In This Issue:

SEAS Welcomes Newest Class of Graduate Students

Graduate students accepted this year into one of the School’s nine academic departments come from a wide range of backgrounds, from more than 30 foreign countries, and include 25% women. The Graduate School accepted 1,327 students out of 3,460 applicants, with 483 students choosing to enroll. Including the entering class, the total number of graduate students enrolled is 1,335. More than 450 graduate students are pursuing the doctoral degree.

“We are pleased to see that the quality and diversity of our accepted students continues to rise,” said Tiffany Simon, assistant dean for graduate student affairs. Last year, the number of applications was 320 fewer.

“This year, we offered Presidential Fellowships to outstanding incoming students with demonstrated excellence in academic achievement, research and leadership. Seven have chosen to enroll and represent the largest and most diverse group of entering Presidential Fellows,” she said. Of those, three are women and one is a male student from a traditionally under-represented minority group.

Graduate students enjoy the year's first social at the Hudson Beach Cafe in Riverside Park

“One of the great strengths of Columbia is its diversity,” said Dean Zvi Galil. “We recognize the importance of creating a student body at both the undergraduate and graduate levels so traditionally under-represented minorities are able to contribute to our School community. We are committed to this principle and are continuing to work toward making our student body reflective of the population at large.”

As part of the Columbia Campaign for Engineering, the School will be raising $20 million to provide endowments for graduate fellowship aid. “When we will have reached this goal,” said Dean Galil, “we will be able to offer more fellowships to attract an even greater number of the finest students who wish to pursue the doctoral degree.”

This year, three GEM fellowships, in conjunction with The National Consortium for Graduate Degrees for Minorities in Engineering and Science, Inc., were awarded to students from traditionally under-represented minority groups. One new GEM Fellow, Azeema Ameerally, is returning to school after gaining work experience at Kimberly-Clark in research and engineering development and at Lexmark as a product engineer in their printing services and solutions divisions. She received a B.E. from Stony Brook University in biomedical engineering but decided that having an M.S. in mechanical engineering will be most helpful to her career.

“I chose Columbia because I had spent a summer working in a research lab and I knew that if I were trained here, I’d be prepared for anything,” she said. “I will be getting the skills that will allow me to be a member of an engineering design team and, after gaining technical experience, I want to be in a position to determine what direction my company takes.”

More than 20 SEAS grad students who participated in the clean-up at P.S.5 in Brooklyn as part of New York Cares Day.

Leadership skills are also developed outside the classroom, as evidenced by the Engineering Graduate Student Council’s participation in the New York Cares project to help New York City public schools. Last year, Elaine Tai ’06 suggested that EGSC form a volunteer team to participate with New York Cares but, because of timing, it was not possible. This spring, graduate students volunteered with Columbia Community Outreach program (CCO) and began planning for New York Cares Day, traditionally held in October.

EGSC advisor Jonathan Stark received the necessary Team Leader training and, by early September, had recruited many graduate students for the effort. More than 20 volunteers gave up a Saturday to travel to P.S. 5 in Brooklyn to spruce up the school by, among other things, painting games and lines on school grounds. Some students who could not attend the event on the day of service were able to help by fund raising.

A total of almost $700 was raised for the New York Cares organization, which will use the funds to support some of the thousands of other volunteer projects they sponsor throughout the year. The SEAS graduate students were part of an estimated 8,000 volunteers who worked to revitalize 117 public schools in the five boroughs.