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).

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Conrad H. Lung '72 received the Alexander Hamilton Medal, the highest honor paid to a member of the Columbia College family, at a black-tie dinner in Low Rotunda on November 19. The medal is awarded annually by the Columbia College Alumni Association to an alumnus/a or faculty member for distinguished service to the College and accomplishment in any field of endeavor.

Lung, who was born in Canton, China, recalled receiving a thin letter from Columbia when he was 18, which he surmised to be a rejection of his application for admission. "I do not remember so much the joy, but the utter disbelief and incomprehension," he said, upon learning he had been accepted and offered a scholarship and campus job that would enable him to attend. He described the Core Curriculum as "a life-transforming experience" and referred to Homer's Odyssey in speaking about his journey from an impoverished youth in China to business success in America. Speaking of Homer's hero, Lung said, "Instead of being hopelessly lost, he found himself at his destination, a different man."

President Lee C. Bollinger was joined by Dean of the College Michele Moody-Adams and Columbia College Alumni Association President Geoffrey J. Colvin '74 in presenting Lung with the medal. "You have always been a pioneer, a leader rather than a follower," Bollinger said, noting that Lung was the first Columbian of Asian descent to be presented with the medal since Wellington Koo (Class of 1909) in 1949, three years after its inception. "You saw a world that was changing long before globalization became a mantra for all of us, and you lobbied for Columbia College to become more and more involved in Asia," Bollinger said.

Moody-Adams praised Lung's commitment to "racial, ethnic and socio-economic diversity" at the College, as well as his ongoing "desire to connect students with alumni." Lung is one of the founders of the Asian Columbia Alumni/ae Association and was the group's first president, and, along with other alumni, assisted in the founding of the Columbia Club in Singapore and improved the link between Columbia and various Columbia Clubs in Asia.

Lung's family has become very much a part of the Columbia family. Lung spoke of how his two sisters followed him to New York and enrolled at Barnard, and his brother came to the College. It was while at Columbia that he met his "best friend of 39 years, and my wife of 35 of those years," Yin Yee Lung '74 Barnard. The couple has three children: Jennifer '01E, '08 P&S; Stephanie '04 and Jonathan '05E.

Stephanie Lung, who is president of Columbia College Young Alumni, delivered welcoming remarks and held up before the crowd of approximately 400 alumni, students, parents, faculty, administrators and friends in Low Rotunda her father's copy The Iliad that he had given her upon her acceptance. She drew a laugh when she told of how he had bet that she could not match his GPA, and that four years later, "I was very happy to parade, in his face, my higher GPA." Lung, who spoke afterward, attributed the difference to grade inflation but noted with pride, "Stephanie used to say that she was known at Columbia as Conrad Lung's daughter. Now, I'm known as Stephanie's father."

Lung majored in Oriental studies at the College, then earned a master's and an M.Phil. at Yale, where he taught briefly and was a tutor. In 1977, Lung was hired by a Hong Kong apparel manufacturer to start a marketing operation in New York, Wrightfox International, which was acquired by Jordache Jeans in 1979. He moved to Maurice Sassoon Jeans as v.p. of operations and in 1981 was hired by New York Jean Co. as e.v.p. in charge of merchandising and marketing.

Lung co-founded Sunnex, Inc., a manufacturer and wholesaler of women's career clothing that develops and markets five brands in the United States, Canada, Latin America, Europe and China, in 1985. The next year, he co-founded Sun On-Sunnex International Holding Corp. in Hong Kong as a buying office for Sunnex. In 1987, Lung co-founded China Silk Enterprise Ltd., which operates manufacturing facilities in the People's Republic of China. In 1992, he co-founded Sun On Trust, a not-for-profit organization that performs charitable work in China.

In 2003, Lung sold Sunnex and its related companies to various Asia investors, and in 2004 he participated, with a group of Asia investors and two College alumni, in a leveraged buy-out of Mudd Jeans in New York. Lung then became its president. In the same year, he co-founded, with a group of College alumni, a consulting and boutique investment banking firm, Ivy Capital Management LLC, as well as a brand management and marketing firm, Collegiate Brand Management Group, both based in New York.

Lung has been extensively involved with the College and alumni affairs. He serves the College as a member of the Alumni Association Board of Directors and as an emeritus member of the Board of Visitors. The College honored him for his distinguished professional achievements with a 2002 John Jay Award.

Alex Sachare '71 and Lisa Palladino

Columbia College alumni have a new place to call home.

The newly opened Columbia Alumni Center on W. 113th Street offers Columbia's growing alumni community access to University resources and a healthy dose of hospitality.

Alumni visiting Columbia's Morningside Heights campus can stop by the Center's first-floor welcome center to catch up on the latest University news, check e-mail, explore alumni benefits, peruse a yearbook or just have a cup of coffee.

The welcome center has been designed specifically for alumni use, and includes a lounge, library, seminar room and courtesy office. It's an ideal place to meet with fellow Columbians, or to enjoy a quiet moment while visiting campus.

The Columbia Alumni Center also houses the University's Office of Alumni and Development and the Columbia College Office of Alumni Affairs and Development, including Columbia magazine and Columbia College Today.

For more information, contact welcomecenter@columbia.edu.

Columbia Alumni Center
622 West 113th Street (Between Broadway and Riverside Drive)
New York, NY 10025
Telephone: 212-851-7398

Hours:

Approximately 500 students and donors - including alumni, parents, family members and friends of the College - attended the Dean's Scholarship Reception on November 4 in Roone Arledge Auditorium in Alfred Lerner Hall. The festive annual event provides an opportunity for scholarship donors and student recipients to meet and chat in a casual setting.

Dean Michele Moody-Adams, hosting her first Scholarship Reception, thanked the donors for their generosity and loyalty, especially in hard economic times, and met with many of them personally. On behalf of the scholarship recipients, Veronica Colon '10, the Packer-Bayliss Scholar, spoke eloquently about the impact the donors' generosity had on her, saying she never would have been able to fulfill a lifelong dream and attend the College without that support. Dan Dolgin '74, '77L delivered heartfelt remarks from the perspective of an alumnus about the ways in which the education he received at the College had shaped his life and his career. Dean of Alumni Affairs and Development Derek Wittner '65 gave welcoming remarks, noting the "unfiltered nature" of an event that gives scholarship donors and the beneficiaries of their generosity an opportunity to meet face-to-face and perhaps establish lasting bonds.

Alex Sachare '71