THE ALUMNI MAGAZINE OF THE SCHOOL OF GENERAL STUDIES

Rethinking
Premedical
Education
2010

Table of

contents

Peter J. Awn
Dean
Malcolm A. Borg 65
Advisory Council

16

Curtis Rodgers
Dean of Communications
karen sendler
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR FOR ALUMNI RELATIONS

Editor
Allison Scola
associate Director
of COMMUNICATIONS

12

associate Editor
robert ast
communications officer

assistant Editor
anna osullivan
communications officer

FEATURES

Contributors

Rethinking Premedical Education

4 The roots of the Columbia University Postbaccalaureate Premedical Program
extend to the early 1900s when Columbia first began offering premedical classes to
students who were not enrolled as undergraduates. A century later, as American
medicine undergoes a sea change, the Postbac Program asks how premedical curricula
can best serve future doctors and their patients.
GS Launches New Dual-BA Program
9 This fall, a small group of undergraduates from the French university Sciences Po
will arrive at GS to complete their educations in the United States. They wont be
earning one degree, however, but two; and the program theyll be inaugurating is no
simple student exchange or year abroad.
Alumni from Class Years ending in 0s and 5s Return to Campus
10 The General Studies alumni community comes together, along with fellow alumni
from Columbia College, the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science, and Barnard College for a second fully integrated, four-school Reunion weekend.
Alumnus Spotlight: Joel D. Newman 76
11 GS/JTS alumnus Joel D. Newman discusses his journey from the pulpit to
the barracks.
Meet Karen Sendler
30 Karen Sendler 94CC, the new Executive Director for Alumni Relations, brings her
passion for Columbia to GS.

Departments
9
10
11
12

On Campus
Community News
GS Alumnus Spotlight
Class Day Gallery

14

16
20

Postbac Premed
Class Day Gallery
Annual Giving
Alumni Notes

25
26
28
30

In Memoriam
New Grad Notes
Community News
Events Calendar

Robert ast 08
Eileen barroso
Sheila Brogan-Testa 91, 92TC
erich erving 06

In September 2009 GS led the celebration of the inauguration of Columbia Universitys

participation in the Yellow Ribbon GI Education Enhancement Program, part of the Post9/11 GI Bill. In the fall of 2010, only the second year that the new GI Bill has been in effect,
GS will welcome 70 U.S. military veterans into the Columbia undergraduate community, a
268 percent increase over the 19 who enrolled in the fall of 2008. Additionally, we expect
another 30-40 veterans to enroll in spring 2011. As many of you know, GS was founded
partially in response to the influx of soldiers returning from WWII who sought educational
opportunities under the original GI Bill. The initiatives of the last two years coupled with
the remarkable response by veterans connect GS to its past and further solidify GS as the
undergraduate college with the largest population of student-veterans in the Ivy Leaguea
story that has been covered by news outlets like The New York Times, Fox News, and BBC News.
Our participation in the Yellow Ribbon Program is one example of how GS remains at the
forefront of higher education by providing innovative opportunities to the most talented and
diverse group of nontraditional students. In this issue of The Owl, I am pleased to announce
that in September 2010 we are inaugurating a new program with the distinguished French
university Sciences Po. Like our existing Joint Program with Albert A. List College of
The Jewish Theological Seminary, students in the Columbia GS-Sciences Po program will
earn two BA degrees: one from Sciences Po and one from Columbia. The new program
significantly advances Columbias commitment to expanding its position as a global
universityand marks GSs unique role in this initiative through this pioneering collaboration.

alexander gelfand
luci gutirrez
Harrison Kobb
anna osullivan
allison scola
laurie way
david wentworth
ROB WESTERBERG

FRONT COVER ILLUSTRATION

luci gutirrez

Questions, Comments,
and Change of Address
The OWL
OFFICE OF ALUMNI AND DEVELOPMENT
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The cover story of this issue celebrates another ground-breaking GS academic endeavor,
the Postbaccalaureate Premedical Program. As the oldest and largest program of its kind in
the countryone that is armed with the engagement of alumni like Judith Tenenbaum who
with her husband recently established an endowed scholarship supporting currently enrolled
studentsthe Postbac Program is well positioned to have an increasingly important impact
on the medical profession and medical education. Furthermore, Postbac students and alumni,
with their diverse backgrounds and intellectual breadth, are well-equipped to participate in
the current discussions and debates that will transform the future of health care.
Having celebrated with many of you the inauguration of the Yellow Ribbon Program last
September and at our second, fully integrated, four-school undergraduate reunion weekend
in June, I am inspired by the quality of our alumni and what they have accomplished. Looking
forward to this fall, I am further inspired knowing that we will welcome to Columbia one
of the largest and most selective classes ever to matriculate at GS, including the first group of
students from Sciences Po.
I hope that you enjoy the 2010 issue of The Owl, and I thank you for your continued support
as we work to further augment this unique and distinctive center for innovative education.

With warmest regards,

New York, NY
The OWL is printed by

the foundry
alexandria,va

Letter from the Dean

Peter J. Awn

Rethinking
Premedical
Education
BY ALEXANDER GELFAND
ILLUSTRATION BY luci gutirrez

to launch careers as doctors. (90 percent are

admitted upon first application to medical
school, while a small number choose instead
to become dentists, veterinarians, osteopaths,
and allied health professionals.) And now
more than everas American medicine
undergoes a sea change, and experts debate
the very nature of medical trainingthose
graduates are poised to make a powerful
contribution to American health care and to
the communities they will one day serve.
The roots of the Postbac Premed
Program extend to the early 1900s, when
Columbia first began offering premedical
classes to students who were not enrolled
as undergraduates. In 1955, the University
established the Postbaccalaureate Premedical
Program within General Studies for the
express purpose of providing all of the
prerequisites for admission to medical school.
Today, the 550 students enrolled in the
program are fully integrated into the Columbia
community. They take the same classes, with the
same faculty, as the traditional undergraduates
who sit alongside them; yet the paths they have
taken to premedical studies remain as varied as
they are uncommon. Many already hold degrees
from the finest colleges and universities in the
country, albeit without the scientific background
required for medical school. And they often
arrive fresh from substantial careers in other
fields, from music and dance to journalism
and finance, bringing with them considerable
prior knowledge and life experience.

their standard of living may plummet.

That pretty much sums up the experience
of Reuven Cohen. Though he worked and
saved for six years, the $60,000 Cohen
estimates he will rack up in tuition and
associated costs by the time he completes
the accelerated programcramming two
years of coursework into just 18 monthsis
nothing to laugh at, particularly when you
live in Manhattan, study full-time, and have
three small children at home. It took me a
year to build up the courage to leave Wall
Street and return to school, and making my
wife and kids sacrifice for me to go to this
program gave me pause, he says. At the
same time, theres nowhere hed rather be,
and nothing else hed rather be doing.
Such stories are common among GS
students, and Postbac Premed enrolles are
no exception. Many have really had to
work in order to be able to undertake this
degree, says Victoria Rosner, coordinator
of academic affairs for GS and associate
dean of the Postbaccalaureate Premedical
Program. They understand it to be a
transformative experience.

Reuven Cohen

That was certainly the case for Dr.

Judy Tanenbaum. When she enrolled in
1982, classes were held in the evenings.
So Tanenbaum, who was ineligible for
student loans, but held an MS in child
health from the University of Colorado
Health Science Center, spent her days
working as a physicians assistant in Queens
public schools, and her nights hitting the
books. Postbacs on the whole are deeply
committed to their studies here because
many are paying out of pocket, Sunshine
says. Theyre footing the bill, and with that
goes a commitment to making it work.
Tanenbaums day job didnt cover her
expenses; but having decided to become
a doctor, she was determined to complete
the best program possible. So her mother,
who had already quit college to send
Tanenbaums father to law school, sacrificed
yet again to send her daughter to Columbia.
Today, Tanenbaum is an assistant
attending psychiatrist at New York Presbyterian Hospital and a clinical instructor in
psychiatry at Weill-Cornell Medical College.

c ov e r s to r y

c o v e r s to ry

ot long ago, Reuven

Cohen was a health care
analyst at SAC Capital,
a hedge fund with $14
billion in assets. His job,
which involved investing
in biotech companies, was interesting, well
remuneratedand, ultimately, unsatisfying.
I was attending conferences and
spending my days talking to doctors about
the various drugs and medical devices they
used, but it was all purely intellectual,
Cohen says. There were no tangible results
aside from making money. I wanted to leave
a more positive, lasting result.
When Cohen became a fatherhe
has a daughter, now five, a son, two, and a
newbornhis desire to find a career that
would both satisfy his intellectual curiosity and
allow him to help others became more acute.
It may sound hokey, but having children
really did change my perspective on what
was important to me, he says. I wanted
some integrity in what I was doing. There
wasnt enough spin in the world to make it
seem like I was helping anyone but myself.
Cohens growing desire to make a
difference eventually led him, as it has so many
aspiring physicians, to the Postbaccalaureate
Premedical Program in the School of
General Studies.
Now in its 55th year, the program is the
oldest and largest of its kind in the United
States. Generations of graduates have used it

The requirements for medical school admission have

gone largely unchanged since 1905despite
revolutionary changes in the life sciences and mounting
evidence that many of the qualities and
Im impressed and, I must confess,
humbled by what theyve done, never
characteristics that we associate with
mind what they will do, says Andrew
Sunshine, director of the Postbaccalaureate
Premedical Program. Many of them have
good doctoring are neither taught nor
made significant sacrifices to be here. Many
were doing well on Wall Street or in other
assessed within the current system.
professions, and in deciding to come here,

Photo Credit: David Wentworth/Columbia University. All others: Eileen Barroso/Columbia University

And while the Postbac Program wasnt easy,

Tanenbaum firmly believes that it gave her
the preparation and support she needed to
go from being a physicians assistant to being
a physician. Its incredibly competitive,
its time-consumingbut so is becoming
a doctor, Tanenbaum says. There were
hardships, but the professors and the head
of the program were incredibly supportive. I
credit them with helping launch my career.
In
return,
Tanenbaum
recently
gave $100,000 to establish an endowed
scholarship in her mothers honor. By
substantially adding to the $70,000 or so
in scholarships that are currently available,
Tanenbaums gift will help expand access
to the program, rendering it even more
inclusive and diverse. And while that is in
keeping with the overall philosophy of
the Universitydiversity is a Columbia
tradition, says Peter Awn, dean of the
School of General Studies, and it brings a
range of experience that is salutary it is
also extremely timely. The question of how
to increase the number of underrepresented
groups entering the medical profession has
received considerable attention of late, in
part because it has implications for both
the types and the numbers of people who
will be able to practice medicine in the 21st
centuryissues that will only grow more

Howard Dean
6

pressing with time.

The Association of American Medical
Colleges (AAMC), for example, predicts that
the nation will face a shortage of 150,000
doctors by 2020a shortage that will be
spurred both by an aging population of baby
boomers saddled with chronic diseases, and
by the newly enacted federal health care
law, which extends insurance coverage to
an additional 32 million people. The most
acute shortfall will occur among primary
care physicians: the very same general
practitioners, internists, and pediatricians
to whom the new law grants even greater
responsibility for coordinating patient
care, and who are already underpaid in
comparison with their specialist colleagues.
High
educational
costs,
added
responsibility, lower pay: this is not a
recipe for increasing the supply of a muchneeded class of professional, or of attracting
already disadvantaged groups to its ranks.
In the words of Dr. Howard Dean, Postbac
,
Premed 75, former governor of Vermont
and former chairman of the Democratic
National Convention, Unless doctors
graduate without debt, they wont be able
to go into primary care. Finding ways of
expanding access to medical training while
containing student debt wont entirely solve
the problem, but it would certainly help.

