Stephen S. Trevor CC’86 and Ronnie D. Planalp BUS’86 have given a $2.5 million gift to Columbia, which includes $2 million to establish the Planalp Trevor Dean’s Curriculum Innovation Fund for Entrepreneurship at Columbia College. The Fund will provide permanent support for the faculty teaching and the students enrolled in entrepreneurship courses support, accelerate, and motivate the Columbia community’s programs and culture around innovation, creativity, and entrepreneurship at Columbia College. Their gift to the College is part of the Core to Commencement campaign.

Felix Qiaochu Jin CC’16, a biochemistry and physics major from Rochester, N.Y., and Zoey Poll CC’16, an urban studies major from Los Angeles, have been named  valedictorian and salutatorian, the top academic honors for the Columbia College Class of 2016.  The awardees were selected by the faculty Committee on Honors, Awards and Prizes based on the strength, breadth, depth and rigor of their academic achievements, as well as on evidence of their intellectual promise, character and achievement outside the classroom.  

Columbia undergraduates Katherine Jin CC’16, Kevin Tyan CC’16 and Jason Kang SEAS’16, cofounders of the startup Kinnos Inc., have been awarded the prestigious Lemelson-MIT Student Prize. 

Elana Shanti Sulakshana CC’17, a history and sustainable development double major from Newton, Mass., has won a prestigious Udall Undergraduate Scholarship, awarded to college sophomores and juniors in recognition of their leadership, public service and commitment to issues related to American Indian nations or to the environment.