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Paul Brandt-Rauf, SEAS Class Day, Page 8

Jacques PĂŠpin, GS Class Day, Page 9

Meryl Streep, BC Class Day, Page 10

Ben Jealous, CC Class Day, Page 14

photos by: kristina budelis / senior staff photographer, cara buchanan / staff photographer, rose donlon / staff photographer, andra mihali / senior staff photographer

Commencement 2010

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May 18, 2010

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Four Years in Review

May 18, 2010

After a tumultuous four years, class of 2010 is no stranger to controversy

*** The class of 2010 started Columbia’s New Student Orientation Program before Facebook opened up to non-networked users. Since then, the website has undergone several transformations, and the class of 2010 has evolved along with it: As this year’s 116th Annual Varsity Show quipped, forming a Facebook group has become a new means of protest. When students heard that the Arts Initiative would begin reporting to the School of the Arts instead of the Office of the President, they formed a virtual group on the social networking site. When Barnard students were outraged at a proposed mandatory meal plan, they reacted the same way. This change has left activists questioning where concrete protest has gone, but it probably quelled administrators’ nerves, since virulent protest at Columbia has been the elephant in this ivory tower’s room since 1968. This spring’s warmest days saw little turbulence on Low Steps. 2008 marked the 40th anniversary of the 1968 protests. Through both official and unofficial programming, Columbia carefully acknowledged the events that have cast a shadow on its past and shaped its future. But as the University has set its sights on larger projects that hearken back to a previous flash point—a trigger for protest in the 1960s stemmed from what became known as Columbia’s “Gym Crow” plan to build a gym with different entrances for University affiliates and local residents—the level of campus controversy has deepened. The class of 2010 saw Columbia turn into a lightning rod for outside media from the beginning of freshman year. It began in October 2006, when a few students rushed the stage where Jim Gilchrist, head of the border-hawking Minuteman Project, was speaking at the behest of the Columbia University College Republicans. “No one is illegal,” the students’ banner said, sparking a fight

on a Lerner Hall stage and media coverage nationally. The next year, too, began with a high-profile event. As part of the World Leaders Forum—one of a slew of Bollinger-spearheaded programs intended to make Columbia a “global university”—Columbia announced it would host Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. For a week, the campus rocked with debate over academic freedom and Iranian politics. Despite outside criticism and threats from alumni to withdraw funding, Bollinger refused to cancel the event. Student groups responded by organizing a huge single forum on campus for the day of the speech. Students clamored to get tickets, but those who could not do so were able to watch the speech on a huge South Lawn television screen between interviews with international media outlets. Before Ahmadinejad’s speech, Bollinger delivered a sharp introduction that laid to rest any questions about where his political sentiments lay, and redirected the surrounding controversy from the issue of Iran to the strong statement the usually soft-spoken president was making. He condemned Ahmadinejad’s positions on Israel and human rights, saying he exhibited “all the signs of a petty and cruel dictator.” The fallout came in the form of opeds alternately praising and condemning Bollinger, heated faculty meetings, and Iranian media reports of a group of professors who purportedly intended to travel to Iran to apologize for Bollinger’s scathing introduction that turned out to be false. Meanwhile, a spate of bias incidents galvanized the student body. In September 2007, homophobic and Islamophobic graffiti appeared in a campus bathroom. Two weeks later, a noose was found on the door of Teachers College professor Madonna Constantine, who is black. (Constantine was later terminated due to accusations of plagiarism). Later, a swastika was found on the door of a Jewish TC professor, and anti-Semitic graffiti was scribbled in a Lewisohn Hall bathroom. Each incident resulted in rallies or protests that decried the perceived lack of cultural tolerance on campus. All this goes to say that the graduating class became quite familiar with controversy in its formative years. The above incidents in particular, combined with the ongoing debate surrounding the 17-acre Manhattanville expansion, led a group of concerned students to embark on a hunger strike in that chilly fall of 2007. They camped out on South Lawn and met with administrators to negotiate demands such as revised expansion

lenny pridatko / staff photographer

This period may be more comparable ... to the 1970s—one of Columbia’s toughest decades.

plans, curricular changes to reduce the focus on “dead white men” in the Core Curriculum, and increased support for minorities on campus. The strike polarized students, dividing them between strike supporters—those who approved of the strikers’ demands, despite perhaps questioning their method—and those who opposed the strike entirely. (Each group, of course, formed its own Facebook group.) After 10 days, the strikers ate dinner following the announcement that Columbia would revamp the Major Cultures requirement along with other, smaller reforms. That same year, students pushed for another change—this time, with regard to financial aid. In what became known as the Ivy League Arms Race, Columbia students made noise as peer institutions steepened their financial aid packages. Thanks to a $400 million donation from John Kluge, CC ’37, the University eventually ponied up the aid, saying it would fully finance a Columbia education for students whose parents made below $60,000 and substitute all loans with grants. But Columbia relies on tuition more than institutions such as Princeton, and could not afford to entirely match the changes of the nation’s top three colleges. Still, it was a huge moment for students and administrators. But it soon became just another expense and an onus on the University’s budget, though administrators rushed to say that Columbia’s status as a “need-blind” school was unquestionable. The national economic crisis hit home in fall 2008, showing the limits of Columbia’s power of the purse—while also slightly narrowing the difference between it and the richer Ivies. Current graduates have seen Columbia come to terms with this new financial reality. Noted in the University’s most recent financial statement is the state of the endowment, listed as “investments, at fair value,” whose value dropped from $7.1 billion in 2008 to $5.7 billion in 2009. The percentage losses, when announced, were often touted as less consequential and harrowing than the drops in the endowments of Columbia’s peers. This relative stability was attributed to less risky fund management and a smaller reliance on the endowment. In response, Columbia reduced the central administration budget, told each budget division to expect an 8 percent cut in endowment funds, delayed the implementation of a new computer system, and froze raises. Administrators have said these changes reflect the need to make the most out of fewer resources. Small-scale saving measures included decreasing Ph.D. students funded by the University by 10 percent, decreasing adjunct funds, increasing the enrollment cap on certain Core classes, and increasing the size of incoming classes by 50 (although the profits on the last measure were somewhat mitigated by the money spent to renovate the new undergraduate dormitory Harmony Hall, which was needed in order to accommodate the larger student body). This strategy has come to the fore as students have seen Columbia change both its physical and symbolic landscape. After a major legal battle that resulted in the state saying it would seize privately owned land in Manhattanville on Columbia’s behalf, the University began the process of pre-construction to lay the groundwork for Phase I of the expansion project. But that progress has recently come under increased scrutiny, as Manhattanville plans have been placed on hold pending a New York State Court of Appeals ruling on whether the state should be allowed to invoke eminent

