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Gerald Sherwin Young Alumni Service Award

2023 Sherwin Awardees receiving their awards from Dean Sorett at Homecoming

Left: Dean Josef Sorett and Abigail Pritzker Pucker CC'14; Right: Andrew Wood CC'14 and Dean Josef Sorett

Alison Hayes; April Renae

The Gerald Sherwin ’55 Young Alumni Service Award was established in 2013 to honor an individual or group of individuals who has demonstrated exceptional service to the College’s young alumni community.

The awardee(s) shall be a Columbia College young graduate (of the past 10 years) who, by their action and support, has enhanced the community, well-being or engagement of the College’s young alumni. The award is named in honor of the late CCAA president emeritus Gerald Sherwin CC’55, aka Mr. Columbia. Sadly, we lost Jerry in 2022, but we will continue this tradition and honor his legacy.

Award Nominations Are Closed

Nominees should represent the diverse identities and experiences of the College’s young alumni community and have a history of philanthropy to the University. Nominees should be representative of the many ways one can give back to the school, for example, OMP, past ARC interviewing, Athletics, CCE mentoring and internship programs, Class Agent program, Columbia College Women, Columbia College Young Alumni Board, Columbia College Today, International and Regional programs, Shared Interest Groups, etc.

The award was presented at the CCAA Board meeting at Homecoming by the CCAA Board president and Dean Sorett.

2023 Recipients: Abigail Pritzker Pucker CC’14 and Andrew Wood CC’14

Andrew Wood CC’14

Andrew is a Vice President at Morgan Stanley, where he works as a Wealth Advisor in Beverly Hills. He specializes in supporting founders, executives, and investors in public and privately held companies in pre-liquidity event planning, equity-based compensation, and corporate financial wellness. Prior to starting his private client practice, Andrew ran business development for Morgan Stanley’s Beverly Hills, Westwood, and Santa Monica offices. He began his career as an Equity Product Specialist for Morgan Stanley in New York. Andrew lives in Santa Monica, with his wife, Tala (CC’13), their two young kids, Mila and Gray, and their cocker spaniel, Apollo. Tala and Andrew met at Columbia, and both remain enthusiastically engaged in the Columbia community as active members of the Young Leaders Council, Young Alumni Board and Columbia Club of Southern California. Since graduation, Andrew has mentored dozens of Columbia students on career paths both informally and through the Columbia-Athletics Finance Society and the Odyssey Mentoring Program. He graduated from Columbia in 2014 with a Degree in Economics. During his time at Columbia, he was a four-year member of the Men’s Varsity Swim Team, and he remains a highly competitive endurance athlete competing primarily in marathons and triathlons around the country.

Abigail Pritzker Pucker CC’14

Abby is an entrepreneur and cultural producer who is involved in initiatives sitting at the nexus of the creative economy and civic engagement. She is interested in leveraging the collective power and resources of this next generation of business and civic leaders along with creative talent to catalyze economic development through the lens of the creative economy. Abby is particularly focused on Chicago and founded two Chicago based companies – Gertie and Art in Common. Gertie is a cultural agency that aims to bring the next generation of civic and business leaders together through the lens of arts and culture. Art in Common is a non profit organization that produces large scale exhibitions that put emerging and established talent in the same context and conversation around socially relevant themes. Abby was appointed as one of the co-chairs of the Arts & Culture transition team for the Johnson administration and has continued to build fruitful relationships between the public and private sectors through Gertie as a continuation of the work on this Committee. Additionally, Abby is very involved with her family foundation, The Pritzker Pucker Family Foundation and has been working to create and execute on a Creative Economy strategy in Chicago over the past 2 years. Abby is a board member of The Marshall Project, Pioneer Works, Ghetto Film School, and the progressive American political organization, Run for Something. In 2016, Abby established the Pritzker Pucker Internship Fund at Columbia College to help students gain professional summer internship experiences in the fields of art, culture, media and tech. Her generous gift has supported over 100 students since. However, her influence goes even deeper as she has created an active network of current and former internship recipients, called the Trailblazers, who she meets with regularly, invites to cultural events in the city, and mentors. Abby graduated from Columbia College in 2014 with a Degree in Middle Eastern, South Asian & African Studies. During her time as a student, Abby served as a COOP leader and a chair of the Senior Class Dinner in 2014.

Past Recipients

  • 2022 • Andrew Heinrich CC’13, Julian Richardson CC’14, BUS’21, SIPA’21
  • 2021 • Riley Jones IV CC’17
  • 2020 • Kevin Zhang CC’14
  • 2019 • Matthew Amsterdam CC’10, LAW’13
  • 2018 Zahrah Taufique CC’09, BUS’15, PS’15
  • 2017 • Gairy Hall CC'11, BUS'16
  • 2016 • Jennifer Hsia CC’06
  • 2015 • Ganesh H. Betanabhatla CC‘06
  • 2014 • Justin Ifill CC’06
  • 2013 • Nathania Nisonson CC’03 and Michael Novielli CC’03
Clubs and Groups

Columbia College Young Alumni

Columbia College Young Alumni is an active community for graduates from the last 10 years.

Learn More