Jonathan
Victoria Rosner
Friedman

I want the faculty and the community

at Columbia to be part of the
conversation. Dean Peter J. Awn
Still, giving as many students as possible
the opportunity to become highly trained
caregivers is one thing. Determining how
best to prepare them for their future roles is
another. And that, too, has become a hot topic.
According to Dr. Donald Barr, an
internist and sociologist at Stanford
University who researches premedical
education, the requirements for medical
school admission have gone largely
unchanged since 1905despite revolutionary
changes in the life sciences and mounting
evidence that many of the qualities and
characteristics that we associate with good
doctoring are neither taught nor assessed
within the current system.
In an effort to address this problem,
the AAMC recently published a report
recommending that premedical programs
move away from the prescribed diet of
chemistry, biology, and physics, and toward
a more flexible curriculum that focuses
on inculcating the habits of research and
analysis upon which physicians must
increasingly rely throughout their careers.
These competencies, as the AAMC calls
them, would hopefully equip future doctors
to wrap their minds around everything
from the latest breakthroughs in molecular
biology to the ethical conundrums associated
with genetic testing and end-of-life care.

Yet the question of how premedical and

medical school curricula should be modernized
is enormously complex, and unlikely to be
answered any time soonespecially when the
pros and cons of any changes will have to be
carefully weighed in light of many competing
interests and concerns.
Physics and calculus are not, in general,
,
relevant to medicine, Dean 75 says, by
way of illustration. On the other hand,
I think that doctors should have a general
understanding of how the world works,
and your scientific training isnt complete
without some understanding of physics.
Coming to a consensus wont be easy.
But no matter where the process leads,
Awn wants to make sure that Columbia
plays a role in it. I do not want to be
simply a recipient of decisions coming from
elsewhere, he says. I want to be part of
the conversation. I want the faculty and the
community at Columbia to be part of the
conversation. And the Postbaccalaureate
Premedical Program may be uniquely
suited to leading, never mind participating
in, the emerging debate over the future of
premedical education.
On the one hand, the program is justly
famous for the rigor of its science curriculum.
The professors here go above and beyond
anything I learned in my undergraduate

c ov e r s to r y

c o v e r s to ry

I do not want to be simply a recipient

of decisions coming from elsewhere.
I want to be part of the conversation.

Kayla, Judith, and William Tanenbaum

7

c o v e r s to ry

Doctors are
scientists, and
they should be
scientifically
trained, but a
liberal education is
essential. A doctor
is not a mechanic.
Doctors are often
looked upon as
leaders in their
communities, and
a wider education,
where you have to
know something
about your culture
and your history,
is essential to be a
leader.
Gov. Howard
Dean 75
there is a significant correlation between
students scores on the verbal reasoning
portion of the MCAT, and their scores
on the final stage (Step 3) of the U. S.
Medical Licensing Exam.
This is not a new argument, though it
is sometimes forgotten amidst the pressure
to meet the narrow curricular requirements
of medical school. As early as 1914, Abbott
Lawrence Lowell, then president of Harvard
University, made an impassioned and wellsupported case for liberal education as the

best foundation for a medical career. So

when Awn contends that a broad-based
liberal education cannot but help improve
your performance as a physician, he isnt
just giving props to the many Postbac
Premed students who come to the program
with precisely such an education in hand.
He is championing a philosophy that is as
old as premedical training itself.
Doctors are scientists, and they should
be scientifically trained, but a liberal
education is essential, says Dean, who
graduated from Yale in 1971 with a BA in
political science and worked as an investment
banker before deciding to become a
physician. (He continued to practice as an
internist in Shelburne, Vt. until becoming
governor of the state in 1991.) A doctor is
not a mechanic. Doctors are often looked
upon as leaders in their communities, and
a wider education, where you have to know
something about your culture and your
history, is essential to be a leader.
But how do we as a society ensure
that doctors receive not only the scientific
training but also the liberal education that
their jobs demand? How do we best prepare
them to cope with the changing nature
of scientific knowledge, and of American
health care? How do we guarantee that
we will have the number of doctorsand
the kinds of doctorsthat we will need
in future? And how do we make certain
that gifted and dedicated students can get
premedical and medical training, regardless
of financial need?
These are big, complex questions, and
not ones to which definitive answers will
be found anytime soon. But they are ones
that the administration and faculty of the
Postbaccalaureate Premedical Program are
tackling head on, so that students like Cohen
and Friedman will be prepared for whatever
the future might holdjust as Tanenbaum,
Dean, and thousands of others were before
them. And they are also questions that
Postbac Premed students may themselves be
unusually well prepared to address.
This is a time for creative and flexible
outlooks, says Rosner. Postbac students
have not had a straight trajectory to reach
their premedical educations, and I think that
they will be well-equipped to participate in
these debates, and in the changes to the
health care system.
Cohen, for one, doesnt doubt for a
moment his decision to pursue a career
with meaning and purposeno matter
how challenging it has been, or may continue
to be.
Now that I have invested the time and
effort, he says, I feel even more committed.

GS

on campus
GS Launches New Dual-Degree Program with Sciences Po
BY ALEXANDER GELFAND

This fall, a small group of undergraduates from the French university Sciences Po
will arrive at the School of General Studies
to complete their educations in the United
States. They wont be earning one degree,
however, but two; and the program theyll
be inaugurating is no simple student exchange or year abroad.
Students will spend two years at Sciences
Po, one of a handful of grandes coles that
have traditionally trained Frances political
and diplomatic elite, followed by two years
at Columbia. By the time theyre done, they
will have earned undergraduate degrees
from both universities.
Two great institutions of higher learning will share something at the core of
higher education: the undergraduate experience, Francis Verillaud, vice president
for international affairs at Sciences Po says.
This will create a corps of students that will
share the two institutions values.
Through their joint participation in the
Alliance Program, a Franco-American educational consortium that also includes the
cole Polytechnique and the Universit
Paris 1 Panthon-Sorbonne, Columbia and
Sciences Po already offer a number of dualdegree programs at the graduate level. The
new program, known officially as the Dual
BA Program Between Columbia University
and Sciences Po, is a different animal, howeverone that will significantly advance
Columbias commitment to expanding its
position as a global university.
Columbia has always had a very international student body at the graduate level,
says University Provost Claude Steele, who
will travel to Reims to inaugurate the new
program in September. In its 2009 report,
the Task Force on Undergraduate Education recommended that similar attention be
given to internationalizing the educational
experience of undergraduates, including
increasing the number of international students who study at Columbia for an undergraduate degree. This new program, which
will bring students from Europe and around
the world to study with students already at

Columbia, could well serve as a model for

other institutions.
During the pilot phase of the program,
a select group of students who hail from
France, Norway, Brazil, and Germany and
have already spent two years at Sciences Po
will come to Columbia to complete the curriculum of the School of General Studies. At
the same time, Columbia and Sciences Po
will begin jointly recruiting and admitting
high school students from Europe, North
America, Asia, and elsewhere. These entering freshmen will begin the program at one
of the three Sciences Po campuses that offer
instruction in English.
Each of these campuses has a distinct international focus, and draws students from
different regions of the world. Reims concentrates on transatlantic relations; Menton
on the Middle East and Mediterranean; and
Le Havre on Europe and Asia. Sciences Po
is an archetypical French institution, but also
a global one, Vanessa Scherrer, director of
the existing Alliance Program and visiting
professor at the Columbia School of International and Public Affairs says.
Two years later, those students will ma-

triculate at Columbia to complete their dual

degrees. When the program reaches full capacity, there will be 60 students in New York
and 60 in France at any given time. We will
really be getting cohorts of students who
will fully participate in the life of both institutions, Peter Awn, dean of the School of
General Studies says.
By bringing together students from
around the globe and having them study
full time for two years at a world-class European university before bringing them to a
world-class American one, the new program
will expose participants to a wide range of
languages, cultures, and experiences. The
ensuing cross-fertilization of attitudes and
perspectives will make an immense contribution to the intellectual conversation in the
Columbia classroom, Awn says.
Verillaud envisions the same benefits for
Sciences Po, which places a similar emphasis
on internationalizing its student body and on
preparing its graduates to deal with the complex global challenges of the 21st century.
Together, we can accomplish even more
than we could alone, he says. In this case,
one plus one makes more than two.

ON C AMPUS

classes, says Jonathan Friedman, who came

to Columbia with a degree in psychology.
Thats why Im pretty much in the library
10 hours a day.
Yet the program is far more than an MCAT
preparation mill; and the breadth of its
offerings, coupled with the rich and varied
backgrounds of its students, make it an ideal
place to test assumptions and hypotheses about
how best to prepare future health care providers.
For one thing, all students are required
to complete 120 hours of work in a clinical
or research setting. And this being New
York Cityhome to the largest municipal
hospital system in the country, and to
many of its leading teaching and specialty
hospitals, as wellthe opportunities for topflight placements are pretty much limitless.
One of the great things about the program
is that a lot of different doctors and agencies
around the city know about it, Friedman
says. So every week, the office gets flooded
with hundreds of emails asking for students
who might be available.
Friedman briefly worked in finance,
but decided to pursue a career in medicine
after volunteering at La Rabida Childrens
Hospital in Chicago and Riley Hospital for
Children in Indianapolis. I played with
sick children, taught them how to read,
he says. I really enjoyed itthe medical
setting, working with kids. I decided it
was time to become a doctor. Hed like to
continue working with children, and given
his background in psychology, pediatric
neurology seems especially attractive. So
this past year, he volunteered 30 hours a
week in a cognitive neuropsychology lab
here at Columbia. Cohen, meanwhile, did
stem cell research with a cardiologist at
Mount Sinai Hospital. Both say that they
gained a perspective on the practice of
medicine that they could not have gained
through coursework alone.
Students also have the opportunity
to participate in innovative colloquia
like Reading the Body, which presents
narrative descriptions of the experiences of
doctors and patients, and examines literary
and cultural representations of illness and
medicine. This kind of interdisciplinary
work, otherwise known as medical
humanities, has become an important part
of many premedical and medical programs.
And while it might be tempting to regard it
as simply icing on the cake, or as a less-thancritical complement to purely scientific
training, that would be a mistake.
There is evidence that those who are
strongest in the humanities make the best
doctors, so long as theyre also strong in
science, says Barr, who points out that

GS

GS

COMMUNITY news

ALUMnus SPOTLIGHT

Joel D. Newman 76 GS/JTS

The U.S. Navys Senior Rabbi to the Marine Corps

GS Celebrates Reunion and

Deans Day 2010
Nearly 100 alumni and guests from the School of General Studies
graduating classes ending in 0s and 5s, as well as members of the larger General Studies alumni community, participated in 2010 Reunion
and Deans Day during the weekend of June 4-6. Alumni traveled
from as far away as Turkey and as near as 100th and Broadway to return to their alma mater. Two groups boasted the highest attendance:
the class of 1950 and alumni from recent graduating classes.
In this second, fully integrated, four-school undergraduate reunion event, the weekend offered an opportunity for the General
Studies alumni community to come together, as well as meet and
greet fellow alumni from Columbia College, the Fu Foundation
School of Engineering and Applied Science, and Barnard College.
Aubrey Escoffery 50, who was accompanied by his wife, shared
his GS memorabilia including his yearbook, commencement program, and Class of 1950 Senior Prom keepsake book with Columbians from every class year.
The Deans Day Lunch, held on Saturday, June 5 in the newly
renovated Faculty House, hosted alumni as well as University faculty
and administrators, including Executive Vice President for University Development and Alumni Relations Susan K. Feagin 74, Executive Vice President for Arts and Sciences Nicholas Dirks, Dean of
Career Services Kavita Sharma, and Dean of the School of General
Studies Peter J. Awn.
Reunion Committee Chair Adam Casdin 95 welcomed guests
and acknowledged the University officials who attended the lunch.
Feagin, Dirks, and Awn all spoke about the importance of the School
of General Studies as part of the greater Columbia community, reminding alumni that for over 20 years GS undergraduates have sat in
the same classes with the same faculty as all other Columbia University undergraduates and that in recent years the GS academic curriculum has been reorganized to be virtually identical to that of Columbia College, guaranteeing all GS students a true Columbia education.
These curricular changes, Awn reported, mean great things for GS
and Columbia: Thus far, applications for Fall 2010 are 60 percent
ahead of last years numbers, and applications to the Postbaccalaureate Premedical Program are also ahead of this time last year.
Awn said, 75 percent of college students around the country look
more like GS students than traditionally aged undergraduates, and
because no other school of Columbias caliber has been able to capture such a large pool of talented, intellectually mature students in
the way that GS has, Columbia remains a distinct leader in higher
education for adults and returning students.

