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Testimonials
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Booz Allen Hamilton
“I think the students were all great: a wide variety of backgrounds but tremendous dedication across the board, which showed in the final presentation and client deliverable. A very impressive team - hopefully we can hire a few for Booz Allen one of these days!”
Jason A. Kemp
Senior Associate
Strategy and Organization
Booz | Allen | Hamilton
Congressional Research Services
“The opportunity to participate in a Capstone workshop played a key role in helping me choose Columbia SIPA over other graduate programs I was accepted to. Through my Capstone workshop I developed practical skills and "real-world" experience in conducting research, presenting information and client management. Ultimately, my Capstone experience provided me with the opportunity to not only investigate a timely and complicated policy issue but also to develop and enhance the skills employers of policy school graduates are looking for.”
Jose E. Guardado
U.S. Congressional Research Services Capstone Team Participant
SIPA Master of Public Administration Degree Candidate, 2012
Citigroup, Institutional Clients Group
“I would like to personally thank each and every one of the Citi Capstone participants, the expert guidance of Professor Janow, and the direction from Ayumi Ozeki for a terrific presentation on Basel III last Friday. It was highly professional, very well thought-out, thought-provoking and very interesting. The team collectively did a terrific job, and we are very pleased with the academic and professional quality of your thinking and presentation. Many thanks.”
Cheryl Rathbun
Managing Director, Chief Operating Officer
Citi, ICG Risk Management
Global Financial Integrity
"Very good report that can be used by our organization and by other advocacy groups. I am proud of what the Columbia Graduate students were able to deliver."
Krishen Mehta
Advisory Board Co-Chair
Global Financial Integrity
Grace Institute
“We were so happy with Tanya Domi and the SIPA students. They were so great to work with, and they did a terrific job. The report is wonderful; it generated many new ideas for us. We are very grateful for the opportunity that was afforded us. It was a great experience for the whole staff and has everyone really thinking. Having outsiders look at your program in a fresh, new, unbiased way helps to keep us up on our game.”
Mary B. Mulvihill
Executive Director
Grace Institute
Human Rights Watch
“SIPA’s Capstone workshop was a challenging yet rewarding experience. It was an excellent practical experience, where I was able to apply the skills that I learned in the classroom to a real-world issue. As the team leader of my team’s Capstone project, my main duty was to be the central communicator between our client, our faculty advisor and the team. Through this role, I formed a good relationship with our client contact, Antonio Ginatta, the Advocacy Director for the U.S. Program at Human Rights Watch. I am now doing a policy field practicum at Human Rights Watch and working on human rights issues related to long-term resident unauthorized immigrant youth. I love the work that I am doing and am happy to be contributing to Human Rights Watch after the Capstone workshop.”
Paola Medina
Human Rights Watch Capstone Team Participant
Master of Public Administration and Master of Science in Social Work Degree Candidate, 2012
Institute for Defense Analyses
"We greatly enjoyed working with SIPA and the students on this project. The product is relevant and timely to our work and will get used by several research teams."
Mark Tillman
Research Staff Member
Institute for Defense Analyses
International Labour Organization (ILO)
“[…] Thank you again for an excellent presentation full of great ideas and information. You have certainly gone above and beyond my expectations on this project. Our Director was very pleased with the quality of your creative ideas as well as the depth of the information you presented. As she is a former Minister, I take this as a top grade, at least as far as the ILO is concerned. You have given me quite a lot to work with as we move from this point forward to operationalising your insightful work. Bravo. […] Thanks for helping us work towards this goal and being part of our extended family. Now go change the world for the better. Best wishes and bon courage.”
Kevin Cassidy
Communications and External Relations
International Labour Organization, Office for the United Nations
New York City Economic Development Corporation
"Overall, the project was well organized. We have been very impressed by the depth of the students' analysis. The oral presentations were excellent: clear, evidence-driven, the right level of details."
