Student programs at the Earth Institute help students across the campus to connect and engage with the scientists and the research they conduct at the Institute. In addition to having an exciting array of research assistant and internship programs, we host events and panels that illustrate the issues our researchers face. We also work with student groups to help host events and campaigns focused on the issues and research we at the Earth Institute are engaged in.
To learn more about how students can connect please check out the links below. Click here to see a full list of student groups involved with the Earth Institute. For more information or to sign up for regular announcements about EI student programs, please email Nathan Rudder at ei-students@ei.columbia.edu.
Mission: To bring a much-needed awareness to the Columbia community about scientific and technological issues of social relevancy.
Past Initiatives:
Current Initiatives:
In addition to our research fair, our biggest event this upcoming year is our most recent initiative, which is the BioBus project.
The Cell Motion BioBus was founded in August 2007 by Ben Dubin-Thaler, a 2007 graduate of Columbia University (Ph.D Cell Biophysics). He turned down many jobs and instead built this vehicle for “bringing hands-on science education to communities that rarely have such opportunities.” It is a moving science lab, geared with high-tech equipments, that has been a sort of a “Magic School Bus” for over 10,000 students a year in the New York City public schools and more.
SEBS would like to work with Dr. Ben in bringing BioBus on camps this upcoming spring and recruit about 100 volunteers to host New York City children for an adventure on BioBus!
Contact: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/sebs/
We hope to support our fellow classmates during our one year here at SIPA by providing options for outreach activities, networking events, and professional development opportunities. We would love to collaborate on any possible events related to the environmental realm, and want to provide as many resources as possible to our class through a speaker series which is currently being developed. We are also working with University Events Management to make SIPA events more sustainable by having re-usable dishes and utensils, as well as locally sourced products. We hope to hear from any individuals or groups that may want to work together in the future!
Contact: Co-presidents Olena Horcajo (olena.horcajo@gmail.com) and Roland Dillon (roland.dillon@gmail.com)
The SIPA Pan-African Network (SPAN) is a student group based in Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA). We are committed to the professional development of our members.
We seek to create an informal community of support and provide a platform for students interested in the economic, political, and social development of Africa and its Diaspora. We are an open membership group, and we represent SIPA students from a variety of interests and disciplines (economic and political development; human rights; economic policy; environmental policy; security policy; and media to name a few), as well as from a variety of ethnicities and countries from around the globe.
SPAN creates a vibrant community of support for students within SIPA and Columbia concerned with Africa and its Diaspora; organizes the annual flagship event the African Economic Forum held in the spring, exploring various themes in the economic, political and social development of Africa; coordinates speaker series, panels, conferences and exhibitions with renowned experts and practitioners to foster debate on economic, political and social issues pertinent to Africa and its Diaspora; ensures and shapes the presence of African Studies at Columbia through the Moving Africa Forward Initiative, by incorporating student voices in an on-going dialogue; works with the Columbia University administration to increase enrollment of students from Africa and the Diaspora at Columbia, and to improve the curriculum offerings for classes on Africa and its Diaspora; sponsors social and cultural activities, diversity awareness, and empowerment efforts around issues pertaining to and in celebration of the rich historical and cultural heritage of Africa and its Diaspora; and performs outreach efforts in the local community.
Contact: Samsudeen Amusa, President
The Green Umbrella is a network of environmental student groups on the Columbia and Barnard campuses. Representatives from each group come together to network and improve communication, collaborate on campaigns, attend conferences and summits, and meet with the Office of Environmental Stewardship and other administrators. The coordinators of the Green Umbrella connect people and projects, serve as a nexus for information distribution, compile a comprehensive weekly email with green events and opportunities on campus and beyond, and facilitate large, multi-group event planning. Groups in the Green Umbrella include EarthCo, Barnard EcoReps, Columbia EcoReps, Students for Environmental and Economic Justice, Food Sustainability Project, Columbia University Environmental Biology Society, Core Foods, Columbia Students for Animal Protection, Jewish Theological Seminary EcoReps, and Consilience.