1. Howard Lipan 66 looks at Aubrey Escofferys memorabilia from his time

as a Columbia student.
2. Alumni enjoyed having their photo taken after a day of events.
3. Amei Wallach 65, Dean Peter J. Awn, Jonathan Levin 50,
Nancy Schaefer 50, Caroline Wueschner 71, Howard Lipan 66,
Aubrey Escoffery 50, and Jules Wertheimer 50
4. Dean Awn addresses alumni at the Deans Day Lunch held in the newly
renovated Faculty House.

Save the Date!

Reunion Weekend 2011
June 35, 2011
10

In 2008, Commander Joel Newman

GS/JTS 76 learned that he had been
selected to receive an honorary doctorate
from The Jewish Theological Seminary.
The only hitch was that at the time of the
ceremony Newman, a chaplain for the U.S.
Navy, would be with Marine Corps troops
in Iraq, the latest in a series of deployments
that includes stints in Somalia, Ecuador,
Japan, the Arabian Gulf, and Afghanistan.
Even before joining the military, Rabbi
Newman was well-traveled. As a student in
the Joint Program he spent a year studying
abroad at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem,
and later completed his rabbinical training at
the Leo Baeck College in London.
Following his ordination he returned
to the United States and led congregations
in St. Paul, Minn., and Denver, each for six
years. Ultimately, however, he wanted to
find a different way to minister.
When youre on a pulpit, you dont have
young people coming to you with issues and
problems, Newman said. If they come to
talk to you about marriage, theyre discussing
how to use your facility at the wedding, where
to put the flowers, and so on. By contrast, the
stuff that Ive done for the last 20 years now
is really life and death.
After spending a year in the Naval
Reserves, Newman opted to go on active
duty and, shortly thereafter, received his
first deployment. I got the call on my
anniversary, he recalled. Were flying you
out to Mogadishu for Chanukah.
Chaplains live, work, and travel
alongside regular military personnel, and
even undergoing basic training, although
they are prohibited from carrying a weapon
by the Geneva Convention.
Theres no valet service, Newman said.
You have to jump off the helicopter and then
walk a mile or two carrying all your equipment
to the check-in point. Its one thing to do it
when youre in your twenties, but Ill turn 58
this year. You have to be 100 percent; you cant
get injured, cant catch a cold. You have to be
very, very careful, and I am.
In addition to their ministerial duties,

chaplains serve as a vital link between the

military command, whom they advise on
ethical issues, and the troops on the ground.
Consequently, sharing the dangers and
rigors of everyday life is indispensable.
When I was in Afghanistan last
October, I sat with the general and discussed
how the troops were doing, Newman said.
Most people here dont realize that when
youre in a horrible situation, you still have to
go to the bathroom, shower, eat, sleep, wash
your clothes. Whats portrayed on the news
here is nothing; its a thousand times worse.
Even in less trying conditions,
establishing a religious presence during a
deployment poses challenges, particularly in
the Jewish community.
Often people will try to gather, but if
there isnt someone to lead and run things,
their resolve can falter. Thats a problem for
all faiths. But if you publicize that theres
a professional coming out, it works. In my
case, its much more complicated, because,
instead of being a Conservative rabbi, I
have to be a rabbi for everyone. You have
people whove never been to a service but
their grandmother was Jewish, and then
you have someone whos gone to a Jewish
day school. You have to find somewhere in
between. Instead of saying, Come worship
in my style of Judaism, I look at their style
and bring it to them, and thats where I think
you truly find success.
While serving as a rabbi is Newmans
foremost responsibility, the bulk of his time
is spent in counseling military personnel and
their families, another task that often requires
him to reconcile diverging perspectives.

The divorce rate for service members

under 28 is 85 percent, Newman said.
Cultures are different, family backgrounds
are different. To give them the tools to
communicate and maybe save the marriage
is a huge thing.
After 10 years in Southern California,
Newman, his wife, and two daughters moved
to Maryland in 2002 for his next assignment:
teaching ethics at the U.S. Naval Academy.
Going back into the university
world was wonderful, Newman said. Its
amazing to be with some of the top-level
thinkers in the world as theyre creating just
war theories. Theyre willing to go out and
question whats the best way for a future
naval officer to serve his country.
Once his tour at the Naval Academy was
completed, Newman and his family returned
to California. Throughout his career
his family has been supportive, although
Newman notes that serving as a chaplain has,
in some ways, made their lives easier.
When youre on a pulpit, youre being
scrutinized all the time, Newman says. You
have to live up to a contract, which refers to how
well the synagogue is doing financially. In board
meetings theyre discussing you, your wife, and
your future. I thought, How much more difficult
would it be to sit in a tent in a war zone?
The family got used to it; they never
complained or said I dont like what you
do. We celebrate holidays early or late,
and with email you can stay in touch all the
time. They know that when I go out on a
deployment, its for the greater good. If Im
not there, theres a real void. I dont think
everyone can say that about their jobs.

A L U M N U S S P OT L I G H T

CO M M U N I TY n e w s

BY ROBERT AST

11

CLASS DAY 2010

PHOTOS BY DAVID WENTWORTH/columbia

1. Class Day procession.

2. The Biting Fish Brass Band performs for GS graduates.

3. Lena Park, Korean R&B star and GS graduate, sings the national anthem.
4. Dean Peter J. Awn and Thomas Williams.
C L A SS DAY G A L L ERY

C L A SS D AY G A L L ERY

5. GS Class Day speaker chef Jacques Ppin 70.

6. GS salutatorian Issis Palomo and family.
7. GS valedictorian Brian Corman.
8. Stephen Tobias and family.
9. Katherine Edwards, Alumni Key Award recipient and 2009-2010
student body president.
10. Founders of the nationally-recognized Columbia Ballet Collaborative.

3
4

12

10

13

postbac premed
class day 2010

PHOTOS BY eileen barroso/columbia

1. Ellen Watts, assistant dean, celebrates

with Greg Jaffe and his mother.
2. Michael Shamoon delivers the student
address.
1

3. Dr. Judith Tanenbaum 83, clinical

psychiatrist, delivers the keynote address.

4. Andrew Sunshine, associate dean and

director of the Postbac Premed Program,
with Ellie Coromilas and her father.
5. Daniel Becchi and Jonathan Friedman
with Professor Deborah Mowshowitz.
6. Columbia Postbac Premed graduates at
Class Day.
7. Elizabeth Kern, Samantha Moni, and
Brittany Kligman.

9. Dustin Carlson and Lise Hazen,

Biological Sciences.

14

10. Stephanie Rounds, Marissa Purcelli,

Ariel Haves, and Brooks Crowe.

11. Dean Peter J. Awn congratulates Postbac

Premed Program graduates.

10

C L A SS DAY G A L L ERY

C L A SS D AY G A L L ERY

8. Veronica Mitchell, assistant dean, with

Paul Zentko and his family.

11

15

GS

ANNUAL GIVING

The School of General Studies continued to experience an increased level of giving to

the GS Annual Fund during the 2009-2010 fiscal year. Gifts totaled approximately $550,000,
an increase of nine percent over the previous year.
During its inaugural year, the GS Annual Fund Leadership Committee, chaired by
Deborah Marshall 79, helped raise over $100,000 toward this annual fund total.
Close to $85,000 was raised from GS alumni celebrating their reunion year in 2010. The
GS Class of 2010 raised an impressive $7,500 through its Senior Gift Fund drive.
The GS Annual Fund is the schools primary vehicle for alumni giving and an important
way for alumni to commemorate their GS experience. Each gift is appreciated, no matter the
size. Gifts to the GS Annual Fund may be designated to the following areas:
General support to underwrite the deans top priorities
Financial aid
PALS (Program for Academic Leadership and Service)
Postbaccalaureate Premedical Program
Yellow Ribbon Program
Newcombe Scholars
Sinnott Memorial Scholarship Fund (in honor of Michael Sinnott)
Perkins Memorial Scholarship (in honor of Jennifer Perkins)

Annual Giving 2010 Donor Roll

$25,000 and above

Ms. Angela Dulce de Lara 78BUS
Mrs. Patricia M. Dunnington 81
Ms. Jane Forbes Clark
Mr. Larry Lawrence 69, 71BUS
Charlotte W. Newcombe Foundation
Helena Rubinstein Foundation, Inc.
Gerald E. Rupp, Esq.
Mr. Daniel Alexander Schwartz 90SEAS
Mrs. Deborah Schwartz
Mr. Stephen R. Tobias 10

Benefactor
$15,000 - $24,999
Mr. Malcolm A. Borg 65, P: 90LAW,
96BUS
Mr. Arie Hochberg 79SEAS, 84SEAS
Mrs. Elaine Hochberg 82, 85BUS

Lewisohn Associate
$10,000 - $14,999
Mr. Paul Croitoroo 79, P: 08CC
Mr. David C. L. Frauman, Esq. 72
Ms. Deborah M. Marshall, Esq. 79
Ms. Susan Packie 76

Owl Associate
$5,000 - $9,999
Mr. John B. Cataldo 52
Mrs. Helen C. Evarts 70
Ms. Susan Kay Feagin 74
Jewish Communal Fund of New York
Mrs. Myrna Katz Greenberg, P: 04GS
16

Mr. Stephen David Greenberg, P: 04GS

Ms. Maureen Anne Gupta 02
Mr. John Michael Howard 92
J.C. Lewis Foundation, Inc.
Mr. Jeffrey D.J. Kallenberg 03
Barbara Voorhis Levy 48, P: 90BUS
Ms. Nancy Virginia Lewis 78
Mr. Thomas William Mullen 08
Mr. Thomas H. Shrager 83, 84SIPA
Katherine L. Slazak, M.D. 80
Ms. Shelby B. White 65GSAG, P: 95GS

