|
Dear EPD-ers,
Congratulations on completing the school year in such challenging and unprecedented times! We were so glad to return to in-person classes and events this year, but we know the continuing COVID-19 pandemic still caused many stresses in your lives. You showed remarkable flexibility and resilience, and we commend you for all you’ve accomplished, and for supporting each other along the way.
We know that continuing police violence against Black men and women, and violence and harassment against Asian-Americans and Asians, have only heightened the strains of the past year, especially for our BIPOC students. The Russian invasion of Ukraine is also having devastating impact well beyond Ukraine, and we commend Macire Aribot and other students who have been responding to the crisis in such impressive ways. We also thank all of our students involved in the Diversity Coalition and the DEICE Committee for their efforts to make SIPA a more diverse, equitable and inclusive community. We look forward to working with you to make EPD more inclusive, and are thrilled that Prof. Shawna Wakefield will return in the fall to teach her very popular course on Intersections of Race and Power in Development.
To our graduating students, we’re excited to celebrate with you at graduation on Sunday – we really enjoyed working with you over the past two years, and especially admire your professionalism and ingenuity in conducting most of your workshop and capstone projects remotely this spring. We wish you all the best in your next chapters, and hope you’ll stay in touch as our newest EPD alumni! To mark your time with EPD, we will be distributing a couple of graduation gifts this coming Monday, May 16 (see details below).
To our continuing students, we hope you all have healthy and enjoyable summers and look forward to seeing you back at SIPA in the fall. We were very impressed by the applications for the EPD summer internship stipend, and just wish we had more funds to allocate to more students. We’ll be communicating our decision to the applicants shortly. We also welcome your input on possible clients and projects for next year’s EPD capstone workshop (more on this below).
We’d like to extend special thanks to this year’s EPD program assistants, Will Gifford and Pooja Singh, for all of their help in organizing events, communicating with and supporting EPD students, and contributing in so many other ways to our team and to the EPD and SIPA communities. We’d also like to welcome our new EPD program assistants, Zoya Dhakam and Suhail Thandi, and look forward to working with them starting this fall – see more on Zoya and Suhail below.
The EPD team will continue to support you through the coming summer. We'll be available for remote office hours (see below), and will send updates, including on our STEM-related proposal as soon as we have news. In the meantime, check out this photo gallery from the past year's EPD events.
Again, congratulations on all you’ve accomplished this year. We hope you get some well-deserved rest and relaxation, and look forward to staying in touch.
Warm wishes,
José Antonio, Jenny and Ilona
This week's newsletter includes:
- EPD Survey - deadline extended to 5/15
- EPD Social to Celebrate Graduating Class of 2022
- EPD Graduation Gift Pick-up for Class of 2022
- Welcome to our new EPD Program Assistants
- Workshop Input from First-year Students
- Recordings: EPD Workshop Final Presentations
- Job Openings: 1) Deputy Agriculture Lead at 60 Decibels (impact measurement company founded by Acumen); 2) Digital Organizer/Community Manager with NYC Mayor's Public Engagement Unit
- Summer Office Hours
EPD Survey - deadline extended to May 15th
Please complete our EPD survey to let us know how we did this past year and what we can do better in the future. We have extended the deadline to Sunday, May 15th to boost the response rate. The results are highly valued and will be used by the EPD team to improve the EPD experience! The survey focuses on your overall EPD experience (EPD classes, activities, and other aspects of the EPD concentration). To access our survey, follow this link: https://sipacolumbia.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_bKkMfiId3uy4u0K. By completing our survey, you will have the option to be entered into a random drawing to win one of three $100 Columbia bookstore gift cards. Thanks!
Friday, May 13th: EPD Social to Celebrate Graduating Class of 2022
 EPD Social at Baylander
When: Friday, May 13, 2022
Time: 5:30 - 7:30 PM
Where: Baylander Steel Beach, 125th Street West Harlem Piers
Dress code: Nautical
Register on Campusgroups here.
Monday, May 16th: Gifts for EPD Graduates
Graduating EPDers can come to Ancell Plaza on Monday, May 16th between 11-1pm to pick up a gift! Ilona and Jenny will be stationed by the stairs at the SIPA entrance on Ancel Plaza (6th floor).
Welcome to our new EPD Program Assistants: Suhail Thandi and Zoya Dhakam
EPD is very pleased to welcome Suhail Thandi and Zoya Dhakam as the new Program Assistants for fall 2022! We're looking forward to working with you as we continue to support our EPD community.
 Suhail Thandi
Hometown: New Delhi, India
Concentration: EPD
Specialization: Management
Background: I'm a public policy generalist with four years of work experience in consulting and philanthropy. I worked with corporate clients in helping them develop public-sector projects that involve government agencies for about a year before I moved to the nonprofit sector to work in a philanthropic organization. I worked across themes of economic development (including public health, education, labor and industrialization, etc.), specifically looking at India and China and their development journey.
Fun fact: I can usually predict how a TV show or movie is going to go, where the twists and turns will be, and how it will end, much to the annoyance of the people watching with me. The only movie where I was completely off... Avengers Infinity Wars. That one I gotta say, surprised me.
 Zoya Dhakam
Hometown: Karachi, Pakistan
Concentration: EPD
Specialization: Management
Background: The majority of my professional experience has been in early childhood development, community engagement, and education in under-resourced areas of Pakistan. Currently, I am also leading SIPA-UNA and serving as a Youth Representative at the UN.
Fun Fact: I've authored around 20 children's storybooks in Urdu, and will continue to write more.
Workshop Input from First-year Students
Thanks to all the first-year students who completed our short workshop survey. This will help us gauge your interests in particular regions, topics and organizations as we start developing workshop projects for 2022-23.
Also feel free to email Jenny McGill (em419) or Ilona Vinklerova (iv2105) with any suggestions of potential workshop clients or projects. If you’d like to share information on the workshop with a potential client organization, here is a short background note and the program from this year’s final workshop presentations.
Recordings: EPD Workshop Final Presentations
(Note: the links will expire by the end of May)
Thursday 4/28 sessions:
Friday 4/29 sessions:
Job Openings:
1) Deputy Agriculture Lead at 60 Decibels (impact measurement company founded by Acumen)
60 Decibels is a company that specializes in impact measurement and was founded by the team that built Lean Data at Acumen. They are currently hiring a Deputy Agriculture Lead. An EPD alum who shared with us the position would be happy to connect interested students with the hiring manager. Feel free to reach out to Ilona (iv2105) to be connected.
Students are encouraged to check out additional openings at 60 Decibles posted here.
2) Digital Organizer/Community Manager at NYC Mayor's Public Engagement Unit
The NYC PEU is still seeking to hire a Digital Organizer/Community Manager who will use digital tools to engage and mobilize PEU staff, in order to expand our outreach to New Yorkers about critical benefits and resources. The Digital Organizer/Community Manager will need to devise an effective strategy for creating and managing inbound and outbound messages on platforms such as social media, Slack, and online forums and empower staff to take an active role in supporting the rollout of this strategy. International students are welcome to apply. This position was shared with us by SIPA alumna Kristen Grennan who will be on the other end of the Google Form that is linked above.
Summer EPD Office Hours
The EPD team will continue to be available to chat with students throughout the summer. Please email us to schedule an appointment and we'll be happy to set up a call with you.
José Antonio Ocampo, EPD Co-Director
jao2128@columbia.edu
Jenny McGill, EPD Co-Director and Workshop Director
em419@columbia.edu
Ilona Vinklerova, EPD Concentration Manager
iv2105@columbia.edu
|
