Columbia Engineering Graduates Receive Naval Commissions

Two members of Columbia Engineering’s class of 2026 have extra reason to celebrate this month: Dana Clarke SEAS‘26 and Paul Randall SEAS‘26, both officer candidates in the New York City Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps (NROTC), received their commissions at a Commissioning Ceremony held May 21 at Faculty House at Columbia’s Morningside campus.

Officer Candidate Randall earned his BS in applied physics with a minor in philosophy. He also did coursework in Mandarin Chinese. He attended the Naval Science Institute (NSI) at Officer Training Command Newport (OTCN) in Newport, Rhode Island, completing eight weeks of officer accession training, and was selected for the Seaman to Admiral Officer Program.

A native of Fort Mills, South Carolina, Randall began his undergraduate career at the University of Southern California before transferring to Columbia, a decision he said has made a lasting mark on him. 

“Columbia gave me the opportunity to pursue interests that I had already cared about, especially Chinese and physics, while also opening my mind to fields I had not seriously considered before,” he said. “Being around Columbia students exposed me to people who were passionate about very intense and interesting paths in life, and seeing people pursue those paths seriously broadened my view of what a meaningful, impactful future could look like.”

Officer Candidate Clarke earned their BS in computer engineering, and was on the Dean’s List for the spring semesters of 2024 and 2025. They were selected for STA21 in 2023. At Columbia, they were recognized for outstanding leadership, ethics, and scholastic achievement with the Christine and Francis Lombardi Scholarship, and served as a Sexual Violence Response Peer Educator. 

They completed the Naval Nuclear Training pipeline as a Nuclear Electronics Technician (ETN), and were the first ETN in their class to qualify at prototype. Their leadership positions included Class Leader in “A” School, Section Leader in Power School, and Class Lead in Prototype. They served as the Command Career Counselor’s Assistant at NNPTC. Following “A” School, OC Clarke earned the CO’s Personal Excellence award. Born in Brooklyn, Clarke graduated from Port Jervis High School.