A Typical Day . . . COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY - SIPA Admissions Blog

A Typical Day . . . COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY - SIPA Admissions Blog I dont know that any day at SIPA is considered typical to me it seems like every day here is a major conference.   Every bill board in the building is plastered several layers deep with fliers promoting panels, events, and discussions of all sorts.   However, Anesa Diaz-Uda, a second-year MPA student, put the following together to describe a recent day in her life as a SIPA student . . . ______________________ I’ve been spending some time on the Message Board, and thought answering, “What’s a typical day like?” might be helpful.   Well, here’e my schedule from a recent Thursday: 8-11: Capstone Project My team and I went to the Mexican Consulate to meet with the Consulate General’s Chief-of-Staff.   We were welcomed, and then left the Mexican Consulate to visit the Guatemalan and Peruvian Consulates.   At each Consulate, we went over the various processes, services and products delivered, and met with each respective Consulate General.   It was a fast, but great fact finding mission.   Hopefull we can use the information garnered to offer a fuller comparative study for our final product. 12-2:   Lecture at SIPA with Stiglitz, Patnaik, Sundaran and Lin I’ve seen Stiglitz a few times, but always enjoy another opportunity to hear about his work.   Here’s a blurb from the website about the lecture I attended. The Continuing Financial Crisis: Perspectives from the North and the South Thursday, March 25, 2010, 12:00pm Davis Auditorium, the Schapiro Center This talk on Taking Stock of the Financial Crisis will feature Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Laurette and University Professor at Columbia University; Prabhat Patnaik, Professor of Economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi; and Jomo Kwame Sundaram, Founder and Chair of International Development Economics Associates and Board member of the United Nations Research Institute on Social Development, Geneva, and Justin Yifu Lin, Chief Economist and Senior Vice President of the World Bank. The Heyman Center always has great events, and here’s a link to this specific lecture, but will allow to jump to other resources and events. http://www.heymancenter.org/events.php?id=166 2-4: Management Seminar with Thoman This course meets once a week, has 16 students and is typically a round table discussion with Professor Rick Thoman (former Executive Officer at American Express, CFO at IBM CFO and most recently CEO of Xerox).   Professor Thoman also holds three graduate degrees from the Fletcher School at Tufts, so is familiar with the international affairs degree.   He offers keen and honest insight and advice, and it’s been a really enjoyable class.   The course is offered at SIPA, and is called “Managing the Global Corporation.”   Specific topics include: • Why have Global Companies developed? • What is the creative destruction model and why is it important? • What different models exist in this development? • What is corporate culture and why is it important? • Why is management talent so critical? • What are the future trends and issues facing global companies? • What are business models? How are they specified? 4-5:   Consult with Professor Thoman privately about my final class project, and then head home. 5-6: Walk my dog in Central Park. 6-8: Do some schoolwork while cooking dinner, and eat with my boyfriend. 8:30-10:30: Meet some girlfriends from SIPA to get ready for the SIPASA Spring Fling Party. 11-2: SIPASA Spring Fling Party at Cabana at Maritime Hotel.   It was a blast. Here’s a link to the hotel’s website: http://www.themaritimehotel.com/cabanas.html