Chase Hensel, SEAS '10, has been selected as a 2010 Eben Tisdale Fellow.  The Eben Tisdale Fellowship offers outstanding opportunities for students to learn about high tech public policy issues with hands-on experience in Washington, D.C.

The Fellowship has two components: a full-time 8 week public policy internship with a high-tech company, firm or trade association, and weekly issues seminar lunches hosted by Tisdale sponsors. The Fellowship offers a $5,000 grant to students who are accepted.

The first of its kind, the Eben Tisdale Fellowship brings eligible students to Washington, D.C. for internships that explore current public policy issues of critical importance to the high technology sector of the economy. 

The goal of the Fellowship is to create a supportive and collegial environment in which a new class of public policy professionals will be mentored to help ensure that the high-tech industry continues to have highly capable and well-trained individuals in both policy advocacy and senior management positions.

Two recent Columbia alumni, Colin Felsman, CC'09, and Shira Milikowsky, School of Arts '07, have won the Luce Scholarship. This is the first time in over five years that Columbia has had two scholars in the same year.  The Luce Foundation describes the program as being “aimed at a group of highly qualified young Americans in a variety of professional fields. It is unique among American-Asian exchanges in that it is intended for young leaders who have had limited experience of Asia and who might not otherwise have an opportunity in the normal course of their careers to come to know Asia. The Program provides stipends, language training and individualized professional placement in Asia for fifteen to eighteen young Americans each year.”  While the award varies depending on placement, it can provide approximately $30,000 for the year.

Colin Felsman CC ’09 from Dulles, VA was a double major in Anthropology and Political Science.  Since graduation, he has been working at a non-profit development agency in Harare, Zimbabwe.  He will focus on entrepreneurial aid and development in Shanghai next year at the Non-Profit Incubator. 

Shira Milikowsky received her M.F.A in Directing from the School of the Arts in 2007.  Since graduation, she has been working on a number of theater projects in New York City, including the recent revival of Hair where she was an Assistant Director.  Her placement is still pending, but she hopes to be in either Tokyo or Seoul working with an arts company.

We have just learned that two Columbia students have won the Udall Scholarship.  This scholarship is the most prestigious award that can be given to an undergraduate in the field of Environmental Science.  Named in honor of Congressman Morris Udall, the award recognizes those students who have shown a deep commitment—through their scholarship and activism—to protecting the environment and who plan to become leaders in their chosen field.  The scholarship provides a grant of $5000 as well as the opportunity to attend a symposium in August that will allow them to meet and network with elected federal officials and leaders in environmental protection, public policy, and Native American and Tribal Affairs.

Hannah Perls is a junior from Weston, MA who is majoring in Environmental Science and pursuing a concentration in Sustainable Development.  She intends to become a climate scientist who will devise new and improved mechanisms to forecast how climate change affects water, agriculture, and human health.  She has worked in the past for Representative Ed Markey’s Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming.  She also represented Columbia at the Global Honors College at Waseda University in Tokyo last summer in the program’s pilot year.  She is currently studying abroad in Nepal.

Todd Nelson is a sophomore from Winston-Salem, NC who is pursuing a double major in Environmental Science and History. He envisions earning a Ph.D. in Environmental Public Health and then working as a policy advisor at the national level who will seek ways to decrease the public health risks associated with climate change.  Todd is a member of the Columbia Eco-Representatives, the Green Umbrella and is a member of Columbia’s Triathlon club team.

This is the first time that Columbia has ever had two Udall winners in the same year.