The Journey Begins
On April 9, 2018, Columbia College officially launched My Columbia College Journey, a new framework designed to encourage students to routinely reflect on and assess their ongoing personal development.
My Columbia College Journey grew out of faculty conversations during the 2015–2016 academic year, in the College Committee on Instruction, which identified a need for a shared language regarding all that students acquire during their time here, inside and outside of the classroom.
Read About the Launch Visit the Journey Website
We asked students at a College event to briefly explain what My Columbia College Journey means to them. You'll find some of their replies between the panels below.
Telling Their Story
Through the Journey, students will see how their experiences are becoming part of the narrative that they share about themselves and inform their plans for the future.
“When you enter these gates at College Walk, there becomes a tendency to introduce each other with certain facts about oneself, such as major, academic year, class schedule, residence hall or activity. But those singular facts are not just separate entities; they are all connected together … in a continuum that helps tell your story.”
Providing a Network of Support
Each choice our students make along their journey helps them grow personally, professionally and as a citizen of the world. Guiding students through these myriad choices is a network of Columbia College faculty, advisers, mentors and program coordinators.
Here are a few of the ways we supported our students on their Columbia College Journey during the 2017–2018 academic year:
Introducing Core Competencies
A few of our most significant areas of growth in the 2017–2018 academic year aligned with several of our Core Competencies — tools for self-reflection, self-assessment and ongoing personal development, within the My Columbia College Journey framework.
Wellness and Resilience
Columbia University established a partnership with the Jed Foundation (JED) to enhance student health and well-being efforts on campus. Fourteen strategic working groups were formed to improve student wellness.
Civic and Individual Responsibility
Named after former U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. ’73, LAW’76, the Eric H. Holder Jr. Initiative for Civil and Political Rights sponsors courses, public events, student internships and fellowships for practitioners that extend the themes and questions of the Core Curriculum into a more focused interrogation of the mechanisms that promote justice and civil and political rights.
Community Engagement and Inclusion
The Odyssey Mentoring Program connects community members in a dynamic and easy way for long-term mentoring relationships or short and informal connections. Alumni can use the community to network and make connections. Students and young alumni can use the community to get answers to questions, discuss challenges or opportunities, and exchange stories about the Columbia experience
Reflecting on the Year
Self-reflection is an essential part of My Columbia College Journey. Our goal isn’t just for students to develop skills, capacities and capabilities, but also to understand how they developed them, where they developed them and how the experiences fit in with their entire Columbia College journey and the journey they will take after Commencement.
“Taking that step into the discomforting realm of the unknown has truly helped me become a better person and has equipped me with personal tools to help me achieve my goals.”
Shanga Labossiere ’19
Global Programs – Student Stories
“I found that I personally thrived working alongside artists by helping them organize and collect their thoughts.”
Trinity Lester ’20
Center for Career Education – Student Experiences
“There are so many choices and paths one’s life can take while at the College… four years is not enough time to fully relish all that I could do at this institution.”
Nicole Valencia Tello ’18
Columbia to the Core
“In a world that continues to globalize at an unprecedented rate, learning about other cultures is a necessary and responsible thing to do.”
Trevor Menders ’18
My Columbia College Journey Reflections
Celebrating Our Milestones
Our students, faculty and alumni, and their innovative endeavors and accomplishments are at the heart of Columbia College. We celebrate a few highlights of their numerous achievements in the 2017–2018 academic year.
- The Class of 2021 will be the first to have My Columbia College Journey in place for all of their undergraduate years at Columbia.
- Academy-Award winning producer Dede Gardner named Class Day speaker
- Two College alumni elected to Columbia University Board of Trustees
- Nine Columbia College affiliates awarded 2018-2019 Fulbright U.S. Student grants
- Student awards for teaching and publishing awarded to Gareth Williams and Gauri Viswanathan
- Young Joon Kim ’20 and Arjun Srivatsa ’20 part of The Columbia Design Challenge winning team
More Awards and Honors Faculty Recognition & Awards Alumni in the News
Making the Journey Possible
Whether you volunteered your time or made a donation, you helped make the Journey possible. I am proud of all that you do, every day, to make this Columbia College experience unlike any other. Thank you for your commitment, for your expertise, for your dedication, for your support, for all that you do for Columbia College. Because of you, Columbia College is the greatest college in the greatest university in the greatest city in the world.
College Fund Volunteers
$1.52 million
1,584 gifts received as the result of peer-to-peer fundraising
Columbia Giving Day
$4.1 million
1st place for the 6th year in a row
Core to Commencement
$152 million
most raised in any year since campaign launch
Young Alumni Scholarship
500 gifts
from young alumni made a new scholarship possible