This year, a single Columbia junior will be selected as the Steamboat Summer Scholar and will have the unparalelled experience of interning at the Hospital of Special Surgery with Columbia alumnus and New York Mets team physician Dr. David Altchek. The Scholar will spend ten weeks in the summer of 2010 shadowing Dr. Altchek in clinical consultations and observing surgical procedures in the operating room, while contributing to a relevant independent clinical research project. The Steamboat Scholar will also receive a $12,000 financial award, participate in leadership-building events, and live and learn with the ten other Steamboat Scholars, all of whom hail from different universities and bring a range of perspectives and interests to the group.

The Summer Scholar Program underscores Steamboat Foundation’s aim: to build a lasting culture of leadership that emphasizes integrity, demands a rigorous work ethic, and encourages the kind of risk-taking that leaders must learn to assume. It is designed to be a rigorous and comprehensive experience, timed to impact young leaders at a formative moment in their professional and personal lives, preparing them to take on leadership roles at work and in their communities.

GRANT SPECIFICS: The Steamboat Foundation awards a $12,000 grant to the selected Steamboat Scholar recipient for the summer. The Scholar attends a two day orientation at the beginning of June with other Steamboat Scholars and attends Steamboat Scholar events such as, the opening reception at the Forbes Galleries, two to three Foundation Dinners with distinguished guests, five Leadership Evenings with facilitator Dr. Tom Inck and other social events in and around New York City. The Grant specifies that Scholars are housed together at the New School in Manhattan’s West Village during the internship period. Scholars submit a Final Essay and Evaluation at the close of the summer.

ELIGIBILITY: A candidate must be a third year undergraduate and have demonstrated financial need (Columbia financial aid recipient). If you are not receiving financial aid from Columbia but believe that you have other circumstances that would qualify you as financially needy, please submit a self-declaration of financial need. This statement will be required if the applicant is not receiving financial aid directly from Columbia. Only students from Columbia University will be considered for the Steamboat Scholar Placement at Hospital for Special Surgery.

The 2010 International Research and Education in Engineering (IREE) Program, sponsored by the National Science Foundation and organized by Purdue University, is now accepting applications for the 2010 grant cycle. IREE 2010 awardees will receive a stipend (US$4,000 for graduate students and US$3,000 for undergraduate students) to conduct engineering-related research in China from May - August 2010. Additionally, grant awardees will receive allowances for: an orientation program; travel to and housing/meals in China; plus a re-entry program. The 50 students (20 undergraduate and 30 graduate students) that receive the IREE award will spend 10-12 weeks working on frontier engineering research projects in university, industry, or government labs in China.

Applicants must be currently enrolled and in good academic standing as degree-seeking undergraduate OR graduate students at a U.S. institution of higher education. They must also be able to express both a demonstrated interest in a field of engineering related research, and a desire to work in China. Finally, strong preference will be given to United States citizens or nationals, or permanent residents of the United States. In addition, women, underrepresented groups, and students from schools with limited research opportunities are particularly encouraged to apply.

The IREE Program was initiated by the National Science Foundation (ENG/EEC) in 2006 to promote enhancement of global competency of 21st century engineering professionals, development of collaborations with engineering researchers abroad, and providing students with opportunities to experience the life and culture of a another country. It enables early-career researchers in the U.S. to gain international research experience and perspective. IREE also seeks to enhance U.S. innovation in both research and education, as well as enable connections between the research programs of NSF's divisions with the education of students.

View photos from the event.

Five accomplished College alumni were honored on March 3 at Cipriani 42nd Street in New York City with 2010 John Jay Awards for distinguished professional achievement.

Brian C. Krisberg '81, an attorney; Frank Lopez-Balboa '82 and Tracy V. Maitland '82, both from the finance sector; David Rosand '59, the Meyer Schapiro Professor of Art History; and Julia Stiles '05, a stage and film actress, were joined by alumni, faculty, students, family and friends at the black-tie event, which drew more than 600 attendees and raised more than $1 million for the John Jay Scholars Program.

Board of Trustees Chair William V. Campbell '62 welcomed the guests and introduced Columbia College Alumni Association President Geoffrey J. Colvin '74, who introduced and thanked the dinner's co-chairs. One of the co-chairs, Louis De Chiara '82, introduced the keynote speaker, Marit Perlman Shapiro '10, a John Jay Scholar, who spoke on behalf of all John Jay Scholars. Each of the honorees was later presented the award by a John Jay Scholar.