GS Honor Society
$2,500 - $4,999
Mrs. Elaine S. Bernstein 72
Miss Edna D. Borea 55
Ms. Annie M. Cardelus 91
Mrs. Marjorie L. Christie, P: 81CC
W: 50GS, 53BUS
Mr. Michael E.S. de Mello 79, 81BUS
Mr. Eric Gifford Diefenbach 98
Dr. Joan Findlay Dunham 71
Mr. Wolcott B. Dunham Jr.
Mr. Rudolph H. Hertz 52
The New York Community Trust
Mr. George Stabler Loening 92
Mr. Alan McLachlan
Mr. John E. Murphy Jr. 72, 74PH,
P: 06CC
The Ross Family Foundation
Mr. James A. Ross 62
Mrs. Harriet F. Sadow 71
Dr. Judith Hertz Tanenbaum 83, P: 14CC
Mr. Paul Zachary 10

$1,000 - $2,499
Raymond J. Aab, Esq. 75
Ms. Suzanne G. Adams 85
Mr. Andrew L. Anker 87CC
Ms. Renee Anker
Mrs. Katharine L. Auchincloss 61,
67GSAS
Mrs. Anne B. Babcock 75
Denes Vilmos Balazs, M.D. 68
George H. Beane, Esq. 67, 72LAW
Dr. Baruj Benacerraf 42, HON
George J. Beraka, M.D. 65, 69PS
Mr. Peter P. Blanchard, III 78
Mr. James L. Boelter 75
Mrs. Edward S. Bonnie 57
Mr. Jacopo Andrea Botta 99
The Winston-Salem Foundation
Dr. Caroline W. Bynum
Ms. Heather Marie Byrne 88
Ms. Sharon Casdin P: 95, 96BUS, 03,
03BUS
Chubb & Son, Incorporated
Citi Global Impact Funding Trust, Inc.
Ms. Sheila D. Creth 74
L. D. Clark, Ph.D. 53, 63GSAS
Mr. Westley M. Clavey Jr. 80, 81BUS,
P: 10CC
Mr. Edward W. Coll 73, 76BUS
Mr. Alan L. Copland 64
Mr. Ralph E. Cox 54
Mr. Thomas E. Dackow 72, 78GSAS
Mr. Michael Dal Bello
Mr. Patrick Martin Devaney 95
Ms. M. Ann Dexter 70
Mr. Rene O. Dominguez 73, 75BUS
Mr. John Joseph Doran 85, 99JRN
Mr. Joseph Eric Ehrlich 92
David Michael Epstein, Esq. 85
Ms. Margot Paul Ernst 95
ExxonMobil Foundation
Mr. Norman N. Farr 51
Mrs. Helen Stone FitzGerald 80
Mr. Castle W. Freeman Jr. 68
Mrs. Amy Jo Scott Frischling 93
Mrs. Alice J. Garrett 68, P: 89CC
The Glickenhaus Foundation
Mrs. Sarah B. Glickenhaus 77SW
Rev. Dorothy A. Greene 68
Mr. Lee J. Guittar 53CC, 94
Mrs. Kikka Hanazawa 00
The Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation
Harry Leon Lobsenz Foundation Inc.
Ms. Carol Hull 69
IBM International Foundation
J.P. Morgan Chase Foundation
James G. Parker Insurance Associates
Ms. Jane Botsford Johnson P: 14CC
Mr. Andrew D. Kaizer
Mrs. Ellen M. Kealy 83
Mrs. Grace I. Keller Krumwiede 52
Prof. Roger S. Leeds 66

George Leitmann, Ph.D. 49, 50GSAS

Mr. Arthur Norman LeMay 94
Mr. Jonathan Levin 50
Dr. Judith G. Levin 62GSAS
Ms. Judy Lew 91
Mr. Nicholas Maisano 04
Mr. John D. Mara 82
Dr. Candace C. Martin 81
Mr. Robert Alvin Martin Jr. 87, 91GSAS
Mrs. Marjorie D. Meek 57
Microsoft Giving Campaign
Mr. Sylvester F. Miniter 90
Mr. John Talmage Moore 92
Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund
Mrs. Betty L. Morefield 89
Claire & Jack Nath Charitable Foundation
Barbara J. Nath, M.D. 67GSAS, 73, 77PS
Mr. Benjamin R. Newland 93
Mr. Joseph OSullivan 57, 58BUS
Perkins Mann & Everett
Teresa Anne Pesce-Kaizer, Esq. 84,
87LAW
Mr. William Sloan Phelan Jr. 08
Community Foundation of Greater
Memphis
Mr. Clifton B. Phillips 82
Mr. Russell Richardson
Mr. Richard D. Rockwell 64
Mrs. Katherine Barnett Rosman
Mr. Leo Andrew Schmidt III 90
Mr. Jeffrey Schwartz
Mr. Frederick M. Shaine 70
Ms. Phyllis M. Shirokane 74
Dr. David Soifer 61
Mrs. Lea Soifer
Mr. Richard M. Space, Jr. 05
Mr. James P. Stokien 92
Mr. Weston W. Thorn 71
Mr. Peter A. Tomback 54
Mr. Theow H. Tow 73
Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund
Mr. David C. Trainer 77
Professor Carol Richmond Tsang 88
Wells Fargo Foundation
Robert Winthrop Charitable Trust
Mr. John S. Wood 63, 64BUS
Mr. Paul Yates 05, 08BUS

Alumni Associates
$500 - $999
Dr. Marcelle Abell-Rosen 97
Ms. Carrie Guterres Adelman
Mr. Stephen R. Adelman 83
Mr. Joseph Aloysius Ahearn 83
Ms. Kelly Albertson 05
Mr. George F. Alexander 61, 63BUS
Mrs. Rose Moquin Allen 52
Mr. Theodore Allison 53
Ms. Judith C. Anderson 72, 82BUS
Angels Office Supply
Mr. Matan Ariel 06, 11BUS
Mr. David B. Barrett 75

Beachwood Dental Arts

Ms. Melissa Bell 93
Mr. Arthur Walker Bingham IV 84
Mrs. Diana Mary Bolick 86
Ms. Jacqueline B. Botwinick 64, 95SW
Mr. Bruce Breimer
Mrs. Sheila Ann Brogan-Testa 91, 92TC
Mr. Ronald J. Burtnett 66
Cantor Foundation
Pamela Cantor, M.D.
Mr. Adam B. Casdin 95
Mrs. Blair Casdin
Mr. Jeremiah Joseph Cassidy 85
Ms. Ke Hee Cho 86
Dr. Dorothy M. Clementson 78, 81GSAS,
84GSAS, 90GSAS
Mr. Michael D. Coble 98
Jonathan Stephen Deutsch, M.D.
Ms. Lorna R. Doran 73
Mr. David K. Emmel 76
Mr. Erich Harris Erving 06
Ms. Eleanor Renee Evans 67, 77SW,
78BUS
William R. Evans, Ph.D. 61GSAS,
70GSAS
Ms. Lucia P. Ewing 67
Mr. William F. Faison II 58
Mr. Michael Edward Fay 97
Ms. Andrea Entratter Fayer 86
Alvan Field, D.D.S.
Mrs. Carol Field
Mr. Keith Edmund Ford 82
Mr. Davide Forte 05
Ms. Jean W. Foss 81
Mr. John Watson Foster 99
Mr. Nir Froimovici 04
Mr. Richard Mortimer Furlaud, Jr. 81,
82GSAS
Ms. Maria M. Garcia 97
Mr. Ronald Frank Getto 84, 86BUS
Mr. Timothy Richard Goebel 10
Laurie R. Goldstein, M.D. 76
Ms. Patricia A. Gondolfo 85, 95PH
Google, Inc.
Karen S. Greenberg, M.D. 88
Dr. Lisa Burghild Groger 72, 74GSAS,
75GSAS, 79GSAS
Mrs. Margaret L. Gunther 50
Mr. Edward Charles Harris 71
Ms. Alison Heffes 94
Mrs. Jennifer Jacobs-Deutsch
Mark S. Kahan, Esq. 69, 72LAW
Mrs. M. Whitney Keen 73
Mrs. Jody W. Konstadt
Steven Neal Konstadt, M.D. 77, 98BUS
Dr. Robert S. Kruger 69
Mr. Robert E. Kulp 59
Ms. Laishan Liza Lam-Gabel 84
Mr. Leon A. Lassovsky 75
Ms. Jane Dickler Lebow 67
Mrs. Carolina Lightcap 92
Mr. John L. McGraw 57

Dr. David R. Mellins 93, 97GSAS,

98GSAS, 04GSAS
Mrs. Patricia F. Mendelsohn 74, 76GSAS
Mr. Gabriel Meszaros 61
Dr. Lucy Thomas Miller 81
Mr. J. Roger Moody 58SEAS
Morgan Stanley
Mr. John E. Muendel 63
Prof. James I. Nakamura 52, 64GSAS
Mr. Nicholas H. Niles 65
Mr. Menville A. Nolte 59, 62BUS
Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund
Mrs. Linda Simchai Reiter 00
Joseph L. Rodgers, M.D. 82
Daniel & Joanna S. Rose Fund,
Incorporated
Mr. Daniel Rose P: 83BUS, 92BUS
Mrs. Joanna S. Rose P: 83BUS, 92BUS
Marcelle and Andrew Rosen Foundation
Mrs. Trudy P. Saad 72
Ms. Kristy Lynn Santimyer-Melita 93
Mrs. Elisa Fier Schwartz
SD Apps, Inc.
Mr. George H. Smith Jr. 63
Ms. Alice Haynes Stein 87
Mr. Samuel R. Stephens 67
Mr. Hugh M. Stephenson 50
Mr. Myer R. Strauss 76
Arno Sarkis Sungarian, M.D. 93
Mr. Peter Francis Sweeney 84
Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program
Mr. Kevin Lee Truex 03
Mr. James C. Tsang
Mr. Melvin L. Victor 81
Mr. Leonard M. Wasserman 68
Mr. J. Craig Wilson 95
Mr. David R. Zimm 01

Key
BUS Graduate School of Business
CC Columbia College
GSAS Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
GS School of General Studies
HON honorary degree recipient
JRN Graduate School of Journalism
LS School of Library Service
LAW School of Law
P: Parent of
PH Mailman School of Public Health
PS College of Physicians and Surgeons
SCE School of Continuing Education
SEAS The Fu Foundation School
of Engineering and Applied Science
SIPA School of International and Public Affairs
SOA School of the Arts
SW School of Social Work
TC Teachers College
W: Widow/Widower of

d e v e l o pm e n t n e w s

d e v e l o pm e n t n e w s

Deans Circle

GS Honor Roll

17

Annual Giving
Participate,
Celebrate, and
Make a Difference

The GS Annual Fund is the schools primary vehicle for alumni giving.
Throughout the year, participants are recognized with unique opportunities to
stay connected to Columbia and the School of General Studies through events
like the June 2009 Annual Fund Reception at Vermilion restaurant, the annual
Scholarship Celebration at Casa Italiana, the Senior Cocktail Party at Faculty
House, and High Tea with Dean Awn at The Carlyle Hotel.

2
10

11

Scholarship Celebration November 17, 2009

9. Sara Moradi, recipient of the Peter K. Block
Scholarship, with Desmond G. FitzGerald
79GSAS, benefactor of the Angelita Garcia
Campos Endowed Scholarship

12

13

11. The Teatro at Casa Italiana

Annual Fund Reception June 24, 2009

12. Sandra Borg, Jonathan Krueger, the recipient

of the North Jersey Media Group Scholarship,
Jennifer Parker, a recipient of the Helena
Rubinstein Foundation Scholarship, and
Malcolm A. Borg 65, benefactor of the North
Jersey Media Group Scholarship

1. Paul Croitoroo 79, Dean Peter Awn, David

Kagan 09, and Joan Potter 72
2. Jimmy Chiu 05, Akiva Zablocki 07,09PH,
and Claudia Barrera 05
3. Suzanne Prye 76 and Lois Baumert
Williams 83
4. The Annual Fund Reception was held at
Vermilion restaurant.

