Greeting fellow bloggers. My name is Aurea Riboroso and I
will be attending the American Presidential Power at Home and Abroad: From
George Washington to Barack Obama course at Columbia University this 2012
summer. My motive behind applying for this course stemmed from my interest in
social science. After realizing my appeal to social science from my AP U.S.
History class, I was immediately drawn to the course. The fact that it will be
held at Columbia University, a potential university on my application list, is
an added bonus.
The reason I am able to attend the program is due to an
organization known as the Ivy League Connection. The Ivy League Connection,
also known as the ILC, provides students of the West Contra Costa Unified
School District with opportunities to attend a summer program operated at an
Ivy League university. With all expenses paid, students are able to further
their education at an East Coast university while exploring and learning about
themselves and their surroundings. Upon my return, I plan to use my experience
at Columbia University to encourage younger students to challenge themselves by
applying for the ILC. The depiction of college as the “hardest four years of
one’s life” is a stereotype I’d like to break to encourage others to go to
college and enrich their lives for a better and brighter future. And for those
who plan on going to college, I intend to have them rethink about their college
choices and inspire them to apply for more stimulating schools, such as an Ivy
League university.
The Presidential Power class is a three week summer course
at Columbia University instructed by Martha Zebrowski who has taught at
Columbia’s Department of Political Science for about twenty years. The class is
a research, writing, and discussion seminar on the development and
transformation of presidential power in the U. S. constitutional and political
system. Due to limited class space, students are given individual attention.
The course is an enriching college level social science and humanities class
teaching students research and writing techniques.
Columbia University is a private Ivy League university located
in exciting New York City, New York. Originally settled on Park Place, the
institution has migrated to Forty-ninth street and Madison Avenue and now
resides at its current location at Morningside Heights on 116th
Street and Broadway. The university encompasses six blocks of New York City,
roughly thirty-two acres and houses about twenty-eight thousand students. The
school was initially named King’s College when founded in 1754 by royal charter
of King George II of England. After the Revolutionary War, the name was changed
to Columbia College and has expanded to Columbia University. Columbia
University is the oldest university in the state of New York and the fifth
oldest in the nation.
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| Columbia University |
Columbia University has twenty-one different schools ranging
from architecture to journalism. Undergraduate students must follow the Core
Curriculum, a set of common courses deemed the necessary general education for
students, regardless of major. The
classes include Contemporary Civilization, Literature Humanities, University
Writing, Art Humanities, Music Humanities, and Frontiers of Science. Home of the Lions, Columbia participates in the NCAA Division I league in twenty-nine varisty sports.
If given the opportunity to study at Columbia University for
college, I would be most interested in the Fu Foundation School of Engineering
and Applied Science. Building has always fascinated me, even as a child, so
engineering seemed the perfect choice as my intended major. Columbia ranks as
the fifteenth best engineering school in the nation. The university offers
civil engineering, a major dealing with the planning, design, construction, and
maintenance of structures and the infrastructure. The construction of essential
foundations in society, such as bridges, highways, and power plants, are headed
by civil engineers.
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| Prisdent Obama, a Columbia Alumni |
With an acceptance rate of about six percent for undergraduate
studies, it’s no wonder to the great minds that have left Columbia University.
Notable alumni include nine Chief Justices on Supreme Court and twenty-nine
heads of state, three of which were U.S. presidents. Great minds such as
Alexander Hamilton to Amelia Earhart have attended this prestigious university.
By Nobel count, seventeen prizes have been awarded to Columbia alumni. Two
Nobel Peace Prizes have been bestowed to President Theodore Roosevelt and President
Barack Obama.
