Although
General Studies has always been a popular destination for international
students, the last three or four years have seen a steady growth
in the number of foreign nationals or new Americans at GS. Currently,
about 24 percent of GS's student population comes from outside the
country. Dean Peter J. Awn attributes the continual increase in
part to University President George Rupp: in an attempt to fulfill
his vision of Columbia as the international University, Rupp has
placed an emphasis on GS's international role.
Besides the fact that GS uniquely offers a complete, welcoming place
to pursue an Ivy League undergraduate degree, Dean Awn cites several
reasons why international students flock here.
Awn says that
GS has always been regarded as an "entrée to an Ivy
League education for people who are economic and political immigrants
to the United States," and that the upheavals of recent years
in Eastern Europe, China, and the Soviet Union have caused many
highly motivated people to seek an education here. Also, for many
Israelis, who must perform military service and are not ready to
attend college until they are in their mid-20s, "GS provides
a much more congenial atmosphere than they might find at other colleges."
Because European
students specialize very early-some even in high school-the broad-based
American education offered at GS is an attractive alternative. They
learn to "speak on their feet, write well, and they have the
opportunity to gain exposure to a number of intellectual disciplines
before specializing." In addition, Awn explains, the flexibility
of the program is much more adaptable to people who have had prior
education in Europe and are six months to one year ahead of American
students when they graduate from high school. At GS they can receive
credit for some of this learning and get a top quality, thorough,
and diverse education much more quickly.
Other students,
he says, learn of GS while in attendance at the American Language
Program (ALP), the high-end ESL program headquartered in Lewisohn.
With a desire to integrate more fully into the University and American
culture, they pursue additional classes and find their ways to GS.
Dean Awn also
points out that GS has always been popular among students from the
arts. New York is an international entertainment capital and attracts
numerous artistically driven people who, after they have received
training in their desired artistic field, choose GS as the place
to go in order to round out their education with studies in the
humanities and sciences.
Ultimately,
Dean Awn says, "We are in the greatest international city in
the world," and it is only natural that international students
feel an affinity for GS. This affinity is highlighted by the fact
that international students are doing so well. The last three valedictorians
have all come from outside the country, and they all chose GS as
the place to excel.
ULRIC LEWEN
"I was on Columbia's campus, and all of a sudden it came to
me that I needed to go back and study." This is how Ulric Lewen,
valedictorian for the class of 1998, described his sudden decision
to return to college. Originally from Sweden, Ulric had studied
psychology at the University of Stockholm for a year before taking
a break in 1991 to study acting in New York at the Lee Strasberg
School. He had planned to return to Stockholm after nine months
to resume his studies. However, his plans changed in 1994, when
he was on the Columbia campus with Neurasia, a theatre group he
had started with friends. Neurasia was doing a staged reading of
a play about Strindberg at Deutsches Haus. Ulric was so certain
that he wanted to attend Columbia that he did not apply anywhere
else. After taking the entrance exam and writing what he felt was
"a lousy essay," he walked down Broadway and thought,
"God, what if they don't accept me? I don't have a backup plan."
However, when the play moved to Stockholm in September 1995, Ulric
did not. He was embarking on a new adventure at GS.
Ulric's hasty
decision was not without a certain degree of apprehension shared
by many adult students returning to college. "After I'd been
out of school for a couple years, I wasn't really sure I'd be able
to handle it again." Ulric handled it very well, graduating
at the top of his class and achieving the distinction of valedictorian,
which he describes as "a very foreign concept." According
to Ulric, students are not distinguished in this way in Sweden.
"We don't even receive letter grades until the seventh grade."
While Ulric
claims that the whole experience of the American university was
new to him, he says that attending college in one's mid-20s is very
typical of Swedish students, who often don't start college directly
after high school. Usually, he says, they spend some time working
or traveling, which allows them a period of self-exploration before
committing to a course of study. Ulric, who was 26 when he started
at GS, felt that his appreciation of college was enhanced by the
break he took. "What I felt at GS was really an interest and
love of learning that I never had so strongly before, just because
I took a long break."
He explains
why it was so much more gratifying to attend college as an older
student. "When I wrote the papers, I wanted it to be interesting
for me. I wasn't trying to please someone else any more. I was trying
to please myself. And I was maybe hard on myself sometimes. I can
be a perfectionist, but I wanted to get something out of school."
He also felt the fact that he was from another country helped him
enormously. "Without even trying automatically, I had a different
perspective already."