Contacts: greenumbrella@columbia.edu
Website: www.cugreenumbrella.com
As a component of First-Year Focus, the ten student peer educators in the EcoReps Program head efforts to increase environmental awareness on campus, connect students and administrators, and reduce Barnard's negative environmental impacts. Opportunities provided by the EcoReps are specifically designed for first-year students living in the residence halls in order to influence decision-making during their transition to college with hopes that green living will become a permanent aspect of their lifestyle at Barnard and beyond. Monthly themes define residential programming and annual events such as Recyclemania, Green Move-in, Give + Go Green, and Local Foods Harvest Dinners at Hewitt Dining Hall. For the 2008-09 school year, the EcoReps will partner closely with the FYF Resident Assistants (RAs) on programming, planning, and informational signage, and act as a resource for ResLife and students on green living and other environmental topics. A new relationship between the EcoReps and the non-profit organization Rock and Wrap It Up will facilitate multiple Give + Go Green donation collections throughout the year. The EcoReps also work with ResLife, CAO, and other offices to decrease waste and source green products at campus-wide events.
Contact: ecoreps@barnard.edu
This program through Roxbury Farm (Kinderhook, NY) allows students and community members to purchase a share of the farm. Shareholders support this small, local NY farm and receive a delivery each week of a share of the harvest from that week at the farm. Columbia student coordinators take find shareholders, organize pick-up locations, etc.
Contact: Alison Powell (ap2365@barnard.edu) and Megan McNally (mm3073@barnard.edu)
A group of students working in partnership with Columbia’s department of Housing and Dining in order to make Columbia’s campus more environmentally sustainable. Their work entails publicizing available environmental services, serving as a bridge of communication between students and the administration, facilitating campus projects for a reduced university ecological footprint. This year Eco-Reps will be working on a Green Licensing Program for dorms/campus buildings as well as continuing work with campus recycling, energy consumption, and purchasing of organic/local foods.
Contact: ecoreps@columbia.edu
This group supports animal-friendly policies at Columbia University and throughout the world. People of all diets and opinions are welcome and encouraged to come to weekly meetings and attend events. Last year, CSAP ran a successful cage-free egg campaign in Columbia’s Dining Halls and organized a free Vegan Thanksgiving Dinner.
Contact: cuanimalprotection@gmail.com
CUEBS approaches the biosphere from an academic point of view and aims to to encourage environmental appreciation and education at all levels within the Columbia community. Their goals are to: network with other students, alumni, graduate students, and faculty interested in Environmental Biology; enrich the existing E3B and Environmental Science programs with events and trips that allow students to explore Environmental Biology outside of the classroom; and foster interest, education, and awareness in the Columbia community for Environmental Biology and, generally, the environment and its importance in our daily lives and our world. Their activities include film screenings, behind-the-scenes tours of the Aquarium, hikes, etc.
Contact: Eiren Jacobson (ekj2103@columbia.edu)
Consilience is a global online publication dedicated to promoting interdisciplinary dialogue on sustainable development. By providing a public platform for discussion, we hope to encourage a global community to think more broadly, thoroughly and analytically about sustainable development.
This publication aims to bring students, researchers, professors, and practitioners from a variety of disciplines and geographical regions in direct conversation with each other through an online, academically rigorous medium. The biannual journal features scholarly articles, opinion pieces, photo essays, and field notes, and editorial columns are published on a biweekly basis on the website.
We aim to encourage students to become involved in research: an invaluable problem-solving tool that has the power to transform unfocused passion into focused solutions. Consilience is designed to allow different disciplines to converse with each other in the high hopes that this cross-pollination of methodologies will spark ideas that ultimately lead to a higher quality of life for all people.
We are accepting submissions on a rolling basis. Please visit www.consiliencejournal.org or email contact@consiliencejournal.org
Core Foods is Columbia’s Student-Run Organic Food Co-op. Currently located in JJ’s Place, they focus on providing a wide selection of local and organic food right on Columbia’s campus.
