Columbia University News for South Texas

Sept. 9, Celebrate Houston's Loved Food and Food Writer

You are invited to come celebrate with us the publication of
The Ultimate Food Lover's Guide to Houston

Edited by Columbia University alumna
Teresa Byrne-Dodge (M.S. Journalism, 1977)
and editor/publisher, My Table magazine, founder of Lazywood Press.

The reception hosted by the Columbia Club of South Texas at
Mockingbird Bistro, 1985 Welch in River Oaks on
Tuesday, is September 9, 2008 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.

Experience Houston's finest food and publishing for only
$12.50 for appetizers, wine, and the signing of your book.
Space is limited, so purchase your registration today by clicking the Pay Now button!

Order the book now or buy a copy at the event for $17.95.
Questions? Contact George Marshall Worthington, 713.256.8965

Planning Meeting Wed Aug 27

Our next planning meeting will be Wednesday, August 27 at 6 pm. The location for the evening is, as usual, Cafe Express in River Oaks. That's 1422 West Gray, near the intersection with Waugh.

You can buy a meal and/or a drink at Cafe Express.

Everyone is welcome. We have more proposed projects than we can handle, so now is a great time to join!

Patricia Gras (Jrn, 90) selected for Houston's Most Influential Women

Houston Woman Magazine has named Patricia Gras (MS, Journalism, 1990) as on of Houston's 50 Most Influential Women. Each woman was chosen because her sphere of influence was deemed "vast and powerful." Beverly Denver, editor and publisher, of Houston Woman said that the magazine was not looking for the most successful or well-known women, but rather, "Simply put, we were looking for those women whose actions or thoughts can change the actions and thoughts of others." 

Patricia Gras is host of Living Smart, a weekly, half-hour interview and news magazine program focusing on personal well-being. Living Smart covers spiritual, financial, personal, mental, physical, emotional, and educational aspects of well-being. Living Smart provides a wealth of information to improve your quality of life. Below is a photo of Patricia interviewing James Hollis.

August 21 InterClub at Sonoma Wine Bar

Thursday, August 21, 2008
6 to 9 pm
Harvard University hosts
InterClub* Happy Hour at
Sonoma Wine Bar
2720 Richmond, 1 block west of Kirby
Houston, TX  77098
713-526-9463

*The Houston InterClub is an informal "nexus" of Houston Ivy+ Alumni groups: Babson, Barnard, UC Berkeley, Brandeis, Brown, U of Chicago, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, MIT, Mt. Holyoke, Northwestern, Princeton, Richmond, Smith, Stanford, Vassar, Washington U, Wellesley, and Yale.

Columbia SIPA Grads Launch American Human Development Project

Sarah Burd-Sharps and Kristen Lewis both hold MIA degrees from the School of International & Public Affairs at Columbia U.--Burd-Sharps 1987 and Lewis 1993. After many years are reporting worldwide and foreign human development--identifying standards, measuring and communicating progress, they have turned to their attention to the quality of life inside these United States.

About the Project (MeasureOfAmerica.org):

The American Human Development Project is a nonpartisan, non-profit initiative established to introduce to the United States a well-honed international approach and tool for measuring human well-being: the human development approach and the human development index. The project’s mission is to stimulate fact-based public debate about and political attention to human development issues in the United States and to empower people with an instrument to hold elected officials accountable for progress on issues we all care about: health, education and income.

Co-founders Sarah Burd-Sharps and Kristen Lewis formed the American Human Development Project in 2006 and gained non-profit 501(c)3 status in 2007. The project is funded by Oxfam America, Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation, and the Social Science Research Council with additional funding from the Annenberg Foundation.

On July 16, 2008, the project will launch The Measure of America: American Human Development Report 2008-2009, the first-ever study of human development in the United States or any affluent nation in the world. The Report is published by Columbia University Press...

Obama at Columbia

Link: Cover Story: Barack Obama's Christian Journey | Newsweek Politics: Campaign 2008 | Newsweek.com. 2008-, by Lisa Miller and Richard Wolffe

After transferring to Columbia, though, the spiritual quest began in earnest.