domain on Columbia’s behalf, in exchange for market-rate compensation for the current owners of disputed properties. The initial decision by the New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Division, which was made in December 2009, surprised many with its strong language and unexpected rebuke of Columbia’s plans. As the June 1 Court of Appeals hearing looms, the delay has called into question the more strategic aspects of Columbia’s plans, even as expansion in some significant form seems to be a foregone conclusion. Beyond the legalities, it is unclear precisely how the economic crisis will affect Manhattanville. Harvard had to cancel a similar expansion project, though it is clear Columbia is in better financial health and intends to forge ahead. In expanding globally, Columbia recently began building Global Centers, which are low-cost international offices

Across Broadway, a new building cropped up along with a new president after Barnard’s long-time McIntosh Student Center was demolished in 2007. Harvard business scholar Debora Spar stepped in following former president Judith Shapiro’s departure. Spar made pragmatic administrative shifts that reflected the effects of a plummeting endowment. Some students and old-time Barnard affiliates decried the changes as ruthless, saying Spar made a homey school feel more businesslike. Spar oversaw the construction of the new Diana Student Center, named after trustee Diana Vagelos, BC ’55. The bright-orange Diana represented years of planning and millions in spending from Barnard’s most well-endowed alumnae. But the Diana reached deep into the pockets of even the strongest givers, leaving a gap for Barnard to fill— which it did, with the announcement

angela radulescu / senior staff photographer

It is the best of times, it is the worst of times to be a member of the graduating class of 2010. After four years of learning, living, partying, and occasionally holing up in Butler Library or 1020, seniors will leave Morningside Heights facing one of the toughest job markets college graduates have seen in recent years. They are exiting a stage of personal growth to enter what is largely a scene of uncertainty and, it would seem, unemployment. Columbians are inheriting a world that seems more gritty than the one they anticipated on move-in day in 2006. This period may be more comparable than other years have been to the 1970s—one of Columbia’s toughest decades, in which it bore the fallout of the 1968 protests that shut down the school and felt the brunt of New York City’s increasing financial woes. But now, this culture of uncertainty brings with it a rhetoric of “change”—the notion largely responsible for electing Barack Obama, CC ’83, as the nation’s first black and Columbia College-alumnus president. It is this rhetoric that has many students who came in with their sights set on Goldman Sachs graduating into Teach for America’s classrooms. As University President Lee Bollinger never fails to remind students, the world is being turned upside down, and it is up to today’s young graduates to figure out and shape the new global order—though they may need to find jobs first. Over the past four years, students have seen a similar tension between expansion and contraction within the University. Ambitious projects—such as Columbia’s plans to build a new campus uptown in Manhattanville, a Capital Campaign, a new on-campus science building, and Barnard’s new student center—sparked oft-turbulent struggles. With change comes controversy, and Columbia is no stranger to that. The national economic crisis hasn’t helped. But the University and those who rely on its well-being are beginning to bounce back.

ian kwok / senior staff photographer

BY JOY RESMOVITS Spectator Senior Staff Writer

REFLECTION | Columbia’s Manhattanville expansion sparked conflict at the University. Above, students gathered in 2007 to watch Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speak. Below, Barnard’s McIntosh Center made way for the Diana. intended to connect scholars throughout the world. This method is an example of an ambitious plan that has been guided by logistical costs. Fear of underwriting and educational duplication kept the University tied to its Global Centers model, as opposed to developing branch campuses. As of now, centers have opened in Jordan, India, France, and China. Offices in South America and Africa are also in the works. But before Columbia could expand uptown and internationally, it looked inward. The University is preparing to open a new, Rafael Moneo-designed science building that cost $200 million, and the school aims to use it to combine different disciplinary fields. The project was initially billed as the Northwest Corner Building, but its name changed to the “Interdisciplinary Science Building” for a few months before reverting back to the original. The name fluctuations reflect the University’s failure, as of yet, to find a naming donor for the building. As students graduate, they are leaving a school whose deans were all appointed by Bollinger. Recent hires include philosopher Michele Moody-Adams as dean of Columbia College, civil engineer Feniosky Peña-Mora as dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science, and Stanford psychologist Claude Steele as provost, or chief academic officer. Bollinger was lauded for a diverse slate of hires, but it is unclear how smooth the transitions have been, and donation numbers from this year have not yet been released.

of a mandatory meal plan. Disgruntled students again took to Facebook to condemn the changes, which required all students to purchase a meal plan regardless of their year or residence. At heated “town hall” meetings, protesters complained that Barnard was trying to pass the financial buck to its students. Administrators eventually created a meal plan task force, and an altered— though still mandatory—meal plan was unveiled this spring. Outside the gates, the economic crisis also affected retailers. Morningside Bookshop shut its doors last summer and was replaced by a new branch of Book Culture. The bar La Negrita became 999. American Apparel moved in. Ricky’s replaced media store Kim’s Video and Music. Empanada Joe’s opened and closed within a brief time span, with vegetarian falafel chain Maoz taking over the space just a few weeks ago. Tomo’s vacant spot will soon be filled by Mel’s Burger Bar. Morningside Heights has constricted and regrown during the graduating class’s time here. Columbia has been growing, but that ideal of growth has been tempered by realities such as finances and the dissent of the people the University serves. This leaves students in limbo, as many graduate jobless but optimistic. They have everything and nothing to anticipate as they are asked to remake and change a world that now happens to be run by Columbians from Albany to the White House.