Contact: corefoods@gmail.com
A Columbia/Barnard student coalition working to improve the local environment by promoting recycling on campus, organizing gardening and clean-ups in local parks, sponsoring environmental forums, and coordinating Earth Week activities on the Columbia campus. Earth Coalition also gets involved with local and national environmental issues with other environmental organizations, letter writing campaigns, and trips to environmental impact sites in the area. EarthCo promotes environmental consciousness through outreach and service to the community. Campaigns this year include Earth Tutors (teaching environmental education in a South Bronx elementary school), community gardening, and peer education about recycling.
Contacts: cuearthco@gmail.com
The Columbia University Food Sustainability Project (CUFSP) seeks to raise awareness of and access to sustainable food practices on campus and in the greater community. A main focus of our club is managing the campus community garden (where we grow veggies, fruits, and herbs) and running indoor/outdoor composting programs. We also have a vertical farming initiative (in students' dorms and demo in Lerner) set for this winter, potential beekeeping and chicken raising, and will be setting up drip irrigation/rainwater catchment this spring. In the effort to raise awareness and community building, we'll also be holding potluck movie nights and educational workshops throughout the winter.
Blog at http://gosustainable.blogspot.com.
Contact: Coordinator Kristina Gsell, ksg2116@columbia.edu
An environmental advocacy and action student group dedicated to changing the attitude and ways of the JTS community and infrastructure. While the administrative Green Committee will serve as the institutional support for greening JTS, the EcoReps will develop the agenda and implement the change. Goals include: working with Facilities to create an improved recycling system and to make the JTS buildings more energy efficient; collaborating with Dining Services to bring more sustainable food options and to reduce the amount of waste produced daily; and raising community awareness about the reduction of energy and water use, recycling practices, green purchasing, and ways to make Jewish living more sustainable.
Contact: ecoreps@jtsa.edu
Medical SEA is established to promote environmental awareness at the medical campus. We want to be the voice of students for environmental concerns. This organization is dedicated to reforming inadequate recycling policies, devising strategies to decrease waste and energy consumption, improving energy efficiency, educating students and faculty on environmental issues, and decreasing the ecological footprint at the Columbia University Medical Center.
Contact: Nidha Mubdi (nzm2103@columbia.edu) and Melda Uzun (msu2103@columbia.edu)
Students for Environmental & Economic Justice (SEEJ) is a Barnard and Columbia group dedicated to advancing ecological sustainability and labor rights. SEEJ is non-hierarchtical and operates by consensus, so new members can become involved immediately. Last year the group ran a campaign to encourage Columbia to purchase wind power, began working on a responsible purchasing code of conduct for the University, and launched an anti-bottled water initiative. This year they intend to continue these campaigns as well as pursue other projects that new members are interested in. Meeting are held every Tuesday night at 9:30pm in Earl Hall (Dodge Room).
Contact: seejasaurus@gmail.com
Graduate students interested in critically analyzing political, economic, social and developmental issues in the Arab World; promoting its culture, and enhancing opportunities for future cooperation. ASA aims to foster, promote and represent the Arab narrative while interacting and collaborating with academic, private and public organizations interested in the Arab World; and creating a space for dialogue among students, faculty, communities, organizations, corporations, governments and other actors interested or involved in the region. ASA welcomes students from all ethnicities, nationalities and backgrounds who are at SIPA; and we look to collaborate and build solidarity with other organizations on and off campus. We also encourage participation from other graduate schools, undergraduate students and the larger Columbia community.
Contact: Dana Kardoush (dkardoush@gmail.com)
GlobeMed is a network of university students which partner with grassroots organizations around the world to improve the health of people living in poverty. Through their involvement today, students become effective leaders in global health and social justice. We believe that undergraduates and communities can work in tandem to foster long-term relationships and collaborate on sustainable, locally-driven projects that better the health and well-being of people around the world.
The chapter at Columbia University partners with a women's rights organization in Gulu, Uganda called Gulu Women's Economic Development and Globalization (GWED-G) on various health and development initiatives. The 2010-2011 project with GWED-G takes a comprehensive approach to HIV/AIDS by incorporating not only HIV education for women and youth, but also maternal and reproductive health, prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV, economic empowerment and counseling for women, and advocacy.
