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AROUND THE QUADS

Alumni Updates

Rachel Gibbons ’08, valedictorian at Mansfield (Mass.) High School, received the 2004–05 Columbia University Club of New England Scholarship Fund Award after the fund reached endowed status with a principal balance exceeding $100,000 in 2004. Gibbons is congratulated by CUCNE board member William C. Woo ’88.

O’BYRNE: Charles J. O’Byrne ’81 has been named director of press operations for the New York State Senate’s Democratic Committee. O’Byrne, who first joined the staff of Senate Democratic Leader David A. Patterson ’77 in August 2004 as a senior policy counsel, will be responsible for overseeing and coordinating press and communications efforts of the Minority Leader’s office and the Democratic Committee. O’Byrne, a past president of the Alumni Association, previously was policy director for the Dean for America campaign in New York and a speechwriter for Governor Howard Dean’s national campaign.

PACE: Jaye J. Pace ’00 co-created The Scholar, a six-episode reality series in which 10 high school students compete for a four-year scholarship to the school of their choice. The show premiered on June 6 on ABC. Pace worked in Columbia’s undergraduate Admissions Office while a student and after graduation before coming up with the idea for a reality show that would spotlight talented students competing in academic challenges and other exercises before a panel of judges. Two of the three judges are members of the undergraduate Admissions Office: Shawn Abbott and Peter Johnson.

QUARSHIE: Former football captain Michael Quarshie ’05 was not selected in the 2005 National Football League draft. But after spending two months playing for the Frankfurt Galaxy of NFL Europe in the spring, the two-time All-Ivy defensive tackle was signed to the Oakland Raiders’ practice squad in June. Quarshie, who was born in Helsinki, is one of eight foreign-born players who have been placed on NFL teams’ practice squads in the NFL’s international development practice squad program. Quarshie will be on the Raiders’ practice squad for the full season, training and practicing with the team and gaining valuable experience. He cannot be cut by the team, but he will not be eligible to play for the Raiders this season.

Transition

Taryn Deaton has joined the Alumni Affairs department as assistant director with primary responsibility for reunion programming. A graduate of Southwestern University with a B.A. in communications, Deaton spent six years with Texas Exes (the University of Texas Alumni Office), where she rose from student relations assistant to director of campus relations.

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