May 18, 2010

Senior Profiles

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arianne richard columbia college sat next to Martin Chalfie, chair of the biology department and a co-recipient of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. “He immediately asked me what I do, what I wanted to do,” Richard said. “He started listing off names of who he would contact for me in Boston. … He followed through with everything. He set me up with interviews in Boston without ever having me as a student.” On campus, Richard has been involved in dance groups, including serving as co-chair of CU Dance Marathon, an annual fundraiser for the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation. The event lasts 28 hours, and last year, it raised over $51,000. Alex Marchyshyn, CC ’10, described Richard as “fun, determined, and loyal.” “She is always game for an adventure, whether it is pursuing gluten-free mac and cheese downtown or trying something we never have before,” Marchyshyn added. Richard also works in a laboratory part-time. She said the research she has done with a graduate student is now ready to be published, and hopefully will be by fall. Her mother said that she seems to have inherited her enthusiasm for science from her father, Marc Richard, who is an electrical engineer. “He began doing home experiments with her when she was three or four years old,” she said, “answering her questions with patience and allowing her to improvise to ‘see what happens if....” —Amber Tunnell

embry owen / senior staff photographer

good will toward others—are what I will always remember and appreciate about her,” Scharffenberger wrote in an email, adding that Richard also has “an absolutely fantastic sense of humor.” After graduation, Richard has a one-year position lined up with the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., and her research adviser—Ruben Gonzalez, an assistant professor in the chemistry department—convinced her to apply to a biophysics Ph.D. program in the fall. As a junior, she was awarded a Goldwater Scholarship, the most prestigious prize for undergraduates planning to pursue Ph.D.s in science or math. After school, she would like to either stay in academia or go into manuscript editing for a science publication. Brent Stockwell, an associate professor in the biology department and Richard’s major adviser, taught her in a graduate-level genomics class, which Richard took in her junior year. “I was a little skeptical [of her age] going in,” he admitted, but “she was amazing in the class. She was right up in the thick of things with the graduate students.” Stockwell added, “Of all the students, not only was she tremendously impressive in all her classes, but she was understated. She would never ask to be valedictorian.” Richard said one of her best memories at Columbia is from when she attended the Lenfest Awards banquet—an event to honor committed professors—a few weeks ago, when Gonzalez was getting an award. She

jeff spear

school of engineering and applied science

columbia college

anthony yim / staff photographer

seth davidovitz

“I wasn’t going to pick it up at first,” School of Engineering and Applied Science valedictorian Seth Davidovits said, referring to the phone call he received from his dean—who dialed from an unlisted number—informing him that he had been named valedictorian. “I think I made a very out-of-it first impression.” To professors who encountered him during his undergraduate years, though, Davidovits was remarkably put together. In his time as a student, faculty entrusted Davidovits with important lab research, all while he remained engaged on campus. While he will spend the summer traveling Europe and hiking, he plans to pursue a Ph.D. in plasma physics at Princeton next year, which he eventually chose over the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. As an undergraduate, Davidovits worked in the Plasma Physics Laboratory. He graduated a semester early and has spent the time since conducting research and working at Columbia. Applied physics professor Michael Mauel, one of Davidovits’ favorite professors, described Davidovits as “the sort of student who comes around only once or twice every 10 years.” “Seth is remarkably calm for someone who accomplishes so much. From every interaction I

have had, Seth’s work is unmatched,” Mauel wrote in an email. David Keyes, an applied mathematics professor and another of Davidovits’ favorites, agreed. Referring to the amount of responsibility the faculty gave Davidovits in the laboratory—including making him the system administrator of a parallel computer, which carries out many calculations at once— Keyes wrote in an email, “A faculty that heaps this much responsibility upon an undergraduate should ordinarily be shot. However, Seth continued to earn mostly A-plus grades in an overload situation and insisted that he enjoyed the challenge, together with all he was learning about parallel computing and parallel computers.” On campus, Davidovits has served as president of the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Club and vice president of Engineers Without Borders. A self-described hiking aficionado, Davidovits makes plans with a group of friends to face the great outdoors every spring break. Anthony Yim, SEAS ’10 and a Spectator photographer, met Davidovits during COÖP and has lived with him all four years. Yim hikes with Davidovits over breaks. “We are big hikers. We are known as the guys who do crazy hikes during spring break,” Yim said.

According to Yim, Davidovits’ friends were not surprised when he was named valedictorian. “He doesn’t get stressed at all. He doesn’t drink any coffee. He is super calm. He is focused. If he needed to work on a Friday night, he wouldn’t mind doing that. He is very in control of his work and play balance,” Yim said. Peter Traverso, SEAS ’10, another friend, said Davidovits knew how to have a good time. “Even though he is valedictorian, we still had a lot of fun,” Traverso said. “We liked playing board games or computer games together, or just hanging out.” He said he considers the study habits that led to his success to be “non-standard,” explaining that he doesn’t take notes. “The only classes that I have taken notes in are humanities classes,” he said. “It goes more smoothly if you don’t take notes, especially with math and science courses.” He said it was more effective for him to focus on what the professor was teaching. He does, however, subscribe to the “sleep method” of getting eight hours of sleep before exams, and said that he doesn’t believe in working on weekends. As for advice for other students, he said, “Don’t take eight classes.” —Amber Tunnell