For more information, please contact columbia@globemed.org and visit our blog: www.columbiaglobemed.wordpress.com.
The Roosevelt Institute is Columbia's student-run, progressive policy think-tank that holds weekly policy discussions and publishes an annual policy journal, The Columbia Roosevelt Review. The Roosevelt Institute's General Body meets weekly at 10pm on Tuesday's in Lerner Hall's Satow Room. For more information, feel free to email Eric Rosenberg, our Co-President, at egr2111@columbia.edu or email the Roosevelt Institute's Executive Board at roosevelteboard@columbia.edu.
The African Studies Working Group (ASWG) is a group of students committed to promoting awareness of challenges facing the state of education in Africa and the African Diaspora. ASWG is open to Teachers College community members with a personal, research, and/or professional interest in Africa and the African Diaspora. We are devoted to debate, dialogue, collaboration and social opportunities to build alliances for relevant education research and practice throughout the United States and abroad.
Contact: Matthew Thomas (mt1187@yahoo.com)
AI is a non-partisan, volunteer-driven, global organization which works towards the vision of a world in which every person enjoys all of the human rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and other international human rights standards.CUAI seeks to keep the Columbia community informed about human rights violations around the world and to promote student actions aimed at ending and preventing them. Our actions include letter-writing and petitioning, hosting speakers, showing relevant films, facilitating discussions, posting information around campus, building coalitions with other student groups, and fundraising through various events. This semester, CUAI's focus is on ending torture, war-on-terror related abuses, and child soldiers.
BCUPHS' mission is twofold: (1) to engage the undergraduate community in public health issues through education and service projects; (2) to provide pre-professional support for students interested in public health careers with medicine, academia, policy, or any other field. The group is made up of several task forces with the overall goal to address public health issues. These task forces include: Povertees Campaign and the Public Health Newsletter.
Contact: Alexis Wazenberg (adw2124@columbia.edu)
The Columbia Political Union, organized for and by the students and faculty of Columbia University, seeks to enhance involvement in the political process, domestic and international, and draw every member of the campus community into an ongoing discussion of political ideas. As a nonpartisan group, we collaborate with other groups on campus, working to incorporate all points of view and voices from a variety of political backgrounds.
Contact: cpu@cupolitics.org
Columbia Students for International Service (CSIS) is committed to promoting global service and global citizenship through international volunteer and internship experiences. CSIS works to articulate the importance of cross-cultural learning and exchange, citizen diplomacy, and the idea that service abroad is an essential duty shared by all humanity. Via its membership and group resources, CSIS strives to offer students support and insight into all aspects of international service as well as to encourage Columbia University to support experiential learning overseas as part of its goal of becoming a global university.
Contact: csis-eboard@columbia.edu
The Columbia University Partnership for International Development (CUPID) is a student-led effort across Columbia University to facilitate multidisciplinary dialogue, awareness, and action on international development. Recognizing the University’s excellence in this field, CUPID serves as a channel for individuals interested in international development to take advantage of the University’s wide-ranging human and institutional resources in their academic, extracurricular, and professional endeavors. Encouraging a collaborative spirit among students, professors, and alumni with diverse specialties, CUPID aims to explore and demonstrate how a multidisciplinary approach to international development can produce innovative, holistic solutions for disadvantaged populations.
The Energy Club is committed to educating Columbia Business School students about the energy industry, increasing awareness regarding career opportunities, and helping members take advantage of those opportunities. The Energy Club periodically hosts panel discussions and speakers on topics that are shaping the future of the energy industry. We also offer a symposium and speaker series each Spring. To assist our members in their job searches, we distribute a resume book for first- and second-year students and invite prospective employers to host on-campus presentations. Finally, we strive to create a network of students and alumni who are committed to working in the energy industry through the Columbia Business School Energy Network.