High Tea at The Carlyle May 23, 2010

14

15

Senior Cocktails April 15, 2010 at the Ivy

Lounge & Coffee Bar at Faculty House

6. Onika Shabazz and Leslie McCracken

15. Students Joshua Lopez, Helen Shor, and

Ayla Kalani speak to Larry Lawrence 69,
Co-chair of the Undergraduate Campaign
Council (center), and Dean Peter Awn (right).

7. Sarah King Besse with her husband Austin

and son Indigo

16. GS 2010 Reunion Committee Chairperson

Reunion Chair Adam Casdin 95

8. Evelin Collado, Jacqueline Thong, Paul

Zachary, Andrea Gerson, and Filaree Moore
18

13. Deborah Marshall 79, Chair of the GS

Annual Fund Leadership Committee and
a member of the Undergraduate Campaign
Council, addresses guests.
14. Paul Yates 05, 08BUS and Arthur
LeMay 94

5. Maxcina Njoroge, Paige Lampkin, Evelin

Collado, and Lydia Walker, known as The
Originals because they met in University
Writing when they first enrolled at GS.

16

d e v e l o pm e n t n e w s

d e v e l o pm e n t n e w s

10. Students and guests recognize Angela de

Lara 78BUS, benefactor of the John Claflin
Scholarship and the Juan Jacobo de Lara and
Jonne Low de Lara Foundation, Inc. Scholarship

17

17. Elaine Bernstein 72, major gifts officer Leah

Cohen, and Margaret Lim 06, 08SIPA
19

Alumni

NOTES

1975

EDITED BY ROBERT AST

1941

Gustav Beck and his wife Rita recently made

a leadership gift of $50,000 to Foulkeways at
Gwynedd, the Pennsylvania retirement community where they reside, to fund the installation of 17 new geothermal units. The Becks
dedicated the project, which is designed to
reduce the communitys carbon footprint, to
the memory of their son, an environmental researcher who studied thermal pollution in the
Hudson River and later died from a rare form
of cancer that is believed to have been caused
by his work in the Hudson.

20

Michael Gold is one of the principal subjects of Soldier From the War Returning, a book
by University of Pennsylvania historian Thomas Childers. Presenting the complex, often
painful realities of the post-war experiences
of World War II veterans that, the author
notes, have often been muffled under a blanket of nostalgic adulation, Soldier From the War
Returning recounts Michaels life from his time
as a prisoner of war in a German stalag, to his
reacclimation to civilian life and his time commuting from New Jersey to attend GS while
working a series of jobs to pay expenses not
covered by the G.I. Bill, to his successful career
as a doctor, and, ultimately, 50 years after the
war ended, to his being diagnosed with chronic post-traumatic stress disorder.

1959

Kel Cohen, MD is an emeritus professor of

Plastic Surgery at the Virginia Commonwealth
University Health Science Center. He served
as the chair of the centers division of plastic and reconstructive surgery from 1972 to
1997 and was a visiting professor at a host of
medical schools and hospitals, including Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General
Hospital, the University of Chicagos Pritzker
School of Medicine, the University of Pennsylvania Medical School, and the University
of Virginia Medical School. A member of the
American Surgical Association, he has been
honored with the outstanding physician award
from the Richmond, Va. Maimonides Society
and many lifetime achievement awards from
wound-healing societies, as well as the Distinguished Alumni Award from the University

1966

Mary Douglas Edwards earned an MA and

PhD at Columbia, as well as an MLS at the
Universitys now defunct School of Library
Science. She has taught art history since 1970,
spending the last 25 years at the Pratt Institute
in Brooklyn, and has published over 40 articles
on painting, sculpture, and architecture in various scholarly journals.

Marvin McFeaters attended the 2009

Veterans Administration Research Week conference.

1967

Lisa Collier Cool has launched a website

showcasing her articles, books, and professional
skills: http://web.mac.com/lwcollier/iWeb/Site

Danny Siegel is an author, speaker, and expert

on microphilanthropy. For more than 30 years
he has lectured on the topics of personalized
tzedakah (charity) and tikkun olam (repairing
the world, or social justice). He is the founder
and chairman of the Ziv Tzedakah Fund.

1968

Searching for Tibet, an in-depth study of the history of international relations between China
and Tibet by Diane Wolff, will be published
by Palgrave/McMillan in September. Beginning
with the conquest of China during the Mongol Empire and extending to the present day,
the book analyzes the foundations of Chinese
rule in Tibet and proposes a new and original
regional solution. Also forthcoming is Khubilai
Khan: A Novel of Imperial China in the Time of
Marco Polo. More information is available on
her website, www.dianewolff.com.

1971

Roger Pilon, the founder and director of

the Cato Institutes Center for Constitutional
Studies, spoke at Ohio Northern Universitys
Pettit College of Law in October. He is the
publisher of the Cato Supreme Court Review
and is an adjunct professor of government at
Georgetown University. Prior to joining the
Cato Institute, Pilon held five senior posts
in the Reagan administration and was a National Fellow at Stanfords Hoover Institution.
In 1989 he received the Benjamin Franklin
Award for excellence in writing on the U.S.
Constitution from the Bicentennial Commission; in 2001 he was awarded the GS Alumni
Medal of Distinction.

1976

1977

1979

Rebecca (Brown) Ore is a science-fiction

author whose most recent work is Centuries
Ago and Very Fast.

1981

June Middleton hosts Minding Your Business,

a cable television show devoted to entrepreneurship. Visit www.mindingyourbusiness.info
for viewing information.

1982

In January John Horgan served as a keynote

speaker at the Swiss Biennial on Science,Technics + Aesthetics. A science writer who has
been published in The New York Times, Newsweek, Time, and Discover, Horgan is currently
director of the Center for Science Writings at
the Stevens Institute of Technology. He has received the Templeton-Cambridge Journalism
Fellowship in Science and Religion, the Science
Journalism Award of the American Association
for the Advancement of Science, and the National Association of Science Writers Sciencein-Society Award, and his writings have been
featured in the 2005, 2006, and 2007 editions
of The Best American Science and Nature Writing.
Idanna Pucci wrote Brazza in Congo: A Life
and Legacy and created exhibitions at NYUs
Casa Italiana and the National Arts Club celebrating Pietro Di Brazza, an Italian explorer
whose philosophy of nonviolence and compassion for Africans offer a distinct counterpoint to other European agents during the

Scramble for Africa. In Brazza in Congo Pucci,

who is herself a descendant of Brazza, also
collects the work of other writersincluding
excerpts from Brazzas own journalsto illuminate both Brazzas past achievements and
his enduring legacy.

1983

Suzie Gilbert operates a nonprofit birdrehab organization, Flyaway, Inc. Her memoir
Flyaway: How a Wild Bird Rehabber (Sought Adventure and Found Her Wings) was published by
Harper Collins in March 2009.

1984

Dee Dee Day, a novella by Mykola Dementiuk,

is available for the Kindle on Amazon.com,
where his previous works Times Queer, Vienna
Dolorosa, and Holy Communion are also available in book form. His novella My Fathers Semen was published in the anthology Cruising
for Bad Boys.

1986

James Braly recently premiered his new

monologue Asylum at Dixon Place in New
York. His previous monologue, Life in a Marital
Institution, has been has been optioned for film
and television by Meredith Vieira Productions,
with James attached as the writer. He has already adapted Life as a memoir, forthcoming
from St. Martins Press.

The abduction of a Columbia College student

from Reid Hall in Paris kicks off One-Trick Pony,
the latest thriller from Stanley Trybulski.
One-Trick Pony and other books in the series
of Doherty mysteries are available on his website, www.stantrybulski.com.

1987

Think Twice Before Crossing, a memoir by Beatriz

Garcia Nin, was published in November and
is available at www.bgnin.com.

A L U M N I N OTES

A L U M N I N OTES

1949

of North Carolina, where he completed his

medical education, and an honorary doctorate
from Kenyon College.

Philip Hemley, aka Phil Void, was recently

featured in both the Wall Street Journal and
the Irish Times. The founder and frontman of
the band the Dharma Bums, he resides in
Dharamsala, India, the Dalai Lamas home in
exile. The Dharma Bums have performed at
venues all over the world, often to raise funds
for the Tibetan independence cause, including
a concert at Madison Square Garden following
a lecture by the Dalai Lama. More information
about the band is available at
www.dharmabums.org and
www.myspace.com/dharmabumsusa.

1988

Wallis Wood is a professional writer

and a member of the American Society of
Journalists and Authors. He earned an M.A.
in creative writing from City University of
New York.

1991

The Blue Orchard, the first novel by Jackson

Taylor, has been published by Simon and
Schuster. Taylor is the associate director of
the graduate writing program at The New
School and the director of the Prison Writing
Program at PEN American Center.

21

Josh Wolf-Powers, a cofounder and partner of Blue Wolf Capital Fund, spoke at
GoldenNetworking.coms Distressed Investing Leaders Forum in February 2010. From
2003-2005, he served as managing director of
private markets for New York City Comptroller William C. Thompson, Jr. Prior to holding
this position, he was a vice president at KPS
Capital Partners and an investment banker
with Goldman Sachs. After graduating from
GS, he earned an MBA at NYUs Stern School
of Business, where he was a Deans Scholar.
He is a member of the boards of Finch Paper
Holdings and Azure Mountain, respectively,
and chair of the board of Health Care Laundry Systems.

2001

Vonekham Guthrie served as the keynote

speaker for the Long Island Womens Institute
conference at Long Island University-C.W.
Post. She recently published the book Moving
Beyond H.E.R.E. She heads a management consultancy firm, Cognitive Divine Enterprises,
and is the proud mother of four children.

Rene Aubry earned a Master of Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School
of Government in 2009. A native Haitian, he
participated in the relief effort for the January
earthquake and is currently working to launch
Ciel Capital Partners, LLC, a venture fund that
aims to help remake Haiti by introducing highrent industries and knowledge-based jobs to
its economy.

2002

1994

Carlos Barrezueta has been contributing

to the Spanish-language program Mega News
as a political analyst since December 2009.

Eric Drath produced and directed Assault

in the Ring, a feature-length documentary examining the aftermath of one of the boxing
worlds darkest hours: the Billy Collins Jr. vs.
Luis Resto bout, which Resto fought with the
padding illegally removed from his gloves.
In his review Neil Genzlinger of The New
York Times wrote that it has an unexpected
elegance. Its a carefully etched example of
the ripple effect at work in real life, a study in
how a single, brief incident can have shattering
consequences that string out for decades in
multiple directions.

Assault in the Ring premiered on HBO in
August 2009 and won an Emmy for Outstanding Sports Documentary.The film is now available on DVD; see www.assaultinthering.com
for more information.

1995

Along with chef Stephen Hartigan, Jerry Boak

coauthored No More Takeout, which aims to
help culinary neophytes develop the necessary kitchen skills to become accomplished
home cooks. Visit www.nomoretakeout.com
for more information (and recipes!). Additionally, Boak, who is also a 2003 graduate of the
School of the Arts and an associate director in
Columbias Office of the Executive Vice President for Finance/HR and Training, was recently
elected to the University Senate.

