During their third meeting of the semester, CCSC met on Zoom to discuss a wide array of topics.

As usual, this week’s meeting began with E-board updates, which were followed by individual updates. Most notably, Class of 2025 President Mariam Hayat Jallow (CC ’25) shared that the first-year class council has planned a Euphoria watch party event scheduled for next Sunday, February 13 at 9 pm, in addition to a Valentine’s Day event. Class of 2025 VP Emily Mai Chmiel (CC’25) shared that the first-year class council has also been brainstorming ideas for a kickoff event for the peer mentoring program on campus, and breakfast for both mentors and mentees seemed to be the direction the event is heading as of now. University Senator Colby King (CC ‘23) shared that he was in attendance for the first Public Safety task force meeting, a new addition to CCSC’s already diversified list of task forces. 

The first item on the agenda had to do with Columbia’s Black Student Organization (BSO), and their Black History Month care package proposal. Race and Ethnicity representative Kwolanne Felix (CC ‘22) shared that the goal of the proposal is to make sure that Black students are able to foster events and spaces that will “promote self-care and historical remembrance”, and that care packages (for which materials would amount to a grand total of $1352.00), would be a valuable way to do so. A motion to vote was made on the proposal, and the council ultimately voted to approve it. 

Next on the agenda was the introduction of a Pre-Professional initiative spearheaded by Pre-Professional representative Anthony Adessa (CC ‘22) and Transfer Students representative Shelly Michael (CC ‘22). Adessa and Michael explained that the initiative is geared towards students who are looking to pursue a particular career path but don’t know how or where to get started. By filling out the “Columbia College Path Survey”, students with experience beyond Columbia can share the steps they took to get these opportunities.  Adessa shared that the initiative would be an excellent resource for students who want to go into finance, law, consulting, etc., but who do not want to or feel comfortable reaching out to a senior to ask their questions directly. Additionally, it was stated that Adessa and Michael would like to add a section on the CCSC website that students could go to to see the different career paths available post-graduation. Michael added that this initiative is also purposefully inclusive of transfer students, who sometimes have a particularly tough time adjusting, as they feel they may have missed out on internships or other opportunities because they were not enrolled at Columbia all four years. Adessa concluded by saying one of the main goals of the initiative is to demonstrate to students that finance and consulting are not the only post-graduate options for Columbia students and that they would like to encourage a wider range of options for career development. 

President Rads Mehta (CC ‘22) then transitioned the group to a “campus events group brainstorm” in which members were asked to come up with ideas for an off-campus event that might appeal to the broader student population. The meeting concluded with members going off into breakout rooms with their task forces to spend twenty minutes on updates and forty minutes on projects.

See you next week!

Lerner Ramps via Bwog Archives