Extracurricular

ReliefMap: A 21st Century Approach to Disaster Response

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This weekend I participated in the National Invitational Public Policy Challenge, hosted by the Fels Institute of Government in Philadelphia. Nine teams from across the country were selected to participate. I, along with my teammates Lakshmi Balachandran, Seisei Tatebe-Goddu, and Eric Smyth, had the honor of being the first team from Columbia’s School of International Public Affairs to participate in the annual competition.

Our idea is a disaster relief platform called ReliefMap meant to help facilitate the matching of citizens’ needs to disaster relief organizations after a natural disaster like Hurricane Sandy. You can read our full proposal here.

While our team didn’t make it through to the second round, it was a valuable experience that raised the profile of the idea, which if implemented would greatly benefit the City and its inhabitants WHEN the next disaster strikes. The other teams had very interesting and well-thought-out ideas, some of which were already at the pilot phase. I can’t help but wonder what might have happened had we had a little more time to develop the idea and reach out to key stakeholders in New York City government.

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Knowing when not to say “no”

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View of Manhattan from Brooklyn...it's not all work.

View of Manhattan from Brooklyn…it’s not all work.

Last semester I took only four classes and had few extracurricular activities, but that was more than enough. Endless group project meetings and Stats/Econ problem sets kept me beyond busy and struggling to keep my head above water. You would think that when planning my activities for this semester I would have taken into account my trials and tribulations from last semester and paired back my responsibilities. I did the opposite.

I kept my course load to 13 credit-hours, but instead of one massive semester-long project (Sustainable New York City ) I now have two (Business Plan Social Enterprise in Senegal; Implementation Plan for Scaling Up Community Health Workers in Mozambique). I am now the president of the New Media Task Force, a student organization whose mission is to educate SIPA students about the importance new media for international development. I took a part-time work-study job with the Earth Institute managing the social media for the Millennium Villages Project. Oh, and I joined a group of students selected (from 8-15 other student groups*) to represent Columbia at the National Invitational Public Policy Challenge. The competition is the weekend before spring break in Philadelphia and a 10-15 page proposal (I should probably be writing that instead of writing this blog post…positive procrastination?) is due on Monday.

Despite the workload, I’m having a blast. Still, I’m looking forward to an uneventful spring break (after the Public Policy Challenge, of course) and the long bike ride I plan to take on March 18…eight days and counting.

*Don’t ask.

mDATA: New Media Taskforce app competition submission

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I, along with two of my colleagues at SIPA (Ashish and Swami), submitted the following application to the New Media Taskforce’s first mobile app competition. Today, we had the chance to present our idea in front of an expert panel. There was some stiff competition and, unfortunately, we did not make the top three, but I’m encouraged by the positive feedback that we got…If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.

Feel free to take a look at our submission and let me know what you think in the comments section below. Also, check out the blog post I wrote (and didn’t immediately publish) that was the genesis of this idea.

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I won the lottery

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Last week I won the lottery. No, I’m not a multi-million dollar Powerball winner. I won the opportunity to see former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan speak at Columbia University.

Secretary General Kofi Annan at SIPA

Secretary General Kofi Annan Speaks at Columbia’s School of International Public Affairs

The discussion ranged from the UN’s failure to prevent the Rwandan genocide – which Secretary Annan blamed on a lack of international political will following the “Blackhawk Down” incident in Somalia – to the current crisis in Syria.

Annan briefly touched on his resignation as UN special peace envoy to Syria, blaming UN’s failure to broker peace on the international community’s failure to close ranks against the Assad regime (specifically blaming China and Russia’s intransigence). Annan mentioned his successful mission to Kenya as an example of what the international community can accomplish when it speaks with one voice. As chief negotiator in 2008, he successfully brokered a deal between President Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga to form a coalition government. Still, I can’t help but wonder if Annan was the best choice in Syria given the context. Simply put, Annan is not a muslim and does not carry the same authority in the Middle East as he does in Africa.

What are your thoughts on this? Let me know in the comments section below.

Participating in this event was an amazing opportunity that I doubt I would have had at any other school. That said, I was so drained from my statistics midterm the day before that Annan’s quiet and monotonous voice nearly put me to sleep during his opening remarks. Note to self: drink more coffee.