Archive for Alumni News – Page 8

New York City Career Series

Posted by Matt Clemons 
· Thursday, March 11th, 2010 
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The following was composed by John Hughes, a second year MIA student studying Political and Economic Risk Analysis.

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On February 18th SIPA held its annual New York City Career Series networking event at the Gabarron Foundation, a chic art gallery and cultural center in Murray Hill.  The event brought together first and second-year SIPA students interested in possible career opportunities in New York with over 100 alumni who work in the city and region.  The alumni represented a multitude of industries and sectors, coming from banking, the UN, non-profits, environmental consultancies, media companies and multinational corporations, to name a few.

As attendants skirted through the crowd with trays of hors d’oeuvres and wine, students and alumni mingled around the room, stopping to speak with each other for a few minutes about careers and interests before moving on to a new conversation.  Students received a list of alumni attending beforehand, so many had already reached out to a few alumni and now had the opportunity to meet in person.  Others used the opportunity to learn about new fields they may not have thought of.  Regardless, students found that the alumni were all very approachable and eager to help, with many offering their business cards and an invitation for students to follow up to learn more about their organizations and fields.

This event is just one indicator of the strong alumni-student bond at SIPA, a true strength of the program.  Whether students choose to attend events like this one or not, all have access to the alumni database.  There students can search thousands of alumni to find those in careers of interest to them.  An e-mail or phone call can easily lead to an informational interview and another person to add to the student’s network.  Though not all students necessarily get concrete job offers out of these efforts, many find that having access to such a wealth of dedicated, successful alumni certainly helps towards this goal.

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Categories : Career Services, Meet Seeples, News
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University Alumni Connections

Posted by Matt Clemons 
· Wednesday, March 10th, 2010 
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It is true that those who study at SIPA become part of an extensive network of SIPA alumni, but it is also true that graduates of SIPA are also tied to the larger Columbia University Alumni network.  Columbia University is comprised of seventeen schools and graduates of each are connected to the larger whole.

There are over 275,000 living alumni of Columbia University in the world and over 16,000 of those are graduates of SIPA.  Those who have see The Hurt Locker or took in the recent Academy Awards ceremony might not have known that the winner in the Best Director category is an alumna of the Columbia University School of the Arts.

Columbia alumna becomes first ever woman to receive an Oscar for best directing

Kathryn Bigelow (SoA’81) became the first woman to receive a Best Director Oscar, for her film The Hurt Locker.  She was only one of four total women nominated in this category over the award’s 81 years of history. The film, which she produced, also received an Oscar for Best Picture, as well as Oscars for Best Original Screenplay, Best Editing, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Sound Editing.

You can read a full profile of Kathryn Bigelow at the website of Columbia magazine:

http://www.columbia.edu/cu/alumni/Magazine/Winter2009-10/feature1.html

feature_1-1Image Credit to Summit Entertainment

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Categories : Columbia University
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Time Line for Fall 2010 Admission

Posted by Columbia SIPA 
· Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010 
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The Admissions Committee continues to read/review at a fast and furious pace and no, decisions have not started to be posted to the system yet.  As a reminder, you will receive an email from us when your decision is ready to be viewed on the application Web site.  We cannot provide estimates on when individual decisions will be published and not all decisions are published at the same time.

I did want to provide a quick overview of the time line that will follow the release of admission decisions.  Applicants admitted to SIPA should be aware of the following information.

Starting on March 22 the Admissions Office will host an internet message board that will allow admitted applicants to interact with one another and with current students.   SIPA students will be taking a spring break from March 15th to 19th and we will have the board up after their return.  Details will be sent to admitted students once the board is activated.

Second, SIPA will host an Admitted Student Day on Tuesday, April 13th.  Admitted Student Day will take place on the Columbia Campus and it will be a full day event.  Professor Jeff Sachs will be giving a special talk during the lunch portion of Admitted Student Day.