22

Stephen Page serves as the director of the

Glot of Poetry reading series. Based in Buenos
Aires, the polyglot series features readings in
English, Spanish, or any language. Additionally,
some of his recent book reviews have been
published in the Buenos Aires Herald and Keyhole magazine.

Willow, a novel by Julia Hoban, has been published by Dial, the young-adult division of Penguin Books and is available in bookstores and
online. Careful readers will note that many of
the scenes take place at a certain university in
northern Manhattan.

2003

Victor Fidel Escamilla married Heather

Floyd in March 2009. The couple was featured
in the Vows section of The New York Times.
James Pomerantz is currently pursuing an
MFA in photography, video, and related media
at the School of Visual Arts. His photographs
have been exhibited at the 2010 New York
Photo Festival, the Griffin Photo Museum in
Boston, the Los Angeles Pacific Design Center,
the Soros Foundation, and the National Portrait Gallery in London.

2004

Julie Haas Brophy, the creator of the websites

Shit My Kids Ruined and Shit My Pets Ruined,
was recently profiled in The New York Times.

2006

In 2009 Alicia Batista worked to implement sustainable landscape design in Panama

as one of two David Bird International Service
Fellows. A graduate of the Conway School of
Landscape Design, she has worked as a designer with Abel Bainnson Butz LLP, a landscape
architecture and site planning firm.

1958
Stevie Phillips
Born in a hospital in New Yorks theatre district, Stevie Phillips jokes that her career in
show business was probably preordained.
But as she is quick to point outand her varied, successful career attestsaccidents of
chance have influenced her life in ways that her
best-laid plans could never have anticipated.
Her first serendipitous accident came
when she took a job as a floating secretary at
the powerful talent agency Music Corporation of
America (MCA), known in Hollywood as The
Octopus for its habit of extending its tentacles
into all aspects of the entertainment industry.
When the Department of Justice began to investigate MCA for antitrust violations, the company
left the agency business to purchase Universal
Studios, and Phillips was at a crossroads.
[MCA head] Lew Wasserman closed
the doors, and people ran around stealing
office supplies and starting companies, she
says. Freddie Fields and David Begelman
were the two that seemed to me to be the
most charming, the most flamboyant, and the
most prepared to face a difficult world in the
entertainment business, and they became my
champions and mentors.
She followed Fields and Begelman to their
fledgling agency, Creative Management Associates (CMA). Freddie Fields decided he needed
someone who would put his agency on the map,
and that person was Judy Garland. He thought
that if he could give her her 67th, 133rd, 211th
or whatever number it wascomeback, that
that would establish his firm, she says. Phillips
hit it off with Garland and subsequently embarked on tour with her, serving as both the
shows road manager and as Garlands handler.
I called the shows, stage-managed, organized the press, the load-in, absolutely everything, Phillips recalls. Judy wasnt easy; sadly,
she was the queen of tragedy.
For all its difficulty, the tour was successful: Garland had established her reliability and
once again began receiving film and television
offers, and Phillips became an agent in training, climbing up the ranks of CMA until she
became a partner.
I learned very quickly that, in the agency
business, the agency belongs in the hands of
the people who sign the clients, Phillips says.
So it became very clear, very quickly to me
that I had to become a client signer. I signed
Redford, signed Pacino, signed Liza, and ultimately I became one of Judys agents, not just
her schlepper.
In addition to generating new business,
Phillips worked as a packaging agent, helping
to assemble talent for such films as Butch Cas-

sidy and the Sundance Kid, all the while operating in what was almost exclusively a male
dominated industry.
I had some thrilling moments. I had an
associate in California by the name of Sue
Mengers, who represented some wonderful
people as well. One day we locked ourselves
in an office and called the heads of all the studios and told them they had to deal with us,
not our bosses, which opened the door for
women that followed us. I say that immodestly, but I know its true.
In 1975, CMA merged with another
agency to form International Creative Management (ICM), and many of its agents left for
jobs at studios. Phillips, who by then had infant
children, refused to leave New York for California and instead became president of a small
energy company that helped bring solar and
wind energy to New York City.
The very talented architect Travis Lee
Price had discovered, with wind energy collected in a sweat-equity building on the Lower
East Side, how to reverse the meter and feed
excess energy into the Consolidated Edison
grid, charging the same rates to Con Ed that
they were charging to people in the building,
Phillips says.
Con Ed brought the case to the New
York State Energy Commission, arguing that its
10-million-kilowatt grid might not be able to
handle power surges from the 2-kilowatt windmill.With assistance from former U.S. Attorney
General Ramsey Clark, who volunteered his
services, the building residents prevailed. A year
later, the principles of the commissions ruling
became federal law, with the passage of the
Public Utility Regulatory Policy Act of 1978.
It is now statutory law that any company that generates excess alternate energy
can feed it back into the local utility grid and
charge the same rates that the utility is charging tenants, Phillips said. Thats one of the
things of which Im most proud, helping to
create precedential law in the land.
Ultimately, however, Phillips realized that
her companys days were numbered. I saw
that, in 1977, there was not enough government interest in subsidization for alternative

forms of energy and that I was not going to be

able to make a living doing that, she says.
Just in time, another fortuitous accident intervened when the screenwriter William Goldman and his wife Eileen invited her to a performance by Peter Masterson at The Actors Studio.
I went along and saw a loose accumulation of scenes that had the smell, taste, and
feel of Texas. I thought the work was wonderful and went backstage and offered to buy it.
I didnt know anything about Broadway, but
you cant allow those things to stop you.
With the support of Universal, Phillips
presented The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas
off-Broadway, with Masterson and Tommy
Tune directing.
Again, a wonderful accident happened,
Phillips says. Apart from the fact that the
show was terrific, Jacqueline Kennedy came
on the third night. My press agent was alert
enough to get a photographer there quickly
and get a picture of her entering under the
word whorehouse on the marquee. It appeared on the front page of The New York Post,
and we were sold out thereafter.
Within six weeks we moved to
Broadway and the cost of our doing so was
$750,000, all in. We paid it back in two and
a half months; there isnt a show that I can
think of that can do that anymore. And we ran
for five years. It was an extraordinary blessing
that really benefited from two accidents, more
than my expertise, although the expertise of
everybody involved was significant. And that
set me on the track of my new career as a
Broadway producer.
Today, Phillips continues to develop both
film and stage projects, and in April she returned to GS to speak to current students
about building a career in the industry. At the
same time, she keeps up a busy life outside
the industry, collecting Native American crafts,
climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro for her 60th birthday,
and spending time with her family. Looking
back, I realize I actually had a life while I was
doing all this stuff.

A L U M N I N OTES

A L U M N I N OTES

1993

1997

23

vv

Erich Erving had 10 erotic etchings displayed

in the group show Drawn Together, exhibited at
the Leslie Lohman Gay Art Foundation.
Elizabeth Kostrzewa earned her JD from
the University of California-Berkeley, Boalt
Hall School of Law and is currently a Litigation
Associate at Debevoise and Plimpton LLP in
New York. In March she spoke at Westchester
Community College as part of its Womens
History Month celebration.

2007

Emily (Belli) Martin works as an assistant

editor at Bennington College in Vermont,
when she is not busy writing. Her poetry has
appeared or is forthcoming in Spoon River Poetry Review, Iodine Poetry Journal, The Columbia
Review, Poetry Salzburg, Absinthe: New European
Writing, International Poetry Review, Borderlands:
Texas Poetry Review, The Innisfree Poetry Journal,
The William and Mary Review, Mid-American
Review and Dos Passos Review. Her husband
Scott Ashby Martin 06LAW works as an attorney, and their cats Luna and Milton as well
as their dog Hudson keep them busy in their
spare time. She is currently a student in the
Poetry MFA program at Columbias School of
the Arts.

James McGirk was the editor and senior writer for the team that won the Knight Foundations News Game award at the 2009 Games
for Change Expo. His team was rewarded for
its ability to change news consumption from
passive reading to active engagement.
Akiva Zablocki married his college sweetheart Amanda Jaffe 07BC in August 2009. He
is a member of the board of the Childrens
Brain Tumor Foundation and worked with
Richard Space 05 to organize the foundations annual bowl-a-thon fundraiser.

David Drury earned a masters degree from

St. Johns College in Santa Fe, N.M. In 2009 he
taught history and Spanish at a high school in
upstate New York. Beginning this fall, he will
teach history at an IB charter school in Albuquerque, N.M.
Jacquie Wayans was the grand-prize winner
of the Colorful Life essay contest, sponsored
by Maybelline and the Meredith Corporation. She was featured in More magazine and
attended the premiere of The Broadroom, an
online series created by Candace Bushnell, author of Sex in the City.

2009

In August 2009 Luke Forelle biked from

Denver to San Francisco to raise funds for severely injured veterans as part of the Wounded Warrior Project. More information about
the ride, which raised over $8,500, is available
at www.rideforourwounded.com.
In the Hands of Men, a chapter from a memoir by Laura Lifshitz-Hernandez, was published in the Spring 2009 issue of the online
literary magazine The Oklahoma Review.

Friends

Gilda Chirafisi has been appointed chair of

the board of directors of the Bronx Arts Ensemble, after serving on the board for the past
16 years.

Send Us Your News

The Owl wants
to hear from you!
Please send us news about your
latest accomplishments, milestones,
and projects.
Email us at: [email protected]
Mail it to us at:
The Owl Magazine
408 Lewisohn Hall, MC 4101
2970 Broadway
New York, NY 10027
Visit our new website at:
www.gs.columbia.edu/owl-magazine

24

IN MEMORIAM
G. Douglas Pugh 51
George Douglas Pugh, a civil rights activist and
New York State labor official, passed away in
May. The first African-American chairman of
the New York State Unemployment Insurance
Appeal Board, Pugh often found himself at the
forefront of integration: he and his family were
among the first African-Americans to move
into the Riverdale section of the Bronxand
in the process exposed some landlords discriminatory rental practicesand he purchased the Savannah, Ga. radio station WSOK at a
time when there were very few minority-owned radio stations in the
United States.
After growing up in Harlem, Pugh served in the South Pacific during
World War II and attended the School of General Studies on the G.I.
Bill, when he majored in music. He went on to earn an MBA at Columbia Business School and subsequently worked on reports for the
Urban League of New York, documenting racial discrimination in hiring. He also was a coeditor of the book Black Economic Development.
Over the course of his career Pugh held a variety of administrative
leadership positions for the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, the Ford Foundation, and the New York State Dormitory Authority, among other organizations. In 1976 he was appointed to the
Unemployment Insurance Appeal Board and became its chairman in
1987, a position he held until his retirement in the mid-1990s. He is
survived by his wife, daughter, son, and brother.
Jo Ann Kay McNamara 56
Pioneering feminist scholar Jo Ann Kay McNamara died in May 2009. Specializing in the
early Middle Ages, Dr. McNamara helped elucidate the role of women in medieval society.
Her book Sisters in Arms: Catholic Nuns Through
Two Millennia discussed the attempts of nuns
to create an identity outside of traditional
gender paradigms. She was also instrumental in applying academic discourse on womens history to mens history. Dr. McNamara taught at
Hunter College for many years and helped to establish its womens
studies program. In addition to her scholarly work, Dr. McNamara
was active in the anti-war and womens movements and participated in a sit-in designed to induce McSorleys Old Ale House to admit
women. She is survived by her son, a professor of history at Queensborough Community College. A full obituary is available at http://
medievalclubofnewyork.blogspot.com/2009/05/jo-ann-kay-mcnamara.html.

