Alumni Accolades April 2015

Elizabeth Brajevich (2012) is one of Glamour Magazine’s Top 10 College Women! The story is in the May issue with Michelle Obama on the cover. “I had a great experience last weekend in New York, receiving the award, visiting Google and LinkedIn’s New York offices and talking to high schoolers at Manhattan Bridges School. I am a 2012 Scholar and would encourage all 2013 ladies to apply for this amazing award!” said Elizabeth.

2011 Scholars Jennifer Mahan and Peter Kim were selected as Senior Marshals for The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science and Columbia College, respectively, and will be leading the procession at their commencement ceremonies. Senior Marshal is an honor bestowed upon members of the graduating class who have demonstrated achievement in their academics and extracurricular activities as a student at Columbia University. Senior Marshals are worthy of recognition for their personal achievements and for demonstrating what it means to “be a Columbian.”

Rep. Elise Stefanik (2002), discussed her first 100 days in office as the youngest woman elected to Congress, and the unique perspective she brings to Capitol Hill on CNBC’s Squawk Box.

FreshPaper Inventor and Fenugreen Founder/CEO Kavita Shukla (2002) was featured at the 2015 Women in the World Summit, presented by The New York Times and Tina Brown Live Media. (Kavita is pictured above with Tina Brown.) Kavita was recognized for her work on FreshPaper at this event, which gives a platform to global women on the front lines—activists, artists, CEOs, peacemakers, entrepreneurs, and leaders who have saved or enriched lives and shattered glass ceilings in every sector. Participants of the summit included Oprah Winfrey, Hillary Clinton, Meryl Streep, Angelina Jolie, Barbra Streisand, Katie Couric, Helen Mirren, Ava DuVernay, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, Jon Stewart, Tom Hanks and Aamir Khan.

Christopher Gray’s (2010) app Scholly won first place in Under Armour‘s pitch competition, winning $75,000 and an additional $5,000 from Salesforce. “It was amazing getting to meet Under Armour’s CEO Kevin Plank who now wants to invest in our next round. In addition, the City of Memphis has bought Scholly for all of their high school juniors and seniors!” said Christopher.

Amy Malone (2012) traveled to Seoul, South Korea to present a research paper at CHI2015, The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)’s Human-Computer Interaction Conference. “Coca-Cola was everywhere! Even at the DMZ!” Amy said. DMZ is the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea.

Anna Delamerced (2012) wrote a piece that was published alongside a collection of stories in an anthology called “I Am Here: The Untold Stories of Everyday People“. The book is available on Amazon. The story she wrote is about a pivotal moment of faith that happened during her first year at Brown University.

Daniel Nguyen (2010) received a Fulbright Award to teach in Macau, China this coming year.

Daron Roberts (1997) was named to the Austin Sports Commission Board of Directors.

2015 Scholars Kawther Berhanu and Amadou Bah have been named Gates Millennium Scholars.