Jeff Spear was putting the finishing touches on his thesis when he found out that he was the Columbia College salutatorian. “The moment I first heard was about an hour before my thesis was due,” Spear recalled. “I just said that I can’t think about this at all or I’m not going to finish my thesis.” Spear—an evolutionary biology major with an archaeology minor— has distinguished himself both as a student and as a champion fencer. He is graduating with a GPA of 4.07. It was a series of A-pluses—which are worth 4.33 in GPA calculations—from his Core and archaeology classes that put him over the 4.0 mark, as his major classes do not give A-pluses as a matter of policy. His only A-minus grades came in both semesters of Contemporary Civilization. He said that his favorite courses were those in his major and most of the Core, and named Origins of Human Society with Severin Fowles, an assistant anthropology professor at Barnard, as a particular favorite. Spear spent the last three summers doing a field project in the Rio Grande Gorge in northern New Mexico with Fowles and a group of students, and his work there led to his senior thesis. He said that stone tools found in northern New Mexico are his specialty. “Jeff scaled cliffs, wriggled down into caves, swam across the Rio Grande holding field gear afloat, and impaled himself (repeatedly) on cacti... all in the name of archaeological research,” Fowles wrote in an email. “And he did it with great intellectual commitment and humor.” Spear is also a national champion and All-American fencer, and was named a first-team Academic AllAmerica athlete last year by ESPN

The Magazine. He has been fencing since he was 12. George Kolombatovich, Columbia’s fencing coach, said that Spear is a “truly exceptional individual,” a teammate who is calm in competition and understands time management. “He certainly is a tremendous role model. … It sets a high mark for the other members of the team,” Kolombatovich said. Spear also travels often for competitions—in fact, he leaves for a tournament the day after Commencement. While fencing forced him to miss a handful of anthropology professor Ralph Holloway’s classes, Holloway described Spear as “one of the most outstanding students I’ve known since I started teaching at Columbia in 1964.” “He is a true scholar, who puts his all into his studies, and having him in class always presents one of those lovely challenges that many professors really desire—which is skepticism,” Holloway wrote in an email. “I am grateful that I wasn’t one of his opponents in saber!” Holloway added. On campus, Spear also participated in the Undergraduate Archaeology Club and worked in the Frontiers of Science help room for four or five hours per week. After graduation, he said, he hopes to stay in the city for the next two years to pursue fencing opportunities. He added that he would also like to work in anthropology or archaeology during this time, ideally at the American Museum of Natural History. After that, he would like to pursue a Ph.D. in either archaeology or anthropology. In his spare time, Spear said, “I like to play a lot of board games,” particularly strategy games. He claims that he has over a dozen in his dorm room. —Amber Tunnell

rose donlon / staff photographer

While a campus tradition holds that the first person in each incoming class to find the owl carved into the Alma Mater statue will be valedictorian, Arianne Richard didn’t even look for it. To this day, she hasn’t seen the owl— but she was named Columbia College valedictorian regardless. Richard, a biochemistry major, said she found out that she was valedictorian while sitting in a computer lab in the chemistry department. “I opened my email and I just started laughing. So I ended up in the stairwell, laughing and calling everybody I knew,” she said. Her mother, Lisa Richard, wrote in an email, “As well as I know her, she still continues to amaze me with her determination and capacity to learn.” With a GPA of 4.16, Richard said she previously had no idea where she stood academically in her class. She also received the award for the highest GPA—an honor that does not always go to the valedictorian, who is selected by a committee based on a number of factors in addition to grades. While Richard has focused on science during her time at Columbia, she said she decided to attend partly because of the Core Curriculum. She named Elizabeth Scharffenberger, a lecturer in the classics department and her Literature Humanities and Contemporary Civilization professor, as one of her favorite professors. “Arianne’s enthusiasm for the projects of Lit Hum and CC—her lively curiosity and breadth of interests, as well as her generosity of spirit and

Page 6

SENIOR PROFILES

May 18, 2010

kevin bulger

rich brown

columbia college

Bulger would work to ease tensions between Protestants and Catholics through youth basketball activities. His third option is a post-grad program in Durham, England, where he would be working toward a master’s degree in education. Ultimately, Bulger sees himself coaching and teaching high school history. In the meantime, he has worked at the Double Discovery Center at Columbia, where he tutored and mentored low-income students from Manhattan and the Bronx. But the Glenview, Ill. native still made time to develop lasting friendships at Columbia, according to colleagues. “He is the kind of guy you would want to have on your back when you go into battle for something,” Foley said. “You can always count on him to liven up the crowd,” Niko Scott, CC ’10 and another member of the basketball team, added. When asked to describe his four years at Columbia, Bulger summed them up in a single word: “Tremendous.” —Gila Schwarzschild

It’s hard to say what Rich Brown’s claim to fame is. It might be his role in the 2007 hunger strike, as one of several students who refused food and water for several days to demand administrative reform and a more diverse Core Curriculum. Or maybe he’ll be remembered as the adventurous anthropology major who hitchhiked with immigrants in New Mexico and couch-surfed his way through Amsterdam. Or, if you live in upstate New York, you might have seen him plummeting to the earth “bare-ass naked” on a recent nude skydiving expedition. Born in South Africa, he’s lived in Virginia, Belgium, Estonia, and Egypt with his mother, who works for the U.S. Embassy. He calls her and several of his anthropology professors his greatest influences in life. At the end of all of Brown’s stories, he has something to say about social justice, sustainability, activism, or living consciously. Brown is the hopeful activist, proud of his generation and lashing out at the system that he said seeks to contain and control the best and the brightest.

courtesy of rich brown

Kevin Bulger, CC ’10, might be remembered at Columbia for his gamewinning shot against Harvard in his junior year, but his future ambitions may take him global. While the Columbia College student has focused on his academic, athletic, and mentoring efforts locally, Bulger is now looking to take his work further with international programs that would combine his love of basketball with his interest in working with young people. During his time at Columbia, Bulger was a star student—a recruited member of the basketball team and a Kappa Delta Rho brother. He has also been involved with the StudentAthlete Advisory Committee, an initiative “to close the bond between the student body and athletes at large,” he explained. “He’s the hardest-working guy on the team. He’s the guy putting in the extra effort,” fellow basketball player Patrick Foley, CC ’10, said of his friend and teammate. As a history major, Bulger cited Barnard professor Robert McCaughey as a particularly strong influence. Friends said Bulger worked just as hard in the classroom as he did on the court. “He’s kind of hard to find during the week, because he buries himself in the library,” Foley said, adding, “He’s the only person I know who gets a head start on papers.” While Bulger has yet to finalize his post-graduation plans, he has three promising options, all of which relate to his interest in athletics and mentoring programs. Bulger is interested in potentially working for PeacePlayers International in South Africa. The program uses basketball to bring children of different races together to promote HIV awareness. Another post-graduation option is a similar program in Ireland, where