After the war Federman emigrated to the United States and served with
the U.S. Army in the Korean War. After completing his military service,
he matriculated at the School of General Studies where he graduated in
1957. He earned masters and doctoral degrees at UCLA and began his
teaching career at UC Santa Barbara before moving on to SUNY-Buffalo,
where he taught French and comparative literature for 35 years.
He received Guggenheim and Fulbright Fellowships, as well as the
American Book Award for his novel Smiles on Washington Square: A Love
Story of Sorts, in addition to numerous other awards.
Alfred Appel Jr. 59
Alfred Appel Jr., a scholar and expert on the
work of Vladimir Nabokov, passed away in May
2009. After graduating from high school in Long
Island, Appel enrolled at Cornell, where he attended Nabokovs course Masters of European
Fiction. He left Cornell to serve in the U.S.
Army and, upon being discharged, transferred
to the School of General Studies. He went on
to earn masters and doctorate degrees from the Graduate School of
Arts and Sciences and taught at Columbia before moving to Northwestern, where he taught for over 30 years.
In addition to critical studies on Nabokov, James Joyce, and Eudora
Welty, he also published interdisciplinary works on modernism. He is
best known, however, as the editor of The Annotated Lolita, which was
first published in 1970 and has constantly remained in print. Its success
notwithstanding, the book introduced him to one of the occupational
hazards of Nabokov studies: many people, including fellow scholars,
thought that he was merely another of Nabokovs authorial dodges,
as he recounted at Lolita at 50, a panel discussion held at Miller
Theatre in 2005. He is survived by his wife of 51 years, Nina, as well as
his mother, sister, brother, son, daughter, and grandchildren.
Man-Ho Chou Edwards 81
Man-Ho Chou Edwards passed away in
February 2010.
Michael Sinnott 06
Michael Sinnott passed away in January 2010.
Jennifer Perkins 09

I N M E M OR I A M

A L U M N I N OTES

Omanoot, an organization cofounded by

Edoe Cohen that employs Israeli music, film,
visual arts, and literature as a tool for nuanced
educational exploration, has launched a new
website: www.omanoot.org.

2008

Jennifer Perkins passed away in June 2010.

Friends

Raymond Federman 57

Lionel Pincus 56BUS

Author and scholar Raymond Federman passed

away in October. Born in France in 1928, Federman witnessed the Gestapos arrest of his
parents and sisters in 1942, an event that would
haunt his work in such books as Double or Nothing: A Real Fictitious Discourse and The Voice in the
Closet. He spent the remainder of World War
II in hiding on a farm in France; his parents and
sisters died in Auschwitz.

Lionel Pincus, former Columbia University

trustee and the long-time companion of alumna
Princess Firyal of Jordan 99, passed away in October 2009. A financier, venture capitalist, and
philanthropist, Pincus ran Warburg Pincus for
nearly 40 years and built it into one of the most
prominent investment firms on Wall Street. Mr.
Pincus was a devoted Columbian and his legacy of service and leadership will live for years to come at the University, Dean Peter Awn said.

25

New Grad

Melissa Muller Daka 09

2009 2010

NOTES

26

Born in the Philippines, ARIES DE LA

CRUZ 09 emigrated to the U.S. with his
family when he was five, living primarily in Manhattan and
Queens. In 2001, Aries dropped out of high
school to work as a
grassroots community
activist.
Eventually
Aries earned his GED
and attended Metropolitan College of New York for a year before
transferring to GS. As a GS student, Aries, an
anthropology major, was the vice-president
of the Columbia Queer Alliance and a member of the Columbia Daily Spectator editorial
board and the GS senior fund committee. In
recognition of his leadership on campus, he
was awarded the GS Spirit Award, the Gold
Crown Award, and the Deans Citation.
Aries, who graduated cum laude, is earning his Master of Public Administration at
NYUs Robert F. Wagner Graduate School
of Public Service.

Born in Evanston, Ill., TIM GOEBEL 10

won the Bronze Medal in figure skating in
the 2002 Olympics.
Tim, known as the
Quad King, was the
first person to land a
quadruple salchow in
competition and the
first person to land
three quadruple jumps
in one program. After announcing his retirement in 2006, Tim enrolled at GS where he
majored in mathematics and continued to
stay connected to figure skating by coaching part time and teaching lessons through
Figure Skating Harlem, an organization that
provides girls ages 6-18 with educational and
skating opportunities. After graduation, Tim
began working for Nielsen as a financial analyst in Stamford, Conn.
After a career in the entertainment industry
that included touring with an Elvis impersonator, performing in an Off-Broadway play,
and working as a talent agent, ADRIENNE
HERRERA 09 decided to complete her
college degree. Prior to enrolling at GS,
Adrienne studied in California at Fullerton
Community College and Pasadena Community
College. As a GS
student, Adrienne
was a part of the
Program for Academic Leadership
and Scholarship
(PALS) and founded a program called Symposium, a grassroots effort that encourages
college attendance among New York City
public school students. Her commitment to
equal access for education was recognized by
the PALS program when she was awarded the
No Limits Derrick Wilder Award for Leadership and Service. The first in her family to
graduate from college, Adrienne is pursuing
her masters degree at Columbia University
Teachers College. She continues to run her
outreach program, Symposium.

Former actors EVAN and CATHERINE

MADEO 10 met in 2003 when they were
hosting competing yard sales. Shortly after
getting married, Evan and Catherine enrolled at Santa Monica
College where they
formed the Future
Leaders Club and
were active in the
Phi Theta Kappa
honor society. While
enrolled at GS, the
couple started a family and still managed a
full-time course load. In addition to raising
their daughter, Evan was active in the GSSC,
and Catherine was a member of the editorial collective Extension: Columbia Journal of
Anthropology. Evan recently began working
at Google in their online sales division in
Mountain View, Calif. and Catherine is applying to doctoral programs in anthropology.
Both graduated magna cum laude.
At 21 years old, DAN NECHITA 10 and his
wife emigrated from Romania to the United States. With
dreams of one day
becoming a professor, he enrolled at
Northern Virginia
Community College, where he was
an active member
of the Phi Theta
Kappa honor society and an intern for ABC News political
unit. Upon graduation, Dan was awarded
a scholarship of $30,000 per year to attend
GS from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation.
As a GS student, Dan, who became a father
while enrolled, worked as a research assistant
at the SIPAs Arnold A. Saltzman Institute of
War and Peace Studies and was a member of
the Columbia University Ballroom Dance
Team. Dan graduated cum laude and was recently awarded a graduate scholarship from
the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation. He will
begin his doctoral studies in political science
at George Washington University in the fall.

ONIKA SHABAZZ 10 had a childhood

filled with tragedy and family illness, and
at age 15 she
dropped out
of school to
take care of
her family. In
1995, Onika
earned
her
GED
and
went on to work a series of jobs, including
acting in Off-Broadway plays. After a 15year break in her education, Onika enrolled
at Borough of Manhattan Community College, and later that year she enrolled at GS.
As a GS student, Onika served as an orientation leader for four years, a mentor with the
Academic Resource Center, a junior marshal
for graduation, and a member of the Senior
Week Committee. In the fall of 2010, Onika
will begin her studies at the University of
Washington in pursuit of her Master of Social Work.
After successfully running the New York City
Marathon at age 50, STEPHEN TOBIAS
10, president and co-founder of I.A. Englander & Co., one
of the largest institutional equity
derivatives brokers
on the American
Stock Exchange,
the
Chicago
Board of Options
Exchange, and the
Pacific Stock Exchange, decided to return to school to obtain his undergraduate degree. In 2003, Stephen enrolled at GS and took two courses
per semester for the past seven years while
continuing to lead his company. After graduation, Stephen, a father of three and grandfather of two, plans to continue in his position
at I.A. Englander and Co., but also hopes to
one day be a food and travel writer.

Melissa Muller Dakas passion for food

began before she was old enough to use
the stove. As a child, Daka spent time visiting her mothers family farm in Sicily and
helping in the family kitchen.
After high school, Daka enrolled at
New York University, but soon after decided to follow her dream of becoming
a chef. She applied and was accepted to
The French Culinary Institute in her native New York where she enrolled in both
the Classic Culinary Arts program and
the Art of International Bread Baking program.
Shortly after graduation, 23-year-old
Daka opened her own restaurant, Osteria
del Gallo Nero, which featured a Tuscanstyle cuisine. The opening of this restaurant not only fulfilled her goal, but also
spoke to a larger issue.
The opening of Osteria del Gallo
Nero was not long after Sept. 11. When
I chose the location of the restaurant in
Greenwich Village, I looked at it as a way
to revitalize the decimated area downtown, Daka said.
In 2005, with her lease expiring, Daka
decided to close Osteria del Gallo Nero
and open another restaurant on the Upper East Side called Giorgios. She also
began feverishly reading books on food
history.
I was reading a new book every two
days. I eventually realized I wanted to return to school, Daka said.
Daka, who planned to return to NYU
or apply to The New School, applied to
GS on a whim. Originally thinking Columbia was too far uptown and that she probably wouldnt be accepted, Daka says her
mother encouraged her to apply.
In mid-July of 2006, my mom and I
took a trip to campus, and even though it
was past the application deadline for the
fall, I was encouraged to apply. I was accepted for the fall of 2006, Daka said.
After her first year at GS, Daka, a
Middle Eastern languages and culture major, sold Giorgios to focus on her studies. While enrolled, Daka also met her
husband Tarek Daka, a Palestinian-Israeli
citizen. During their courtship, Daka traveled to the Middle East and continued researching regional culinary traditions.

After graduating in the spring of 2009,

Daka didnt waste any time getting back into
the kitchen. In July, she took a position as the
chef of Organika, an Italian restaurant in the
West Village whose menu includes local, sustainable, and artisanal products. Although no
longer serving as chef, Daka continues to do
consulting work for the owner through her
company TM Culinary Concepts, Inc., which
focuses on catering services, menu consulting,
and private chef services.
Daka is also pursuing a Master of Science
in Journalism part time at the Columbia University School of Journalism. Her writing is focused on sustainable agriculture and food and
its relationship to culture.
This fall, Daka, who recently appeared on
the Food Network show Chopped, is also
planning to open her third restaurant, Terra,
a green-certified restaurant that will feature
Sicilian-Mediterranean inspired cuisine. As
a part of being green-certified, Terras design
will have a vintage look, but Daka does not
want that to be the restaurants focus.
Although the restaurant will be greencertified, this is not the concept of the restaurant; I believe all restaurants should strive for
this model. The restaurant will be decorated
with vintage Sicilian pieces; it will be a real
gathering place, Daka said.

N EW G R A D N OTES

N EW G R A D N OTES

In 2005, Namema Amendi 10 emigrated

to the United States from Nairobi, Kenya
with his parents and
siblings, and shortly
thereafter
enrolled
at Middlesex County
College in Edison, N.J.
A member and officer
of Middlesexs chapter
of Phi Theta Kappa,
Namemas academic success earned him a
scholarship of $30,000 per year from the Jack
Kent Cooke Foundation to attend GS. As a
GS student, Namema was involved with the
African Students Organization, and as a resident of International House, he helped plan
cultural events for fellow residents. Additionally, he helped organize a major conference
at the Desmond Tutu Center called Social
Entrepreneurship in Africa. Namema, who
graduated magna cum laude, is a full-time research assistant in neuroscience at Columbia
University and is applying to dual-degree
programs in medicine and law.

