The Low Down

The Columbia Career Coaches Network is a group of seasoned career professionals—and they're also your fellow alumni. Here, they weigh in on why it's incredibly valuable to work with a coach to better your career. 

BY FRANCIS CARR '18JRN

The Columbia community is large, diverse, and global. Connecting the Columbia diaspora so our community can connect and share their passions with one another was the motivation for the social storytelling platform, ColumbiaYou.

Inspiration for this program came to Louise Rosen '99JRN while poring over maps and intermittently staring out of her window. Through the glass she could see the Harlem River, and beyond it, the city's most famous piece of Columbia-inspired vandalism, the "C" rock in Spuyten Duyvil.

Last week, we heard from Professor Robert Young, an eminent humanities scholar, who gave a lecture last year at the Columbia Global Center in Amman. Professor Young recounted the story of Walter Benjamin, a German Jew who fled Nazi Germany but was caught at the border of France and Spain, where he resorted suicide rather than be sent back.

During the lecture, Professor Young played a clip from Casablanca, drawing parallels between the Hollywood story and the truth behind it. We did not have room to include his analysis in last week's episode, so we created a bonus mini-episode just for it.

Columbia Love Stories, an interesting scientific discovery, and lots of theater: this week's Low Down roundup: 

We went into the vault for today’s episode, all the way back to a lecture that Professor Robert Young gave last year at the Columbia Global Center in Amman. We chose this particular lecture because Professor Young offers a historical perspective on an issue facing today’s society: migration.

Did you know that more than 7,400 couples have met and found love through Columbia?

Some of you met during orientation, on a geology trip, at the bookstore, or in the weight room. Others call your extended family "one big Columbia love story" and say the University has a "permanent place in your heart."

Check out some of this year's submissions and then browse the full collection. Happy Valentine's Day!

By Michella Chiu '13GSAS of the Columbia Career Coaches Network

Whether your first "professional" job is important or not has been a prevalent debate, in which there are a multitude of answers and opinions. The sheer number of answer and opinions provided can be all right or all wrong. In reality, there are factors at play that are important and there are factors that are not. If you are a graduate fresh out of college, you need to judge what is important for you to consider with your first job and what is not vitally important.

Check out the latest from your Columbia alumni community:

Many know Kelly Killoren Bensimon '98GS as an author, trendsetter, model, and break out star on Bravo's The Real Housewives of New York City. Kelly has made a career reporting on fashion and style with her own insights gleaned from years spent in the fashion industry. With a refreshingly modern sensibility, Kelly translates trends and contemporary culture for the public, with a unique take that is fresh, playful, and accessible.

Earlier this year, Columbia University School of the Art's Film Program faculty James Schamus made his feature directorial debut for the film adaptation of Philip Roth's 2008 novel Indignation. 

Set in 1951 during the Korean War, the story follows Marcus Messner, a young Jewish student from Newark, NJ, who travels on a scholarship to a small conservative Ohio college to avoid the draft. But once there, Marcus's growing infatuation with his beautiful classmate Olivia Hutton, and his clashes with the college's Dean put his and his family's best laid plans to the ultimate test.