director of Columbia’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Study Center, and is a member of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute.  She teaches both at SIPA and at Columbia Law School.
 

Read more about the appointment here.

 

Going on this week at SIPA

Tuesday

Title: U.S. Shale Gas & Pacific Gas Market: Pacific LNG Trade & Gas Pricing Issues

Sponsored By: Center on Global Energy Policy

What is it:  Forum with Adam Sieminski, Administrator of the U.S. Energy Information Administration; and Chris Smith, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary and Acting Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy at the U.S. Department of Energy.

Wednesday

Title: 2013 MFA Thesis Exhibition

Sponsored by:  Columbia University School of Arts

What is it:  Columbia University School of the Arts Visual Arts Program, in association with the Fisher Landau Center for Art, presents the 2013 MFA Thesis Exhibition, encompassing work by the 26 artists who will graduate from the program this May.

Thursday

Title: Can Haitian Story-telling, Imagination and Oral History Traditions Influence Popular Environmental Risk Perception?

Sponsored by: The Earth Institute

What is it: Panel with Sabine Marx, Managing Director, Center for Research on Environmental Decisions (CRED), Columbia University; Laura Simms, Award-winning Performer, Writer, Educator; Jean Refuse, Director, Haitian American Foundation for Cultural Exchange; Moderated by Tatiana Wah, Director, Haiti Research and Policy Program, and Alex Fischer, Associate Director, Haiti Research and Policy Program, Center on Globalization and Sustainable Development (CGSD), The Earth Institute, Columbia University.

Friday

Title: Late Imperial Epistemologies: A Eurasian Studies Workshop
Sponsored by: Harriman Institute
What is it: Conference about Late Imperial Epistemologies in Eurasian Studies.

Saturday

Undergraduate move out, no campus events

Sunday

Title: SIPA Graduation Party

Sponsored by: SIPASA

What is it: Join us at the SIPASA Graduation Party for one final night together as the Class of 2013! Celebrate under the stars with all your second year friends at The Empire Hotel Rooftop.

 

What’s going on at SIPA this week?

 

Just like before, this is by no means an exhaustive list. Just an example of one event per day that interests me on our campus!

 

Thursday

Title: Starting and Running Your Own Business

Sponsored by: Urban and Social Policy Concentration and Management Specialization

What is it? In this dynamic new workshop a successful entrepreneur shows what it takes to plan, establish and run your own business.  Key areas of discussion include: Deciding what business to start; Moving from an idea to launch; Finding seed money; Structuring your business; Finding and keeping customers

About the Presenter: Caroline Ceniza-Levine is co-founder of SixFigureStart career coaching; co-founder of FBC Films independent film production; founding member of Comic Diversity stand-up comedy; and partner of Redseeds Consulting executive search.

 

Friday

Title: SIPA Gala!!!!

Sponsored by: SIPA Student Association

What is it?: Basically prom for grad school! Dancing, drinks, hors d’ouevres and fancy dress. Held at Capitale NY.

 

Saturday

Title: Workshop on Sustainable Development

Sponsored by:  The Sustainable Development Doctoral Society (SDDS)

What is it? The workshop is hosting graduate students from around the world who will present their cutting edge research on sustainability across a range of topics such as: water conservation, urban planning, agriculture, biodiversity, disasters, health, climate change, forests and energy.

Click here for more details.

 

Sunday

Title: Spring Into Yoga

Sponsored by: Columbia Art of Living

What: Guided yoga session led by a professional Yoga instructor. Breath, stretch, and sweat. Open to all levels.

 

Monday

Title: Gender, Rio+20, and the Post-2015 Development Agenda

Sponsored by: Economic and Political Development concentration, Gender Policy Working Group and SIPA Environmental Coalition.

What is it?: Talk with Eleanor Blomstrom of Women’s Environment and Development Organization.

About the Speaker: Eleanor worked on climate change projects ranging from green roofs to waste management to adaptation with the Earth Institute, the Clinton Foundation and the World Bank. She has community development experience in the areas of agriculture and women’s empowerment with organizations in Nicaragua and Nigeria. Her current work is informed by a professional background in bilingual elementary education with a focus on race and gender equity in public schools. Eleanor holds a Master of International Affairs in Urban and Environmental Policy from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Sciences.

 

Tuesday

Title: Eurasian Pipelines: Roads to Peace, Development and Interdependencies?

Sponsored by: The Harriman Institute for Eastern European Studies

What is it?: A talk as a part of the 7th Annual  Harriman Institute Colloqium “Geo-Eco Politics, Eurasian Energy and (elusive) Transparency.”

About the Speakers: Confirmed speakers for the event include Jalil Jumriany, Director General, Ministry of Mines, Afghanistan; Andrey Konoplyanik, Adviser, Gazprom Export; Steve LeVine, author of “Oil and Glory”; Ekpen Omonbude, Commonwealth Secretariat and author of “Cross-border Oil and Gas Pipelines and the Role of the Transit Country”; David Onoprishvili, Chairman, Budget and Finance Committee, Parliament, Georgia

 

Wednesday

Title: A Strategy for Sustainable Development in the United States

Sponsored by: The Earth Institute

What is it?: Annual University-wide talk by sustainability expert and SIPA Professor, Jeffrey Sachs

About the the Speaker:  Jeffrey D. Sachs is the Director of the Columbia University Earth Institute; Quetelet Professor of Sustainable Development; Professor of Health Policy and Management, Columbia University and Special Adviser to the United Nations Secretary-General Ban-ki Moon on the Millennium Development Goals.

 

"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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