Four Lions were feted on March 4 at the 46th annual John Jay Awards Dinner, which honors College alumni for distinguished professional achievement. The event raised more than $1 million for the John Jay Scholars Program, which provides financial support and academic programming to outstanding first-years entering the College.

The 2026 honorees were Melissa de la Cruz CC’93, New York Times bestselling author; Howard Endelman CC’87, the Bidyut K. Goswami Head Coach of Men’s Tennis, Columbia University; Christopher McGowan CC’92, managing partner, CJM Ventures; and Amanda Peet CC’94, actor, author and producer.

About 470 people attended the dinner, held at Cipriani 42nd Street. The room was bathed in Columbia blue lighting; guests enjoyed hors d’oeuvres and mingling before dinner.

Dean Josef Sorett addressed the evening’s significance, calling the John Jay Scholars Program “one of the College’s most impactful academic enhancement programs. And it makes a Columbia College education accessible through financial aid to the best and the brightest, regardless of need. … But this program offers more than opportunity. It offers transformation.”

That transformation takes place not only on the individual level, through intellectual and personal growth, but also in how Jay scholars change the lives of others, Sorett said. “Their experiences, aspirations and viewpoints contribute to our classrooms, research labs, clubs and organizations, and residential communities. They remind us that excellence and diversity of experience are not competing ideas, but mutually reinforcing ones.” And after graduation, he continued, they carry that spirit forward, “choosing lives of impact and purpose across the many professions they pursue.”

Other speakers included Columbia College Alumni Association (CCAA) president Raymond H. Yu CC’89, SEAS’90 and Acting President Claire C. Shipman CC’86, SIPA’94. John Jay Scholar Stanley Davis ’26 won over the crowd with his warmth and Tennessee twang (“Folks, if you cannot tell, I am not from the Bronx,” he declared).

Davis, who received a Rhodes Scholarship earlier this year, credited Associate Dean Lavinia Lorch, his adviser and the director of the Columbia Undergraduate Scholars Program, for her persistent encouragement to apply as well as for her support throughout his time at the College. That “unique advising” given to Jay scholars, he said, is what he’s most grateful for. “Lavinia was with me every step of the way as a guide: resourceful, wise and kind.

“She believed in me before I believed in myself,” Davis added. “Sometimes it’s the belief that others show in us that changes everything.”

The honorees, who were each introduced by a John Jay Scholar, spoke to the College’s wide-ranging influence in their lives.

“I arrived four years an immigrant, eager and impatient for my real life to begin,” said de la Cruz, who moved to the United States from the Philippines when she was 13. Now known for her work on the YA Descendants series, she drew connections between what she learned at Columbia and the characters, places and time periods she visits in her fiction.

“More than anything, what I [took] from my College education is confidence. The confidence that came from four years of having incredibly smart, interesting, discerning and critical people — my professors and my classmates — tell me that I was a great writer. So I had no choice but to believe them.”

Endelman was next to take the stage. A two-time captain of the men’s tennis team, he played professionally before trading his on-court career for that of a lawyer and business executive; he returned to Columbia as an associate coach in 2010 and became head coach of the men’s team in 2019. “My entire journey prepared me for this current role,” Endelman said. “Coaching has provided an opportunity to connect life experiences and relationships to hopefully have a positive impact on the lives of young people.”

As a student-athlete, he added, “I learned so much about resilience, toughness, how to overcome obstacles and embrace adversity. … At some point in my four years, I started to believe that I could accomplish anything as long as I had a burning desire and was willing to sacrifice and get out of my comfort zone. These are the same principles and values that we promote to our team every day. The players know we compete for something much bigger than ourselves.”

McGowan, who is also a professor of entrepreneurship, reflected on his experience with Lionsbridge, the career learning and exploration program that he founded two years ago at Columbia. Offered through the Center for Career Education, the program equips students with the basic skills required to enter the finance industry. “The student experience is more challenging for this generation, and helping Columbia students is something to rally around,” he said.

Addressing the alumni guests directly, he continued, “You are all exciting, interesting people with something to offer. Students want to hear your life learnings, mistakes made, observations on the world.” He credited the CCAA for offerings such as the Odyssey Mentoring Program, and urged alumni to dig deeper in their volunteerism: “We have over 18,000 College alumni in the five boroughs, 30,000 in the Tri-State area. Why can’t there be at least one of us on campus every day, talking, sharing, mentoring? That’s my wish tonight, to plant a seed in each one of you to get involved with our amazing students.”

The final honoree to the podium was Peet, who drew laughs for her candid account of her collegiate experiences as an actress. “I [auditioned] for about 25 plays and in all four years, never got a single part,” she said. “It was good for me to come to terms with this batting average. Hand delivering my headshots to agencies and casting people as a post-graduate in 1994, I was plenty used to rejection.”

Peet also shared memories of how, through her assignments, she discovered a love of writing that led to her penning her first play after 20 years performing on the stage and screen.

Referencing Eric Butler Jr. CC’26, who’d introduced her, Peet noted that he’d “mentioned that collaborating with and leaning on his fellow John Jay Scholars helps him recover when one of his projects isn’t working … I hope you all take that spirit of openness wherever you go and that you find a core group of friends whose feedback you trust and whose inclination is not to pull up the ladder if they’re lucky enough to get ahead of you,” she said.

The program closed with The Columbia Kingsmen.