“We’re bred for success, not happiness,” he said, revising a quote from the German philosopher Albert Schweitzer. Brown started his career at Columbia as a premed student, but said he spent more time gazing out his dorm room window than he did solving problem sets. “I switched out of premed after I realized that everyone treated it as a science, not a series of miracles, which is what it is and how I saw it,” said Brown, who has an atom tattooed on his chest. Last year, Brown spent the summer working on houses that ran on sustainable energy in a job he found through World-Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms, an organization that arranges for volunteers to work on organic farms around the world. He’ll spend this summer roadtripping back to his host family in New Mexico, where he said he had more of an eye-opening, cross-cultural experience than he did during the semester he spent in the south of France. Brown and his friends don’t talk much about his three-day hunger strike, but he said he was still proud to have been a part of it and remains interested in the concept of mind over body. “It was a wonderful mental exercise, at the very least,” he said. Brown said that while Columbia has given him a world-class education, there’s still much left to learn, and he added that he believes young people are capable of more than what college challenges them to do. “My plan after college is basically to drop out,” he said. It’s not the normal route a college drop-out would take, but Brown is the type who takes the scenic route. -Leah Greenbaum

frances bodomo

courtesy of frances bodomo

columbia college If you ask Columbia College student Frances Bodomo where her passion lies, she’ll tell you it’s all in the pictures: “Film, film, film, and what it can do.” Originally from Ghana, Bodomo spent her childhood in Norway, California, and Hong Kong. Though she is now an integral part of the University film community, Bodomo came to Columbia as a self-described hardcore English major. “Growing up in Hong Kong meant we only got the biggest movies, like Ben Stiller and that type, so I wasn’t really interested in film,” she said. Now, as festival director and public relations point person for Columbia University Film Productions, she is a mentor for budding filmmakers on campus. After taking her first film course in the spring semester of her freshman year, she was inspired. That summer, Bodomo rented an average of eight to 10 movies

per day from the public library. At the end of the summer, with her eyesight noticeably diminished, she had discovered a new calling. Her first film, made in her sophomore year and titled “Twinkles,” follows the story of a girl who has outgrown her imaginary friend and is now trying to get rid of her. “Film can express anything, and at the same time obtain an audience big enough that it means something,” Bodomo said. But she added that in the long run, “I’m still figuring out what my message will be.” Bodomo is particularly interested in Africa, which she says is often misrepresented in film. “That message is about poverty and rounding people up to help. ... It’s trying to portray a side of Africa that is meant to generate revenue.” But Bodomo’s focus during her time at Columbia has not been solely on the realization of her own projects. She has

helped to organize CUFP’s film festivals, which show films made by Columbia undergraduates. “A lot of people are scared to show their movies, and they will make movies and then they will put them away in their top drawer. This festival, getting people over that hump, is what I’m proud of—getting people out of their comfort zone,” Bodomo said. “I have no doubt that Fran will be making films for the rest of her life,” Max Rifkind-Barron, CC ’11 and director of production for CUFP, said. “She has the passion, drive, and talent to make films that will shake the world. I just don’t see her stopping making films. I just don’t think she can.” In the fall, Bodomo will be attending film school at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. From there, she said, “I will go wherever the movies take me.” —Samantha Saly

helping us get back to our roots.” O’Keefe’s main goals for MilVets have included fostering alumni connections for veterans, creating meaningful friendships within the group, sorting out problems with the G.I. Bill, and reaching out to current service members who are considering Columbia. Many of these prospective students, he said, ask whether Columbia is too uninviting a place for veterans, and O’Keefe’s mission on campus has been to respond to those concerns with a resounding “no.” “He was a catalyst for the mobilization of the group,” Awn said. “Now they have a critical mass, so that the MilVets is a self-sustaining operation.” Now, after having been part of MilVets since coming to Columbia and working to support veterans at

the University, O’Keefe is once again going abroad. This time, he is traveling to England and the London School of Economics in the fall to pursue a master’s degree in operational research. —Samantha Saly

sean o’keefe school of general studies After serving as a Green Beret special forces engineer, Sean O’Keefe was discharged from the military in spring 2007 after five years. Now graduating from the School of General Studies, O’Keefe has breathed new life into the veteran community on campus. During his time in the military, O’Keefe learned French, was stationed in Germany, took college courses, and ended up in Colorado. But once he returned home, he wanted to distance himself from the veteran community. ““It’s not something you want to remember all the time,” O’Keefe said. “I kind of saw the veteran community as going back to that.” He had a change of heart upon coming to Columbia, where he became president of U.S. Military Veterans of Columbia University, also called

