Next week APSIA will hold graduate school fairs in New York and Washington DC. The fairs provide a great opportunity to speak with representatives of graduate school programs focused on public policy and international affairs. Free registration links for NYC and DC are below and the rest of the APSIA travel schedule can be found by clicking here.
New York City Free Registration: Monday, October 3rd from 6:00 – 8:00 PM
Washington D.C. Free Registration: Wednesday, October 5th from 5:00 – 8:00 PM
While SIPA is located in a large city, there are opportunities to connect with farmers and other small business owners that do not reside in the “concrete jungle.” Each Thursday and Sunday on Broadway between 114th and 116th the sidewalk is filled with vendors selling delicious goods. The following text comes from the Grow NYC Web site and I took the picture while riding into work last week – it was early so the crowds had yet to arrive.
Open year-round on Thursdays and Sundays, this market located just in front of the Columbia University gates on Broadway at 115th St., serves a diverse population including university students, faculty and staff, St Luke’s Hospital staff, visitors and patients as well as Upper West Side residents. While several of the farmers attend on both Thursday and Sunday, each day has its own distinct character. Thursdays market thrives on the bustle of the work and school day schedule, while Sundays are more laid back and neighbors come out to do serious shopping. Shoppers will find milk and yogurt, fruit, cider, baked goods, preserved fruits and vegetables, eggs, cheese, smoked meats, pickled vegetables, maple syrup, honey, fish, and focaccia topped with locally sourced fruit, vegetables, herbs and cheeses, a lunch time favorite.
Some of you might have heard on the news that the greater NYC area was hit with a blizzard yesterday. I thought I would share a few pictures.
This is not a glorious picture, but when I went to take out the garbage this morning this is what awaited me . . .
This one is interesting because it was inside the 50th street subway station . . . I say again, inside. The wind was blowing so hard it forced the snow through the street vents . . .
Not many people were riding their bikes today . . .
And normally steps are visible in front of Low Memorial Library, but not today . . .
Why is this post labeled Blizzard #1? Because based on a review of what’s going on in our application system, our office is going to be hit with a digital blizzard next week when the January 5th deadline hits.
This is the sixth entry in our recap of summer internships completed by SIPA students working in the Admissions Office this year. Carrie Dorn is a dual degree student pursuing her Masters in Public Administration and Social Work. This is her third year at Columbia University and she is focusing her studies at SIPA in the Management and Urban/Social Policy tracks.
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My summer interning in New York City unexpectedly turned into my own exploration of the city, social policy and my future career goals. I knew that summer in NYC would include sticky weather and suffocating subway stations, but also the fun of sidewalk cafes, free outdoor movies and festivals galore. While many SIPA students started packing their bags for summer internships and vacations abroad in May, I buckled down and focused on my search for a NYC government internship– an inevitably slow process, that had started months before. At what felt like the last possible moment, I was interviewing for a few internship positions at three different agencies. At last, in the midst of final exams, I secured a position working at the New York City Department of Homeless Services assisting the Director of Executive Projects and Operations.
Luckily, I was very familiar with the NYC Department of Homeless Services (DHS). In my Urban Politics course I had analyzed the agency’s funding sources, policy initiatives, and budget allocations in a 30 page paper. From an outside, academic perspective, I had my own thoughts and recommendations about how DHS could improve their programs and functioning. Little did I know that I would get the opportunity to contribute to the change process myself.
In my internship I was able to see the whole spectrum of programming at DHS. At first I was assigned some of the intern tasks that I had anticipated such as compiling data and proofreading reports. One day out of the week I traded the commute to Wall St. to venture up to the Bronx, at the central intake office for homeless families called Prevention Assistance and Temporary Housing (PATH). There I saw the challenges of managing a 24-7 operation where more than 100 families each day come to request emergency shelter. I studied up on the legal shelter eligibility guidelines and counseled homeless and at-risk families via the PATH hotline to best direct them to community resources.
I also assisted with preparations for the second year of Advantage Academy, a joint program between DHS and St. John’s University, that offers a fully subsidized Associate Degree to those in the NYC shelter system. I had the chance to welcome the new student cohort and brainstorm how to improve retention rates, student outcomes and support systems.
Then, the internship blossomed into something bigger for me when I had the opportunity to sit in on meetings about the functionality and design of a case management system that is advancing the way that DHS operates and interfaces with other agencies. I learned about implementation of this system, from stakeholder collaboration to the logistics of training employees. In meetings, the voices of my professors would sometimes echo in my head as I watched how the concepts of organizational culture, regulation, federalism and accountability unfolded in real time.