27

COMMUNITY news

Strength in What Remains

hours now to read and write his papers. He studied English
through the spring and summer of 1995. Meanwhile, he had
applied to become an undergraduate in Columbias School of
General Studies, a program fully integrated with the college
proper, created for students whose college careers had been
interrupted. The standards for admission were rigorous, but
the deadline for applying was June instead of January.

Photo Credit: Village Health Works

Deo with members of the Kigatu, Burundi community, planting orange trees
in the very early days of the Village Health Works clinic founding in 2006.

Since his last appearance in The Owl, Deogratias, the founder of

Village Health Works, a community health clinic in his hometown
of Kigutu, Burundi, has been characteristically busy. He has resumed
the medical education he had interrupted in order to devote himself
fully to Village Health Works, and this May he received the Womens
Refugee Commission Voices of Courage Award. In April he returned
to New York City to speak to alumni and current students from 15
of Columbias graduate and undergraduate schools about restoring
hope to the worlds forgotten places.
In August 2009 Strength in What Remains, a book by the
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Tracy Kidder, was published by
Random House. Employing an inventive, chronologically disrupted
narrative style that juxtaposes events in Deos life with his later
recollections and conversations with the author, Kidder creates a
layered chronicle of Deos extraordinary personal journeyfrom
his flight from civil war and genocide in Burundi to the intervention
of friends that took him from being homeless on the streets of New
York to a student at GS and, later, the Harvard School of Public
Health to, ultimately, the founding of Village Health Worksthat
also examines the textures of memory and the ways in which one
person can make a great impact. Strength in What Remains was a
New York Times bestseller and a finalist for the National Book Critics
Circle Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize.
The following excerpts from Strength in What Remains discuss
Deos time at the School of General Studies:
Deo enrolled in Columbias American Language Program, an
ESL program essentially, but more rigorous than most. [His
friends and benefactors Nancy and Charlie Wolf] paid the
tuition, about six thousand dollars. There were still nights
he couldnt sleep or didnt dare to try, but he could use those
28

Improbable as it would have seemed to almost anyone

else, the fall of 1995 found Deo entering his freshman year at
Columbia University. It seemed improbable to at least one of
his classmates, who asked Deo if he was the son of an African
king. Deo said he wasnt. Well, the classmate asked, how did
he come to be at Columbia? Deo didnt tell him that only a
year ago hed been delivering groceries and sleeping in Central
Park, or that a combination of student loans, scholarships,
and Nancy and Charlies money was paying his way. To
explain would only have left his classmate more confused and
inquisitive. Deo simply smiled and said brightly, I dont know
why Im here, but Im here!
Deo hadnt known hed accomplished anything special when
Columbia had accepted him, not until he met a few people from
other New York colleges and realized they were impressed
Really? Youre going to Columbia?
Deo discussing the classroom environment:
I got so much here. To be able to sit in a class where people
have access to so much and having teachers who love teaching,
who enjoy seeing the result of their energies and their students
making progress, its not something I was used to. And that
opened up my mind. At Columbia University the teachers were
like colleagues.

A STORY ABOUT SURVIVAL,

about perseverance and sometimes
uncanny luck in the face of hell on earth.
The New York Times
THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER FROM

TRACY KIDDER
author of Mountains Beyond Mountains

TRULY STUNNING.
RON SUSKIND, The New York Times Book Review

[A] REMARKABLE STORY

of one persons miraculous survival.

The Boston Globe

NOT TO BE MISSED. . . .

[Deos] story reaffirms our hope that one

person can make a difference.
The Seattle Times

In 2006 Deo returned to visit campus with Kidder.

As we walked through the gates, Deos mood changed utterly. He
might have been a student again, conducting a campus tour. The
gym is right here. Its huge! It is a-mazing. I loved it here.
Deo stopped on the steps of Low Library and pointed across
the quadrangle at another monumental building, a product
of the Italian Renaissance Revival, one of many all around us.
This one advertised itself with names carved in the granite
frieze above its broad front: HOMER, HERODOTUS,
SOPHOCLES, PLATO, ARISTOTLE, CICERO, VERGIL.
That is the Butler Library. I love it. Its the library in my
heart. He was laughing softly. I loved that library. I like to be
back here, actually.
This was a happy place, I suggested.
Oh my God yes! He was smiling. Gosh, I really miss being
here.

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST

BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY
Los Angeles Times
San Francisco Chronicle
Chicago Tribune
The Christian Science Monitor
Publishers Weekly
A Top 10 Nonction book by Time
One of the years 10 Terric Reads
by O, The Oprah Magazine

RANDOM

HOUSE

www.TracyKidder.com
Available now in hardcover. Coming in paperback May 2010.

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Events

Meet

CALENDAR

Below is a list of highlighted GS and Columbia Alumni Association (CAA) events for
the upcoming months. For up to date information about these events and others, visit
www.gs.columbia.edu/alumni.

SEPTEMBER

MAY

1, Wednesday

16, Monday

CAA at the US Open

Queens, NY
Sponsor: Columbia Alumni Association
Join us in the hospitality tent for dinner
before the match.

OCTOBER
1516, Friday - Saturday

CAA Assembly and Alumni Medalists Gala

New York, NY
Sponsor: Columbia Alumni Association
Join 2010 alumni medalist Larry
Lawrence 69, 71BUS for the 6th annual
CAA Leaders Assembly and Alumni
Medalist Gala.

NOVEMBER
7, Sunday

CAA Health and Wellness Series

New York, NY
Sponsor: Columbia Alumni Association
The CAA Health and Wellness Series,
launched in 2006 with the mission
of connecting Columbias alumni
community with its leading doctors
and researchers, covers topics including
caring for aging parents, autism,
infectious diseases, and mental health.
Topics for the 2010-2011 series will be
announced in September.

DECEMBER
E VE N TS C A L E N DA R

GS Holiday Party
New York, NY

Details will be announced closer to

December.

JANUARY
22, Saturday

CAA at Sundance Film Festival

Park City, UT
Sponsor: Columbia Alumni Association
Mingle with Columbia filmmakers at
special screenings and receptions.

FEBRUARY
Recent Alumni Leadership
(RALC) Reception
New York, NY

Committee

The RALC invites all recent alumni

to join them for a special reception.
Come mix and mingle with fellow GS
recent alumni, and find out more about
the goings on of the Recent Alumni
Leadership Committee.

GS Class Day
New York, NY

Attending Class Day is a great way

to welcome the latest group of GS
graduates to the alumni community. Join
your fellow alumni on South Lawn for
one of the high points of the year, and
then celebrate with our newest alumni at
the reception afterwards.

JUNE

3-5, Friday to Sunday

Reunion Weekend 2011
New York, NY

Celebrate and reconnect with classmates

and friends from your graduating class.
Alumni with graduation years ending
in 1 and 6 are invited back to campus
for a fun-filled weekend of events. To
volunteer for your Reunion Committee,
please call the General Studies Office of
Alumni Relations at (212) 851-7432.

ONGOING SERIES

Alumni Travel Study Program

The Alumni Travel Study Program
allows Columbia alumni to combine
learning and pleasure through domestic
and international travel. The travelstudy experience is often enriched by
the participation of Columbia faculty
members. For more information on
trips, visit http://alumni.columbia.edu/
travel
November 619, 2010
World Highlights by Private Jet with Dean
Peter Awn
Jet around the globe with Professor
Peter Awn for an unforgettable twoweek journey through Europe, the
Middle East, the Indian subcontinent,
and Africa.
November 20December 1, 2010
North Africa & Andalusia with Bill Moyers
We invite you and your family to join
us in November for a journey into
the enduring intellectual and cultural
legacy of the Moors in Morocco and
Spains Andalusia, and featuring one
of the worlds most important media
intellectuals.
November 26December 8, 2010
Israel with Professor Brian Boyd
We invite you to join the CAA and
Columbia Professor Brian Boyd for a
unique tour to timeless Israel.

Karen Sendler

This past spring, Karen Sendler 94CC joined the

University Office of Alumni Relations as the Executive
Director for Alumni Relations. Sendler brings her
passion for Columbia to GS after spending two years
as director of alumni relations for the
law school and more than four years
as a regional officer in Europe, where
she was instrumental in launching the
Columbia Alumni Association in 2007.
Ive
heard
you
bleed
Columbia blue. What else are you
passionate about?
As an undergraduate at
Columbia I majored in ancient studies and art
history. I fell in love with studying the Bronze
Age, specifically in the regions around the Aegean
Sea. After graduating I spent several months on
a dig on the island of Creteone of the most
fascinating experiences of my life. To see the
thumbprint of the person who made a vessel from
thousands of years ago its just amazing to me!
Being on that excavation inspired me to pursue
masters work at the Institute of Archaeology at
the University of London. Although Im not
doing archaeology now, I will always consider
myself an archaeologist.
Youve been back at Columbia since 2002
working in various capacities. What do you find
most rewarding about the positions youve held?
Working in alumni relations is another way
of giving back to my alma mater. I enjoy creating
opportunities for alumni to reconnect and
support each other. I find General Studies alumni
to be especially passionate about Columbia
something we share in commonbecause GSers
are so proud of their degrees. In the short time
Ive been working with them, weve begun to raise
more awareness about the extraordinary alumni
of this school within the Columbia community. I
find connecting with alumni from all generations
very rewarding.
What are some of your favorite Columbia
moments?
There are so many! Its such a vibrant place
and there is always something exciting going on,
from Columbia 250, when musician Wyclef Jean
performed an outdoor concert for thousands of
alumni, students, and members of the New York
City community on Low Plaza; to the World
Leaders Forum, when Russian president Vladimir
Putin watched a baseball game between a Russian
youth team and an American Little League team
from Harlem right on South Lawn; to welcoming
alumni back to campus after graduating 50 years
ago; and symposia reviewing the 1968 riots 40
years later. Its all Columbia, and its never dull.

Second Annual Especially Open House

October 21 and 22

The Columbia Alumni Center is always open to all alumni of the

University, Monday through Saturday. But for two days this October,
we will be especially open.
There are even more reasons to visit the Center during Homecoming
weekend: refreshments, giveaways, a special athletics display, benefits
help, and a chance to win prizes. You can also add your Columbia
story to our alumni video project, Columbia University Close-Ups.

Its all happening October 21 and 22 from 8:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., leading into
Homecoming and Family Weekend. Wed love to see you, so come on home!

Columbia Alumni Center 622 West 113th Street between Broadway and Riverside Drive alumni.columbia.edu/openhouse2010
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Non Profit Org.

U.S. Postage
PAID
Permit No. 4725
Buffalo, N.Y.

the office of alumni affairs

school of general studies
408 lewisohn hall mc 4121
2970 broadway
new york, ny 10027-9829

More than 200 guests joined the United States Military Veterans of Columbia University (MilVets) student organization to celebrate the inauguration of the Yellow Ribbon
Program on September 10, 2009.The Yellow Ribbon Program is an initiative authorized by the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act that allows educational
institutions to provide eligible student-veterans with a tuition waiver or grant that is matched by the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs. At the School of General Studies,
student-veterans who qualify for both the Post-9/11 GI Bill and the Yellow Ribbon Program are provided a with a full-tuition waiver.
Pictured below: Sean OKeefe 10, 2009-2010 (MilVets) president, John McClelland, GS student and 2010-2011 (MilVets) president, Peter J. Awn, professor and dean of
the School of General Studies; Frank Lautenberg 49BUS, U.S. Senator for New Jersey and keynote speaker. (Photo: Michael DiVito/Columbia University)

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