“MilVets.” He worked with fellow club members to gain the support of legislators for the new G.I. Bill, which provides educational benefits to veterans. According to O’Keefe, due to the ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, there has been an increase in the number of veterans enrolling at the University. He sees a mutually beneficial relationship between this growing population and more traditional undergraduates. “Their professionalism is a key asset,” O’Keefe said. “One of the aspects that has helped me succeed in college is the discipline.” “GS was founded as a college of the University in order to integrate the veterans coming out of World War II,” Dean of General Studies Peter Awn said. “So in a wonderful way, Sean is

courtesy of sean o’keefe

courtesy of chikara onda

Columbia College’s Chikara Onda has made some of his biggest decisions over the past four years by creating spreadsheets. It all started when he was in high school in Paris and trying to decide what college to attend in the fall of 2005. “It was a traditional pro/con list, but I put weights on different factors and gave scores,” Onda said. Brown actually got the highest score, but Onda said he didn’t feel right about that. “I ended up not listening to the spreadsheet and decided on Columbia,” he said, sitting in Lerner after having finished his last final exams at the University. Once at Columbia, Onda jumped into Nonsequitur, a campus a cappella group. In fall 2009, when the group realized it couldn’t perform on the date it had been assigned for the Intercollegiate Competition of College A Cappella quarterfinals, Onda created another spreadsheet to determine which of the other three dates would give them the best chance of winning. “I looked at the prior results of groups competing and assigned a difficulty index,” Onda said. “I guess that’s why I’m an econ major.” Onda, an economics major with an environmental science concentration, is one of the founding editorial board members and the former editor in chief of Consilience: The Journal of Sustainable Development. This summer, he will be doing economic analysis for the Environmental Defense Fund. He has also been involved with Model United Nations since his freshman year, chairing several conferences at Columbia, and with the United Nations Association of the United States of America, a nonprofit that supports the work of the United Nations, as a junior. It was Onda’s multinational background—Japanese but born in Austin, Texas, he was raised in Paris—that led him to get involved with Model UN, he said. In high school, he spoke all three languages fluently, though he says his Japanese and French are a little rusty today. When he’s not writing, studying, or singing, Onda runs marathons. He just qualified for the upcoming New York City Marathon, which will take place in November. Right now, he’s training for a half marathon. Onda has several reasons for his interest in running. “It was natural because my dad was a marathon runner,” he said. Additionally, he needed a sport that was “2D.” “I’m not coordinated at all,” Onda said. “I used to play soccer, and I was good until the ball came off the ground.” When summing up his college years, Onda says he thinks of a three-song set he sang with Nonsequitur at the 2009 ICAA quarterfinals, which the group won: “Fallin’,” “I’m Yours,” and “Livin’ on a Prayer.” “That set stuck with me,” he said. —Jessica Hills

jasper l. clayatt / senior staff photographer

chikara onda

tim goebel To some, Tim Goebel is just the guy in Linear Algebra with a blue mohawk. But to those who know him well, he is the “Quad King,” a former Olympic figure skater living a double life as a General Studies student at Columbia. Josie Bailey, SEAS ’11, who first met Goebel in a math class, said it wasn’t until much later that she found out he was a toptier figure skater who won a bronze medal at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics. Far from minding not being recognized as the first figure skater ever to land a quadruple salchow, Goebel said he has appreciated the anonymity of being a student at Columbia. “It’s really nice to be a quote-unquote normal person,” he said.

“It’s been nice to not be in the public eye and concentrate on my studies and sort of have my privacy back.” In fact, as a math major, Goebel is now pursuing a career in finance—he’s preparing to work for Nielsen, a large marketing and media information company, doing financial analysis in the customs division. Skating, though, remains a big part of his life. Aside from teaching and coaching figure skating on the weekends in Westchester County, N.Y., and staying involved with the United States Figure Skating Association, Goebel has dedicated much time and energy to Figure Skating in Harlem, an organization that provides skating opportunities for six- to

18-year-old girls. “It’s very much using sports to help these kids excel in academics,” Goebel said of the organization’s mission. “We teach them how to skate, but it’s very academically driven. You have to maintain a high GPA to get into the program, and in addition to skating, they have enrichment classes, they have a public speaking class, they have tutoring available.” He has worked with the organization for all four of the years he has been at Columbia, and took part in their annual Central Park fundraiser for four or five years while he was still competing. Although balancing his volunteering, coaching, and USFSA responsibilities with his schoolwork has been a challenge,

Goebel called it a useful struggle. “That’s life, juggling a lot of different projects at the same time,” he said. After graduating, Goebel said he wants to maintain ties to Columbia, perhaps by fundraising for GS. “Through Columbia, I’ve had so many good opportunities,” he said, “and I really want to help in whatever way I can in the future to continue to be able to provide that for the next generations coming in.” Some classmates said Goebel has already given back a lot. Bailey wrote in an email, “Without Tim, many of my math courses would have been a lot less fun!” —Alisa Lu

zara castany / for spectator

school of general studies

SENIOR PROFILES

vikram mohan

school of engineering and applied science

or latrines, and the chefs didn’t get enough water to do any real cleaning. Immediately, the group began discussing strategies to improve the school’s access to water, and over the course of the school year, they developed a plan to add six or seven spigots to the school’s existing water source. Heslop took a lead role in the group’s grant-writing campaign and said the project now has more funding than it needs. “We don’t think we’ll have time to spend all the money we’ve received,” she said. “That’s a pretty great problem to have.” Heslop said EWP has driven her to pursue a career providing sustainable solutions for communities in need. “I see engineering as a way to create solutions for people, not because they’re incapable, but because they just didn’t have a chance to,” she said. Before moving on to graduate school, Heslop has taken a position with the environmental consulting firm GreenOrder and will work in the city, advising companies about how they can make their product lines more sustainable. She said that she wants to continue to pursue social justice in engineering. “It’s not all about the science,” she said. “It’s really about how these projects can impact communities.” -Leah Greenbaum

lan li barnard college

to the chemical engineering field,” he said. “I kind of want to be in a career that deals with both subjects.” Ultimately, Mohan said, he tries to grasp as many opportunities as possible without selling himself short. “My high school math teacher said, ‘Work smart, don’t work hard,’ so I kind of try to apply that to my life,” he said. —Madina Toure