I couldn’t have anticipated a better summer experience, becoming familiar with the process and challenges of city government. My internship at DHS confirmed my interest in wanting to administer and develop social programs in the future and it also sparked my appetite for more knowledge about how to effectively run organizations. By the end of August, I had scrapped my plans to take fun electives and instead signed up for cost-benefit analysis, human resource management and law for non-profit managers. Now that the summer months have quickly transitioned into the school year, sometimes I do imagine the type of “field work” I that could have accomplished in some exotic beach locale, but all in all it was very rewarding to have braved city life in an NYC summer .
If you have yet to do so, you are bound to eventually. Old school or digital, you will sit down with a blank piece of paper and draw a couple of columns or open up an Excel spreadsheet. You will then label the columns “Pro” and “Con.” Perhaps you have a separate sheet of paper for each school or a separate tab for each school in Excel. Decision time. The clock to the deposit deadline is ticking.
You will then diligently begin to fill in the columns with what you see to be the pros and cons of each school you have received an offer from. Or perhaps you just received one offer and it is a matter of either accepting the offer or choosing a different path.
I thought I would take an opportunity to help you fill in the pro list in regard to SIPA. Yes, I am biased. A native New Yorker I am not, but a converted New York lover I am. I have lived in New York City for seven years and whenever I leave for travel, I always miss it.
Instead of focusing on topics like world class faculty and a robust curriculum that every policy school can most likely boast about, I will focus on the experience of living in New York City. The diversity, the energy, the attitude, the people, the events, the culture . . . the sound!
I would venture to guess that by the time I help you with the pros of attending school in New York City, your pros column will require you to either go on to a second piece of paper or scroll down on your Excel sheet because more rows are going to filled than you can view on the screen.
I lived in California before moving to New York and I was trying to make the decision as to whether or not I should move east. I had never lived on the east coast before and it was a big decision for me at the time, and I remember my pro – con list as well. I distinctly remember a conversation I had with a very well traveled friend. He said something along the line of the following:
“Matt, you would be crazy NOT to move to New York City. I believe that everyone should live in New York City once in their lifetime. It has an energy you just can’t describe. Don’t let this chance pass.”
I took his advice, and boy am I glad I did. Let’s take a quick look at some of the unique attributes and flavor of NYC.
The following facts are from Wikipedia . . .
Over 900 songs have been written about NYC (think about the inspiration you will get living here).
NYC has two professional football teams, two professional hockey teams, two professional baseball teams, a professional soccer (sorry rest of the world, that’s what we call it) team, a professional women’s basketball team, and although it is a subject to local debate, a “professional” men’s basketball team. There will soon be two so called “professional” teams when the Nets move to Brooklyn soon.
The subway runs 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and is the largest rapid system in the world when measured by stations in operation, with 468.
You may not think of nature when you think NYC, however New York City has over 28,000 acres (110 km2) of municipal parkland and 14 miles (23 km) of public beaches.
NYC has more than 2,000 arts and cultural organizations and more than 500 art galleries of all sizes.
Care to cross pollinate with other students? There are close to 600,000 university students in New York City.
. . . and how about some famous quotes related to New York City.
“Culture just seems to be in the air, like part of the weather.” – Tom Wolfe
“I go to Paris, I go to London, I go to Rome, and I always say, ‘There’s no place like New York. It’s the most exciting city in the world now. That’s the way it is. That’s it.” – Robert Deniro
“I miss New York. I still love how people talk to you on the street – just assault you and tell you what they think of your jacket.” – Madonna
“When its 100 degrees in New York, it’s 72 in Los Angeles. When its 30 degrees in New York, in Los Angeles it’s still 72. However, there are 6 million interesting people in New York, and only 72 in Los Angeles.” – Neil Simon
“At night… the streets become rhythmical perspectives of glowing dotted lines, reflections hung upon them in the streets as the wistaria hangs its violet racemes on its trellis. The buildings are shimmering verticality, a gossamer veil, a festive scene-prop hanging there against the black sky to dazzle, entertain, amaze.” – Frank Lloyd Wright
“You come to New York to find the ambiance that will evoke your best. You do not necessarily know precisely what that might be, but you come to New York to discover it.” – Dr. James Hillman
“New York is a galaxy of adventure at once elegant, exciting and bizarre. It’s a city that moves so fast, it takes energy just to stand still.” – Barbara Walters
Can you feel the excitement!? Not only will you find inspiration at SIPA . . . NYC is a basically an inspiration or great moment waiting to happen. That’s my quote and I’ll leave it at that.
"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