Like the majority
of GS students, Ulric was employed while in school. He worked in
a clothing store, taught Swedish classes at N.Y.U., and interned
at the U.N. Security Council for a summer. For a time, he continued
to produce plays, but soon felt that he had to wind that down as
it was difficult to produce only part-time and he wanted to focus
all his energy on what he described as the previously neglected
aspects of himself. "Doing theatre developed the intuitive
part of me, but I felt I lacked a more intellectual part of me."
He felt that Columbia was the ideal place to achieve this goal.
"I really loved Columbia, and I'm really grateful for my years
there. I was so hungry to develop that part of me. It was really
right for me."
Ulric found
ample intellectual stimulation in the core curriculum. "I really
wanted to take a broad spectrum. That's what I liked about GS. I
could take different classes and try things I hadn't tried before."
Political Science and International Relations had always interested
him and, after a year at GS, he chose Political Science as his major.
But, he says, "I also wanted to have some classes that were
completely different. I've always been interested in the more artistic
things, too. And I felt that at GS I could combine the two very
well." His high academic standing earned Ulric the privilege
of membership to the GS Honor Society, where he served on the steering
committee during its first year.
After graduating
in 1998, Ulric stayed in the neighborhood to attend the School of
International and Public Affairs [SIPA], where he spent two years
studying international economics. He had already gained exposure
to SIPA through taking Economics classes there while a student at
GS.
After finishing
at SIPA in May 2000, Ulric was hired at Credit Suisse First Boston,
where he wrote about economics for their Web site. However, after
just three months, his bank merged with another, and his department
was eliminated. Ulric managed to survive the new economic turbulence,
and stayed within the firm to work in the product-marketing group
where he currently puts together a daily economics publication.
Since his internship, Ulric had expected to work at the U.N., but
life is always full of surprises for him.
Of his future
plans, Ulric says, "I always thought I would take a Ph.D.,
and maybe I will one day. Right now, I am enjoying working life."
TREVOR LAIN
Trevor Lain and his family immigrated to Texas from South Africa
when he was 7. Trevor had a very specific goal in mind when he started
at GS in fall 1996. He had read about the new consortium that Columbia
had spearheaded and created in conjunction with other schools for
U.S. students who wanted to pursue studies in German within the
German university system. He had always dreamed of studying in Europe
in a full immersion course, and his eye was on Berlin, which he
describes as "an exciting place on the cusp of history."
Trevor first
grew interested in German Studies while a student at the University
of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was awarded a prestigious
Morehead scholarship. He spent two and a half years there, and "dabbled
in a lot of things," from the hard sciences to literature and
anthropology. "Ultimately, because of my interdisciplinary
interests, I was most interested in the German department. More
than most other departments in the humanities, the German Departments
in the 1990s were more open than other departments to ideas generated
by other disciplines and language fields-it suited my interdisciplinary
tastes."
But in the end,
college was not the right environment for Trevor in his early twenties.
"I had other priorities in mind, other avenues of development
and exploration that I considered primary." Trevor left school
and began to work. He worked in the retail food business and developed
an expertise in imported and "fine" foods, designing stores,
and in managing. The skills he learned during this time continue
to be useful and neatly complement the academic skills he has gained
from his studies. After about four years off, Trevor felt he had
progressed far enough in that field and desired to return to school.
He yearned for a more intellectual environment where he could rekindle
his academic passions and fulfill his dream of studying in Europe.
GS seemed the ideal place.
As soon as Trevor
began his studies at GS in 1996, he immediately plunged into learning
German. He profited from the openness of the German department,
studying in numerous related fields as part of his German Studies
Major. He says a more apt description of his major may be "continental
social theory from the first half of the twentieth century"-which
entailed studying philosophy, literature, theater, and social studies.
In his valedictory address, Trevor pointed out some discomforting
similarities between 1930s Germany and 1990s America, particularly
the ascendancy of aesthetic over moral judgment, and its detrimental
effect on the sense of communal interdependence.
Altogether,
Trevor spent four semesters in residence at GS-not including the
one semester he spent in Berlin. Trevor describes GS as "an
extraordinary meeting ground that brings diverse, talented, and-what
makes GS special-accomplished people together." While a student
here, Trevor worked at Deutsches Haus, where he took it upon himself
to make sure that a much-needed renovation happened. He attributes
this success to the skills he learned from working before returning
to school. Trevor was also goalie for the water polo team during
his first year. The team gained a berth at the national championships
in Chicago after finishing second in the state, and Trevor was named
as one of two goalies to the all-state team.