Erica Chan
Strategic Planning Department
New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC)
Open Society Foundations
"Team did a great job pulling together a lot of information on a challenging subject. The quality of the report speaks to the excellent research and writing skills of individual members and ability of the team to work efficiently together."
Cornelius Graubner
Program Officer
Central Eurasia Project
Open Society Foundations
Planned Parenthood Federation of America
"The team members seemed impressively motivated and self-organized. They were so engaged with the issue area with such thoughtful questions that it was a pleasure to link them with other experts in the field. And they rolled with the inevitable difficulties of arranging a field mission."
Vanessa Brocato, JD
Senior Advisor Global Advocacy
Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA)
RAND Corporation
"The Defense Security Co-operation Agency (DSCA) has read the study from cover-to-cover and finds it very useful. This is not to be taken lightly. We can develop strategy, declare intent, etc. but at the end of the day, someone has to implement the policy. Someone has to decide what countries to engage with and what programs to sponsor -- and then send capable teams out to do the work. This is what DSCA does. […] That said, the team's work is having a direct impact on U.S. efforts in this field. I'd call this quite a success story […] Well done once again to you and to the team."
Dr. Stuart Johnson
Senior Research Analyst
RAND Corporation
Solar One
"The team members did an incredible job working on this project. They were extremely professional, they did well interviewing schools staff and interviewing Department of Education staff as well. The team was patient and was able to work around our schedules. They were flexible, and the evaluations & research the conducted were incredibly well done."
Christopher Collins
Executive Director
Solar One
United States Department of Defense, Health Affairs
“Exceptionally bright and impressive students (as always). They were interested and engaged; the report was well-written and went into depth on several key issues.”
Rachel C. Foster, FACHE
Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense, Health Budgets and Financial Policy
United States Department of Defense, Health Affairs
United States Department of State
“The group did an impressive job of presenting, explaining and defending (!) a complex and well-considered approach on Kirkuk, and I appreciated the chance to hear and discuss it. Your students deserve immense credit for such a well-researched and carefully formulated proposal. In addition to their vital background work on the issue itself, the students should now be able to appreciate more clearly that the policy making process involves squaring circles and cutting Gordian knots in Washington, on top of the Herculean task of coming to grips with the issue itself.”
Alan Misenheimer
Senior Advisor to Ambassador Christopher Hill for Northern Iraq
United States State Department
United States Treasury Department
“Thank you to the Capstone team for the report and the excellent presentation delivered during your visit to Treasury last week. In my personal opinion the hard work devoted to your research, and the creativity the students showed in approaching the topic, resulted in an enlightening study that shed light on important issues in a market that does not lend itself to easily obtainable data. I think I also speak for my colleagues in saying it was a pleasure interacting with such a professional group -- you surely have bright futures ahead of you, and we wish you all the best in your respective endeavors post-SIPA.”
Albert Lee
United States Department of the Treasury, Markets Room
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
“The workshop was organized very well. We are also very pleased with the quality of the final report delivered, both from the substantive side, as well as in regard to its attention to detail in terms of style and layout. The report shows that the students have very well understood a very complicated issue of knowledge management in a very complex organization such as UNDP. And they have done it in a very short time. I’m particularly impressed with the students’ analytical skills evident in the findings and recommendations. These will be quite important for us in the near future as we are moving to a new knowledge management environment that makes use of social networking in addition to existing tools.”
Renata Nowak-Garmer
Research Analyst
Poverty Reduction Network, Bureau for Development Policy
United Nations Development Programme
Women's Refugee Commission
“[Professor Roy Williams], I haven’t thanked you properly for the very successful student project on data. Dale and I were very pleased with the results and have shared them with a number of people. The students did a very good job. Dale and our director of development also met with the MacArthur Foundation—the program officer there was surprised by what the report showed, and interested in helping. So, you never know, we may even get some funding to take the issue forward.”
Carolyn Makinson
Director
Women’s Refugee Commission