barnard college Megan McNally came to Barnard interested in theater and political science. Now, at the end of her four years there, she has turned a house in Buffalo, N.Y. into a center for “how-to” workshops and is traveling around the country to improve sustainability efforts among businesses and organizations. Born and raised in Buffalo, McNally set her sights on improving the city’s east side as she became more interested in environmental policy. McNally said the Barnard EcoReps—a group of 10 Barnard students who develop environmental education programs on campus and aim to lower Barnard’s carbon footprint— played a decisive role in introducing her to the environmental field. Between her sophomore and junior years, McNally interned at Buffalo ReUse, a nonprofit social enterprise devoted to sustainability in Buffalo. Residents approached her with concerns about receiving citations from the city for building code violations. “The area in the city is a very poor area,” she said. “Nobody has money to rehab the houses, and nobody has money to hire people to rehab the houses.” At Buffalo ReUse’s annual foreclosure auction, she convinced her mother to purchase one of the houses for about $3,500, using a portion of the grant she received from Barnard’s Centennial Scholars Program, which provides students with the opportunity to pursue an independent study project early in

their college career. She took the fall semester of her junior year off to host workshops in the house on home repair, maintenance, and gardening. “As long as I kept asking questions and kept asking professionals who knew what they’re doing, I myself will learn the ‘doing’ and teach other people the skills that I learned,” she said. “I started just going around knocking on doors in the neighborhood, telling people what I had in mind, and started giving out workshops.” After graduation, she plans to take a road trip around the country to interview workers at various businesses and organizations to “see what works and what doesn’t … sort of to compile all this information to come up with a unique

way to address this issue [sustainability],” she said. Her first stop will be in New Mexico, where she hopes to do a sustainable-building apprenticeship. She will also be working for Yestermorrow Design/Build School in Vermont, which teaches courses in design, construction, woodworking, and architectural craft, with a focus on sustainable design. Her project in Buffalo has made her career interests more focused, she said. “Doing this project … has totally changed my life, and I’ve learned so much about myself and what’s important to me,” McNally said. “Now I can go out into the real world and be directed in what I am doing.” —Madina Toure

marissa mazek barnard college

courtesy of lan li

After Lan Li returned from a semester abroad in London, she decided it was time to take her YouTube entertainment to the next level. Now, to her over 5,600 subscribers, Li is known by her username “WorldIsMarble,” where she posts videos chronicling her life at Barnard and in New York, along with her original music and ukulele performances. Over the past couple of years, she has gained recognition for more than 90 videos, though that was not originally one of her main goals. “I never really thought I would make videos, ever,” she said. But Li, a 2008 recipient of the Gilman International Scholarship— which offers funding for undergraduate students to study abroad—decided to post weekly blogs about her experience for her required project. During the fall semester of her junior year, Li studied at University College London and posted a YouTube video each week about her travels, her thoughts, her studies, and her general experiences. Her “An American in London” series of video blogs has been viewed thousands of times and gained a notable online following. After she returned to Morningside Heights in spring 2009, she continued to make videos about life in New York, including many original acoustic songs, accompanied by her own ukulele and guitar strums. “When I came back, I decided to get into film more seriously,” Li, a history major concentrating in science and society, said. Though her WorldIsMarble hobby may seem like a time-consuming endeavor, Li has also kept busy both inside and outside the classroom. She started the Barnard History of Science Society and volunteers as a Big Sib for the Big Sibs mentoring program. In addition, she edits videos for Barnard—a job she will keep for another year as she applies to graduate programs in the history of science. Li was recently able to combine her interests in science, history, and filmmaking in her senior thesis documentary, titled “The Tacit

After his experience as an Eagle Scout, he also wanted to continue volunteering. He worked for Special Tree Rehabilitation Services in Romulus, Mich., during the summer of 2007, caring for patients recovering from traumatic brain injuries sustained in automobile accidents. “Some of them are in very bad condition, permanently bad condition,” he said. “Scouting had taken a smaller role in my life, and I wanted to make community service a big part of my life.” This past semester, Mohan was also a resident adviser for freshmen in John Jay. Even with his full schedule, Mohan still made time for some memorable college evenings. “Me and a friend made a potato can. ... You fill it with hair spray, and then you light the chamber, and it shoots a potato really far,” he said. “We were doing that in Riverside Park last semester, and some police officer didn’t really like what was going on, so we actually spent the night in jail.” But, he added, “All the charges were dropped.” After graduation, Mohan will be working full-time at Credit Suisse, a global financial services company, where he worked as an intern for the past two summers. He hopes to combine his interests in engineering and economics, eventually going to graduate school for government policy with regard to energy. “I’m working in finance, but I’d like to work with companies that are related

megan mcnally

Tumor.” The film looks at social, theoretical, and medical perspectives on integrating Eastern and Western medical practices. “Taking that on was one of the most difficult things I’ve ever done. I learned so much from just doing. I went to China this summer, and I just interviewed doctors who were integrating East-West medicine and were willing to talk to a college student during the swine flu season,” she said. This summer, Li will travel to Prague for three weeks as a prize for winning a video contest with ExchangesConnect. Although she never expected to make videos, especially ones that are viewed by thousands of people worldwide, Li has embraced her interest in media and hopes to continue to create music and films. “That’s the thing with coming to college—you never know where it’s going to take you,” she said. “You learn that it’s okay to be scared. It’s okay to not know what you want to do, and really take risks.” —Laura Ly

embry owen / senior staff photographer

Janelle Heslop was one of very few young girls interested in water quality at the tender age of 12. Her first job as a pre-teen at the Hudson River Museum, where she studied water flows and sanitation, opened her eyes to the world of environmentalism. But today, as she receives her diploma—after four years working with Engineers Without Borders— Heslop has set her sights on a world that operates on principles of social justice and sustainable development. During her senior year, Heslop has served as the technical lead for the water team on EWB’s Uganda project, which has received sizable grants from the Clinton Foundation’s Global Initiative and the Environmental Protection Agency. The native New Yorker has been working with an EWP team to bring greater access to water to a school in rural Uganda, where a single unreliable spigot serves over 500 students, teachers, and workers. Heslop traveled last summer to Uganda—a country where she said she feels “completely at home,” though friends describe her as a city girl through and through—to study multifunction energy and power generators at a local school. She and her companions noticed that the girls at the school had to carry heavy buckets of water long distances to their dormitories