In spring 1998,
Trevor realized his dream of studying in Europe. He spent over a
semester in Berlin, where he said he "had the intellectual
experience I'd always wanted to have." At the Free University,
he took courses on modern sociological theory and the playwright
Bertolt Brecht. At the Humboldt University he took an experimental
seminar on political myths, which was the subject of the senior
thesis he completed in Berlin before returning to GS for his final
semester.
For Trevor,
graduating at the top of his class was "validation for a lot
of hard work. I never really pushed myself for the grades. I pushed
myself for the knowledge."
After graduating
in 1999, Trevor held a variety of positions while he considered
his next academic move: graduate school or law school. He did desktop
publishing at Columbia, taught for the Princeton Review, and used
his expertise to create the customer service division for www.BEVaccess.com-an
industry exchange for the alcohol and beverage industry. He enjoyed
the fast pace of working for an on-line company, as well as the
new and diverse range of theories and language he encountered there.
While working
there, he said he "realized that in order to cash in on my
work I needed to continue with school," so he decided to apply
to law school. He entered Yale Law School in the fall of 2000, and
is considering becoming a professor.
RICHARD ANTE
Richard Ante, valedictorian for the class of 2000, remembers Dean
Awn remarking that Richard had found his intellectual home at Columbia,
and Richard concurs: "I kind of felt that he hit the right
notes."
Originally from
Manila, Richard had been living in the United States for quite some
time when he applied to GS. He was working in Boston for a law firm
when he had an epiphany. He says, "I realized that my heart
wasn't in what I was doing. I wanted to pursue something that interested
me intellectually. Literature was always the field that interested
me. It just wasn't very practical when I was doing it the first
time round. I thought, I'm doing this really practical thing, so
why not do something that really interests me."
Richard, who
already had a B.A. in Economics from a university in the Philippines,
decided not to apply to graduate school because he lacked a background
in literature and spoke only English and Tagalog, the native language
of the Philippines. GS was the perfect solution for him, and he
was thrilled when he got in. According to Richard, who would one
day like to teach literature, "I felt that my life was really
missing something unless I did this thing, which at that time I
had a thirst for."
He started at
GS in 1997 as an English major, and took French to satisfy the language
requirement. However, after taking a French intro survey course,
he was hooked. He soon took more advanced classes, and made French
his minor. When he found himself taking more French classes than
English classes, he decided to switch his focus, making French his
major and taking English as a minor. Shortly afterwards he added
German to his repertoire of languages. The core curriculum was instrumental
in changing his course of study, and Richard maintains that the
core is especially beneficial for students in the humanities. "It
gave me a wider perspective of basically the same themes [that]
reappear in painting, music and literature. Having that interdisciplinary
perspective is very useful."
While at Columbia,
Richard worked in the Career Services office at the Law School.
He also read submissions one summer for Zoetrope All Story, the
literary magazine owned by Francis Ford Coppola.
Richard graduated
with a major in French and minors in both English literature and
German, and he won an award from the German Department. He is currently
studying French literature in a graduate program at Stanford, and
will be taking his comprehensive exams at the end of the year.
While he acknowledges
that both GS and Stanford have been good learning experiences, he
is aware that studying a language so far away from its native land
and culture is limiting. In sunny California, Richard says that
he has no opportunity whatsoever to speak either French or German
outside of the university setting. Richard has never been to France
or Germany, and is eager to hear the languages as they are spoken
on a day-to-day basis. He has tentative travel plans for this coming
September, and is considering spending a year abroad to study. Paris
is one destination under consideration, although he also finds Strasburg
and Switzerland appealing because they would put him in close proximity
to both languages. He has also been thinking about studying Spanish
for some time and remarked, "I just need to find more time
to do these things."
Richard said
he was really surprised when he learned he was valedictorian. "I
had no idea that I was even close." He says, "When I opened
the letter from the Dean, my jaw dropped and I just couldn't believe
it for days. Even after I had responded to Dean Awn and said I would
be happy to give the speech, I still couldn't believe it."
At graduation, he wanted to convey to the people in the audience
who his fellow students were and what GS was like. So he purposely
stayed away from big themes during his speech. Richard says that
he has "always been so impressed by the other GS students whom
I've met and studied with. And I always felt that it was important,
especially at the graduation, to stress that. The G.P.A. is really
just a number. Maybe there were other students just a few decimal
points behind me who could have easily given the same speech, maybe
even given a much better speech."
Of his fellow
graduating students, he said, "It's really my honor to be graduating
with them. These people have done the most wonderful things before
coming to Columbia-things that would impress anybody." He spoke
for his fellow students when he said, "Thank you to GS on behalf
of the class. We had the most wonderful experience educationally
and socially, and have something to cherish and remember."
