“When I graduated from Columbia in 1991 and left New York City, it seemed a world away from my home in Savannah, Georgia. I went from a high school that did not offer Calculus to taking graduate courses in organic chemistry my senior year at Columbia. I read Yeats, saw Pollini play Chopin at Carnegie Hall, and ate foie gras for the first time. I made some of my best friends to this day. I cannot imagine my life today without Columbia.”