Third, May 3rd is the date by which admitted students must pay a deposit confirming enrollment for fall 2010.  In earlier communications I had noted the date would be May 1st, but since May 1st falls on a Saturday we moved the response date to the next business day, Monday.

Fourth, a series of communications will be sent to admitted applicants and these messages will come from the [email protected] address.  Please ensure that your email client is set to receive messages from this account.  Faculty, current students, administrators, and alumni will all be included in the communication chain.

Fifth, if you are admitted you will need to ensure that official academic transcripts and official test reports are in our office no later than June 15th.  We will work with admitted applicants to determine if official copies of these documents were already provided to us during the application process.

Last, unfortunately applicants placed on the waitlist are unable to participate in admission related activities until an admission offer is made.  More details regarding the waitlist will be published on this blog in the future.  We will begin to “work” the waitlist in April and this process will often continue into the summer.

For admitted applicants, specific details on all of the above information, and many other topics, will be available on a Welcome Page that is referenced in the admission letter.

Thank you for your attention . . . now back to Committee meetings . . .

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Categories : Admissions, Application Tips
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Alumni Information

Posted by Matt Clemons 
· Friday, February 26th, 2010 
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I was recently speaking with our Director of Alumni Relations about some various topics and she said she was working on a short list of notable alumni for a project.  I asked for a copy and she was happy to pass it along.

SIPA has over 16,000 alumni living in 150 countries around the world – an incredibly powerful networking tool for students and graduates.  The list below is divided by concentration area.

INTERNATIONAL SECURITY POLICY

Madeleine K. Albright (Certificate ’68), Former U.S. Secretary of State; Principal, The Albright Group LLC

Victor Cha (MIA ’88), Former Director for Asian Affairs, National Security Council; Associate Professor of Government and D.S. Song-Korea Foundation Chair, Georgetown University

Daniel Fried (MIA ’77), Assistant Secretary, European and Eurasian Affairs, U.S. Dept. of State; Former U.S. Ambassador to Poland

Francesco Mancini (MIA ’03), Associate, International Peace Institute

George Tenet (MIA ’78), Former Director, CIA; Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy, Georgetown University

HUMAN RIGHTS

Frederick Abrahams (MIA ’95), Senior Researcher, Human Rights Watch

Scott Campbell (MIA ’95), Executive Director, Elton John AIDS Foundation

Malika Dutt (MIA ’86), Executive Director and Founder of Breakthrough: Building Human Rights Culture. Malika testified before the House Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights, and Oversight, along with actress Nicole Kidman, UNIFEM Goodwill Ambassador. Their testimony was to encourage passage of the International Violence Against Women Act (I-VAWA), which seeks to ensure that the fundamental right to live a life free from violence can become a reality for the world’s women.

Priscilla Hayner (MIA ’93), Director, Peace and Justice Program; Director, Geneva Office, International Center for Transitional Justice

Judy Cheng-Hopkins (MIA ’78), Assistant High Commissioner, UNHCR Geneva

Rochelle Fortier Nwadibia (MIA ’82), Attorney at Law. Rochelle has won two major cases in asylum law, one of which, Mohammed v. Gonzales, is “the leading federal appellate case” on female genital mutilation as grounds for asylum. Her second major refugee case was Ndom v. Ashcroft, where Rochelle successfully petitioned for asylum for a Senegalese man fleeing political persecution. Both these cases “are positioned quite prominently in global refugee law,” notes Nwadibia. “Foreign courts are citing our courts in taking the lead in these cases.”

Ana Cutter Patel (MIA ’98), Deputy Director, International Policymakers, International Center for Transitional Justice

INTERNATIONAL FINANCE & ECONOMIC POLICY

Christian Deseglise (MIA ’90), Managing Director-Global Head of Emerging Markets, HSBC Global Asset Management

Kirstin Frivold (EMPA ’03), Vice President, Goldman Sachs & Co.