Vickram Mohan entered the School of Engineering and Applied Science to focus on chemical engineering, but left with a full-time job at a financial services company—and a particularly good eye for ultimate frisbee. While Mohan did settle on a chemical engineering major, the Detroit native was inspired by his Principles of Economics course with lecturer Sunil Gulati, and he eventually became an economics minor. Mohan’s seemingly divergent academic pursuits are reflected in his life outside the classroom—a diverse set of experiences, including research, volunteer work, and playing on the ultimate frisbee team. Mohan also spent the summer of 2008 at the London School of Economics, where he took two courses in quantitative finance. In his final year at SEAS, he conducted research with chemical engineering professor Mark Borden on oxygen microbubbles, which could potentially be used as a cancer therapy. Mohan and Borden are publishing a paper on their findings early this summer. Though Mohan was heavily involved academically, he also pursued opportunities elsewhere on campus. He has played on Columbia’s ultimate frisbee team for all four years of college, and was president of the team during the 2008-2009 academic year. “Coming to college, I knew I wanted to keep athletics as a big part of my life,” he said. “I love the sport and I love the team. … Even going forward, I want to keep it as a big part of my life.”

zara castany / for spectator

courtesy of janelle heslop

janelle heslop

Page 7

elaine burchman / staff photographer

May 18, 2010

Not many students are able to justify learning the flying trapeze as part of their coursework. But Barnard student Marissa Mazek—a writer, campus activist, and English department aficionado—managed to swing it. As part of her research for her senior thesis—a story about a girl who, in her aspirations to become light enough to fly, develops an eating disorder—the creative writing major scheduled a trapeze lesson. Hanging by her knees and turning flips in the air, Mazek hoped to experience the exhilaration of flying herself.

“It was one of the scariest things she’s ever done in her life, but it gave her so much insight into what she was trying to write about,” Mazek’s friend Hannah Schmidt, BC ’10, said. “It’s neat to know someone who’s so passionate about her work in that way.” Mazek said she has been making up stories ever since she can remember. “I feel more like myself when I am writing,” she said. She’s been at work on a novel about factory workers in Argentina during the political upheaval of the 1960s since her senior year of high school. A Spanish speaker, she is an alternate for a Fulbright Scholarship to travel to Córdoba next year, where she hopes to fill in the gaps in her narrative by researching the lives of female Argentine auto workers during that period. “She is an amazing combination of great kindness and enormous determination ... and almost limitless imagination,” creative writing professor Mary Gordon wrote in an e-mail. Gordon served as Mazek’s thesis advisor this past semester, an experience that Mazek said has been one of her most meaningful at Barnard. The idea behind the story for her thesis was partially inspired by her own experience: After struggling with an eating disorder during her first year at Barnard, Mazek came to the realization that campus

culture needed to change. The group that she helped to found, Students for Ending Eating Disorders, organized a week-long series of speakers, films, and other events for two years in a row. Its purpose was to bring to campus a greater awareness of eating disorders and other mental health issues, something that Mazek felt was missing. “I feel like generally, in society, no one talks about mental health issues, particularly eating disorders,” Mazek said. The issue—one that she felt was particularly relevant to students on a campus where the standard, it often seems, is perfection—was “way too significant for us not to talk about.” And while talking about her own struggles was difficult at first, Mazek has made a point of doing it anyway—she will share any detail about her experiences, she said, “if it can help someone.” Extending her writing beyond the creative, she authored a semester-long column in Spectator called “The Rough Truth” and urged her fellow students to love their bodies, themselves, and their peers. “If it helped one person think about the way they live their life,” Mazek said, “or the way their friends live their lives, or about society’s standards of perfection, then my job was done.” —Ray Katz

CLASS DAYS

May 18, 2010

Dean finds ‘academic royalty’ in SEAS grads

Engineering Class Day speaker encourages pursuit of social justice Peña-Mora told the class. He went on to list a number of SEAS graduates, from Michael Pupin, who developed the transatlantic underwater telegraph, to Vikram Pandit, the CEO of Citigroup and this year’s School of International and Public Affairs Class Day speaker. “You are… academic royalty,” he said. Class representatives also presented the Senior Fund gift, which totaled more than $5,200, reflecting contributions from 88 percent of the senior class. This fell short of the Senior Fund Committee’s lofty goal of a 100 percent contribution rate, but exceeded the

monetary goal of $5,000 to set a new record for SEAS. During his turn at the podium, Daniel Schiavello, SEAS ’75 and president of the SEAS alumni association, quoted Leonardo da Vinci: “People of accomplishment rarely sit back and let things happen to them. They go out and happen to things. … Now, you are accomplished. You are the people that happen to things.” But valedictorian Seth Davidovits kept the ceremony light. Pausing often for audience laughter, Davidovits pondered the possibility of the end of the world arriving in 2012.

“My first reaction was to feel sorry for the class of 2013,” he said, before offering related bits of advice to his classmates, such as, “Don’t buy furniture,” because students won’t get enough use out of it in just two years. Senior Khadijah Ransom said she appreciated Davidovits’ lighthearted address. “The valedictorian was very relatable and made the ceremony interesting,” she said. For salutatorian Rodney Chang, Class Day was a day for reflection—and, of course, “a time for us to transform from freeloaders into independent adults.”

alanna vaughns / staff photographer

A FU FOUNDATION | School of Engineering and Applied Science speaker Paul Brandt-Rauf, who hold six degrees from Columbia, pushed graduates to “go build a better world” on Sunday’s Class Day. While Brandt-Rauf and alum Daniel Schiavello, SEAS ’75, stuck to the inspirational, class valedictorian Seth Davidovitis lightened the mood by ruminating on an unlikely topic: 2012’s supposed apocalypse. “My first reaction was to feel sorry for the class of 2013,” he said, before advising underclassman to hold off on purchasing furniture.