Shapiro, a Los Angeles native, spoke of how the Scholars Program has impacted her career choice. After working in a hospital in Madagascar "finding [herself] in a delivery room," she decided she wanted to be an obstetrician and plans to focus her work either in developing countries or inner cities in the United States. Columbia and the Scholars Program, Shapiro said, "taught me flexibility, taught me the value of continued learning, taught me the importance of service to my community and taught me to have enthusiasm."

Dean Michele Moody-Adams, attending her first John Jay Awards Dinner, addressed the attendees and thanked the honorees for "setting such stellar examples of all a Columbia College education will allow one to achieve." She quoted from a letter written in 1785 by John Jay [Class of 1764] about the importance of making a "proper degree of education" available to all and described the honorees as "people who have done extraordinary things with that 'proper degree of education' provided by this great institution."

The evening concluded with the Clefhangers singing  Sans Souci and Roar, Lion, Roar.

-Lisa Palladino; photo by Eileen Barroso

RISE is a summer internship program for undergraduate students from the United States, Canada and the UK in the fields of biology, chemistry, physics, earth sciences and engineering. It offers unique opportunities for undergraduate students to work with research groups at universities and top research institutions across Germany for a period of 1.5 to 3 months during the summer. RISE interns are matched with doctoral students whom they assist and who serve as their mentors. The working language will be English. All scholarship holders receive stipends from the DAAD to help cover living expenses, while partner universities and research institutes provide housing assistance.

RISE internships were first offered in 2005 to applicants from the US and Canada. Following the first intake of around 100 students in 2005, the number of participants has increased steadily. In 2009 as many as 364 candidates (out of 1,149 applicants) were awarded an internship. Due to its great success, the program has now been extended to the UK.

Rhodes Scholar Raphael Graybill, pictured here at the U.S. Capitol, where he worked as a summer associate for the Senate Finance Committee (Image credit: James Frisk) On Nov. 18th, Columbia College student Raphael Graybill '10 found out that he was selected as a 2010 Marshall Scholar. Just three days later, after two days of interviews in Seattle, he was told in person that he had been chosen to attend Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. Graybill is the second Columbia College student in two years to be selected for both the Rhodes and Marshall Scholarships.

Originally from Great Falls, Montana, Graybill has decided to accept the Rhodes Scholarship to pursue a master's degree in politics, focusing on political theory. He is particularly interested in understanding how media shapes opinion and political action.

"At Columbia, I've had great faculty and advisers who are deeply invested in their work-not only as it stands in the academy, but for how it engages with the world as well," said Graybill, who also credits his peers for the education he's gained both inside and outside the classroom. "It's a privilege everyday to get to attend class and engage with some of the most interesting, passionate and smart students out there."

In addition to his demanding academic schedule, the undergraduate is also captain of Columbia's ski and snowboarding team and serves as an auxiliary police officer with the New York Police Department's 26th Precinct. Once a week, he dons a uniform and patrols neighborhoods in Upper Manhattan.

His work on political and social issues is exhaustive: In 2008, he was the youngest member of Montana's delegation to the Democratic National Convention, and in 2009, he was a summer associate at the U.S. Senate Finance Committee's majority staff, working on health care reform. He has also worked for Senator Max Baucus's office in Washington D.C. on foreign policy, defense, intelligence and veterans' issues; held positions in the Democratic Party, including statewide field coordinator for an attorney general campaign; and worked as a staff aide for the Montana Democratic Party. He is also involved with the Lutheran World Relief foundation as a member of its President's Council.

"Raphael is a terrific leader, as well as a great student," said Michael Pippenger, associate dean of fellowship programs at Columbia College. "That he was awarded both the Rhodes and Marshall Scholarships is quite a feat and it speaks to the ways people recognize his commitment to public service and his potential for a very bright future."

The Marshall Scholarships were founded in 1953 to "commemorate the humane ideals of the Marshall Plan" and to "express the continuing gratitude of the British people to their American counterparts." This is the fourth year in a row that a Columbia student has been named a Marshall Scholar. Past scholars include Paul Sonne (CC'07), Emma Kaufman (CC'08) and Samuel Daly (CC'09).

Graybill joins 31 American men and women selected as Rhodes Scholars and will commence his studies at Oxford in October 2010. Rhodes Scholarships provide all expenses for two or three years of study, and may allow funding in some instances for four years. The scholarship was created in 1902 by the will of Cecil Rhodes, British philanthropist and African colonial pioneer. The first class of American Rhodes Scholars entered Oxford in 1904. Past Rhodes Scholarship recipients from Columbia include Jisung Park (CC'09) and Jason Bello (CC'08).