Jong-ho Kyun (MIA ’00), Deputy Director, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Republic of South Korea

James Leitner (MIA ’77), President, Falcon Management Corporation

Bart Oostervled (MIA ’97), Senior Vice President, Moody’s Project Infrastructure

ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT

Anna Giovinetto (MIA ’02), Vice President, Public Affairs, Noble Environmental Power

Lloyd Kass (MPA ’98), Director of Energy Department, NYC Housing Authority

Kedin Kilgore (MPA ’95), Head, Global Environmental Markets, JP Morgan Chase

Marcus Tripp (MIA ’99), Vice President, Business Development, Exxon Mobil, Libya, Ltd.

Qian Wang (ESP-MPA ’03), Deputy Director, State Environmental Protection Administration, Beijing

ECONOMIC & POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT

Andrea S. Camoens (MIA ’97), Manager of Emerging Markets Group.

John Melone Deidrick (MIA’ 85), Country Representative, Cambodia, Population Services International.

John Lockwood (MIA ’97), Executive Director for Habitat for Humanity New York.

Monique Pierre-Antoine (PEPM ’94), Chief of the Poverty Unit, UNDP, Haiti.

Karen Paulina Poniachik (MIA ’90), Chile’s Special Envoy to the OECD

URBAN & SOCIAL POLICY

Alisa Blum (MPA ’00), Manager of Field Operations, National League of Cities’ Center for Federal Relations

Diana Bruce (MPA ’97), Director of Policy and Government Affairs, AIDS Alliance for Children, Youth and Families

Neil Hernandez (MPA ’98), Commissioner, Department of Juvenile Justice

Diego Andres Molano (MPA ’00), CEO, Water and Sanitation Company, Bogota, Colombia

David Saltzman (MPA ’86) Executive Director, Robin Hood Foundation

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Winter Break and Career Development in D.C.

Posted by Matt Clemons 
· Wednesday, December 16th, 2009 
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The following was composed by John Hughes, a second year MIA student studying Political and Economic Risk Analysis.

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With the semester winding down and finals looming, most students are looking forward to a nice, long winter break.  Though many students will return home for the holidays, many also have big plans.  These include trips all over the world, some self-initiated and others as part of the travel component of a workshop.  Wherever the break takes students, however, many will come together at the end for a career trip to Washington, D.C.  This year’s conference will take place from January 13-15, and is the 34th annual trip.  Unlike previous years, which have featured a two-day trip, this year’s conference is packed with three full days of events.

On Wednesday, alumni working in industries including trade, development, energy and security will participate in informational career panels throughout the day, with students able to choose four to attend.  The alumni will discuss their positions, how they found them, and give students general insights on the field.   It is a great way to gain knowledge on a specific field students are interested in, or to explore a completely new one.  On Thursday SIPA has arranged site visits to a range of employers in the D.C. area, including the State Department, Treasury Department and USAID.  These visits will give students an additional opportunity to learn about organizations that interest them, while meeting with more SIPA alums at each employer who will be available to answer any student questions.

After going around the city during the day, the conference participants will come together that evening at the Four Seasons Hotel in Georgetown for a cocktail networking reception.  More than 150 alumni are expected to attend this swanky event, giving students the perfect opportunity to schmooze with them over a glass of wine.  Finally, if students haven’t gone into a networking-induced daze by then, they have the opportunity on Friday to conduct one-on-one or group informational interviews with alumni.  The Office of Career Services has provided each participant with a list of willing alumni, who students can then contact to set up meetings.  Though ambitious, it’s not unheard of for students to set up as many as five such meetings over the course of the day.

The DC conference gives students a great chance to learn about potential future fields of interest and meet wonderful alumni.  More importantly, for many students it provides a crucial first step on their way to gainful employment in Washington.  Many students keep in contact with the alumni they meet at the conference as the semester moves forward, with some of these connections leading to internship and job referrals or even offers.  Of course, at the end of the day it is up to students to put in the effort to find a job, but the Office of Career Services D.C. career event certainly helps students interested in Washington along this path!

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Categories : Columbia University, News
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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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