The Columbia University chapter of Engineers Without Borders aims to address the problems facing people both locally and abroad by leveraging the skills, talents and passions of Columbia University students and the partnerships formed with our organization. Our members come from all engineering and arts backgrounds, sharing the desire to do meaningful work in improving the lives of others through creative, sustainable, engineering solutions. We are currently working on three major projects in Ghana, India, and Uganda.
Contact: cu-ewb@columbia.edu
Columbia Law School's Environmental Law Society (ELS) is a student organization for law students concerned about environmental issues and/or interested in environmental careers. We actively pursue expansion of the environmental curriculum and promote improved environmental efforts by the Law School. ELS hosts events with top environmental law practitioners from the government, public interest groups, and private law firms. In addition to these panel discussions and informal lunches, we also host large-scale events, such as an Earth Day celebration and outdoor events such as hiking trips, park clean-ups, and tree-planting. ELS welcomes all interested new law students and offers ample opportunity to become involved at any level. We further welcome opportunities to work with other student groups across the University is addressing environmental law issues.
Please visit our website at: http://sites.google.com/site/clsenvlawsoc/
Contact: els@law.columbia.edu
Columbia Global Justice, the Columbia-Barnard chapter for the Student Global AIDS Campaign, is a student group dedicated to promoting health, human rights, and sustainable economic development globally by raising awareness, inspiring effective advocacy, and engendering student political will throughout the Columbia community.
Contact: globaljustice@columbia.edu
We are a part of the 501(c)3 non-profit Global Brigades, Inc., the world’s largest student-led global health and sustainable development organization. Working together, student volunteers and professionals aim to empower communities in Honduras and Panama with programs that improve quality of life while respecting local culture and improving the environment. We develop sustainable health initiatives and provide relief where there is limited access to healthcare.
Our mission is to encourage sustainability to the communities in Honduras through our Medical, Microfinance, Business, Public Health, Water, Dental, Environmental, and Law Brigades.
The Green Business Club engages students, the Columbia Business School community, and business leaders across industries on the intersection of business and sustainability. We believe organizations should operate sustainably, balancing economic, environmental, and social considerations. As such, we educate our members on emerging triple-bottom-line business issues and prepare them for careers related to sustainability. As a professional club, we connect students with employers through networking opportunities, career resources, and industry/alumni contacts in the private, for-profit, public, and non-profit sectors. In order to “walk the talk,” we also make it a priority to advocate and model sustainable practices in our own community through campus greening projects.
Contact: green-business-officers@bettyblue.gsb.columbia.edu
The Human Rights Working Group is comprised of three subcommittees: Human Rights in Practice, Events and Education and Curriculum. The Human Rights in Practice committee is working to inject practical elements into the SIPA human rights education, such as by creating opportunities to do volunteer work with HR orgs in the city during the school year and by preparing fieldtrips to human rights organizations in the area. The Events and Education committee is working to "educate to liberate." it is responsible for putting on panels, movies, brownbags, and other educational events. the group also has an outreach/ACTION component working toward engaging the SIPA human rights community with the broader Columbia and New York community through action and education, and by becoming a strong channel for dialogue, support, and activism. The Curriculum Committee is working on reshaping SIPA's human rights curriculum offerings. they are currently campaigning for a skills-based human rights course that would be a two-semester course, with a workshop component in the spring and a project placement in the summer (possibly modeled on the EPD or CR workshops).
Contacts: hrwg.sipa@gmail.com, Christen Dobson (cnd2109@columbia.edu), and Shannon Mullins (sjm2148@columbia.edu)
The goal of the group is to do everything related to microfinance. The group plans events such as featured speakers, career fairs, and workshops. Events planned for this year include a post-conflict microfinance workshop, an information session about microinsurance with Bear Sterns, as well as field trips throughout
The Global Medicine Group is an organization for premedical students interested in global health and social justice. The GMG is committed to promoting health and human rights among aspiring medical professionals. Through activism, education, and collaboration, the GMG hopes to contribute to humanitarian causes both globally and locally while helping members pursue their unique interests in international medicine.