People who knew him around that time describe a reserved, monkish man, uninterested in the extracurriculars of New York student life: bars, socializing, gossiping. William Araiza was in a political-science seminar with Obama their senior year, and what he remembers most is Obama's detachment. "I don't want to imply he was intentionally aloof, he just seemed like he wasn't part of the college gang," Araiza says. "He was the kind of guy who didn't live in the dorms, didn't hang out on campus."

Obama's first job out of college was at Business International, a research service in New York. "There was a lot of socializing," says Beth Noymer Levine, one of Obama's colleagues. "Here you had a hotbed of young singles—from the socializing there would be some storytelling—but [Obama] pretty much stayed out of that stuff … He was very together, very mature, and I was 23 and felt like a train wreck next to him."

Obama says his spiritual quest was driven by two main impulses. He was looking for a community that he could call home—a sense of rootedness and belonging he missed from his biracial, peripatetic childhood....

The Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell—who gave the invocations at both of George W. Bush's inaugurals and presided over the wedding of the president's daughter Jenna—is among those on Obama's prayer team. When Caldwell talks about Obama, he can barely keep the emotion out of his voice. The thing that impresses him most, he says, is that when he asks Obama, "What can I pray for?" Obama always says, "Michelle and the girls." "He never says, 'Pray for me, pray for my campaign, pray that folks will quit bashing me.' He always says, 'Pray for Michelle and my girls'."

George Worthington, Bus 93, named President of MBA Council of Houston

George Marshall Worthington, who received an MIA from the School of International & Public Affairs in 1978 and graduated from the Executive MBA program in 1993, has just been named president of the MBA Council of Houston.

The Council exists to serve Houston-based alumni through business networking, providing unique events, promoting organizational best practices, and encouraging community involvement. We have regular planning meetings throughout the year that are attended by school representatives. Membership is free to any MBA student or graduate or anyone who just likes to hang out with MBA graduates.  (There is a membership fee paid by all member schools.)

Vanessa Cobb Kellog, SIPA 05, quoted in New York Times

Vanessa Cobb Kellogg graduated from the School of International & Public Affairs in 2005 and is now Southwest regional development director for Horizon Wind Energy.

New York Times: Texas Approves a $4.93 Billion Wind-Power Project, 2008-Jul-19, by Kate Galbraith

Texas regulators have approved a $4.93 billion wind-power transmission project, providing a major lift to the development of wind energy in the state. ...

“The lack of transmission has been a fundamental issue in Texas, and it’s becoming more and more of an issue elsewhere,” said Vanessa Kellogg, the Southwest regional development director for Horizon Wind Energy, which operates the Lone Star Wind Farm in West Texas and has more wind generation under development. “This is a great step in the right direction.”

Ms. Kellogg said that the project would be a boon for Texas power customers, whose electricity costs have risen in conjunction with soaring natural gas prices across the state. “There’s nothing volatile about the wind in terms of the price, because it’s free,” she said.

InterClub July 31 at Flying Saucer Pub

July 2008 Houston InterClub* Happy Hour
Thursday, July 31, 2008
6 - 9pm
Cash Bar
Flying Saucer Pub
705 Main Street @ Capitol Houston, TX 77002
(713) 228-9472 (713) 228-PINT

Map: http://houston.citysearch.com/profile/map/11418921/

The upstairs room is reserved for the InterClub at the Flying Saucer Pub in Downtown.

*The Houston InterClub is an informal "nexus" of Houston Ivy+ Alumni groups: Babson, Barnard, UC Berkeley, Brandeis, Brown, U of Chicago, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, MIT, Mt. Holyoke, Northwestern, Princeton, Richmond, Smith, Stanford, Vassar, Washington U, Wellesley, and Yale.

Next Planning Meeting Sat July 26

Our next planning meeting will be Saturday, July 26, 10 am at the Daily Grind. All are welcome.

Facebook Group

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