Rightslink is a student-run human rights law research organization based at Columbia Law School. Leveraging the vast resources available to Columbia students, we provide free legal research services to human rights groups that lack the capacity or political freedom to conduct their own research. In turn, students interested in human rights gain the opportunity to contribute to research projects covering both domestic and international issues ranging from language discrimination to human trafficking. Working closely with the Human Rights Institute and the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), Rightslink also organizes academic and professional events throughout the year to foster a human rights community at the law school and connect students with human rights scholars and practitioners around New York.
Contact: rightslink@law.columbia.edu
The SIPA Energy Association is dedicated to complimenting the education of the International Energy Management and Policy concentration, connecting SIPA students with practitioners in the energy sector, and educating students about career opportunities in the field. SEA's activities include arranging visits to SIPA by actors in the private, nonprofit, and public sectors, as well as trips for students to see aspects of the energy industry in person. The organization aims to aid its members in finding jobs and internships within the energy sector while building a network of SIPA alumni working in the various facets of shaping the world's energy future.
Contact: sipaenergy@gmail.com
Our Vision: Our members use business acumen to address social, economic and environmental challenges.
Our Mission: The Social Enterprise Club is the home for all students at Columbia Business School who want to use business skills to create social, environmental and economic value within the private, public and nonprofit sectors. We:
Contact: Andrea Davila adavila11@gsb.columbia.edu
The Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) was founded in Los Angeles, California, in 1974 by a group of engineers employed by the City of Los Angeles. Their objective was to form a national organization of professional engineers to serve as role models in the Hispanic community.
SHPE promotes the development of Hispanics in engineering, science and other technical professions to achieve educational excellence, economic opportunity and social equity.
We will fulfill our mission by increasing educational opportunities, promoting professional and personal growth, carry out our social responsibility to be involved in education, business and government issues and enhancing pride within our organization and reinforcing our reputation as a vital Hispanic organization.
Contact: shpe@columbia.edu
The goal of SIE has been to promote an academic, professional, and social network for students and alumni/ae within the communities of Teachers College and Columbia University who share a special interest in the field of International Education Development, Comparative Education, and Human Rights. SIE also has a student-run Journal that is dedicated to publishing the scholarship of graduate students at Columbia and its affiliates.
Contacts:
President: Tara Eckberg tke2104@columbia.edu
Vice President: Alia Karim: ak2999@columbia.edu
Treasurer: Trixie Cordova ctc2118@columbia.edu
SustainUS is a national network of young people organizing around the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in their schools and communities. SustainUS is committed to increasing youth participation in sustainable development issues, demanding government accountability to its citizens and adherence to international agreements, and working with all stakeholders to establish sustainable development practices.
Contact: Sam Krevor (Sam@SustainUs.org)
WISC is an organization dedicated to the advancement of women and underrepresented minorities in the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields. We host various outreach events, including our popular Girls’ Science Day, to encourage more women to enter the STEM fields. We also work to support underrepresented minorities already in the STEM fields by hosting discussions, networking socials and happy hours.
Website: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/wisc/
2010-2011 Co-Chairs:
Lauren Aguilar, lja2106@columbia.edu
Brenda Rubenstein, rubenstein.brenda@gmail.com
Holly Wolcott, holly.wolcott@gmail.com
Contact: wisc.group@gmail.com
Columbia Law School's Society for Law, Science, and Technology (SLST) is a student organization that focuses on the interface between law and the fields of science and technology. We arrange lunches with professors of intellectual property (IP) law and host speakers and discussion groups covering topics ranging from patents to internet and telecommunications regulation.
SLST would like to develop relationships with those involved in various aspects of intellectual property at Columbia. To this end, we hope to partner with Technology Ventures and possibly the Business School to establish a program whereby law students would assist in obtaining IP protection for eligible work produced by the University's students and faculty.
Contact: richard.zemsky@law.columbia.edu
Website: http://blogs.law.columbia.edu/slst/
Students can also connect with nationwide campaigns to support the MDGs:
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