Campus & Community

A blue and green graphic with the words "Campus & Community" in its center alongside icons that represent Columbia University and New York City.

This page is dedicated to stories about Columbia's campus and community. From student, staff, and faculty profiles to interesting events happening on campus and in our surrounding neighborhoods, here is where you can find the latest about what's happening on and around Columbia's campuses. 

Story Highlight

Lamaka Opa
'You Don't Get to the Top of the Mountain Alone': Assistant IT Director Lamaka Opa Reflects on Rewiring His Tech Career at Columbia

While coming of age, Congo-born, Paris-raised Lamaka Opa was surrounded by examples of empowerment. His father was a physician who used the practice of medicine to uplift communities and his mother was an accountant who led microfinancing efforts to support women in purchasing land and building their own businesses. For Opa, who had an affinity for technology, those displays of service would remain a source of inspiration.

"It was the idea that you don't get to the top of the mountain alone," he told Columbia Neighbors.

When Opa and his wife moved to Harlem 16 years ago, he was hopeful about advancing his career at Columbia, but the grueling job search and difficulties getting visibility in a wide pool of applicants was frustrating. Determined to change the course of his quest to secure a tech role, he leaned on the resources and support provided by the Columbia Employment Information Center (CEIC). The community-driven career hub—which has been in existence for 20 years—was cultivated to help individuals with job search assistance and provides holistic career training. The CEIC was instrumental in helping Opa’s vision of working at Columbia become a reality.

Photo of the Week

Students at match day
Perfect Matches

Congratulations to the 140 medical students at Columbia's Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, who learned where they will spend their training residencies.

QUIZ

Abbey Hsu
The Columbia News Quiz: Leap Day Edition

From basketball record breakers to Franklin Medal winners, Columbians made the most of the year's shortest month.

COLUMBIA HISTORY

Isadore Gilbert Mudge
The History of the Women Who Founded Columbia's Most Prolific Community Service Efforts

A top librarian of the 20th century with a garden and a calling to service. A Manhattan portrait painter and granddaughter of abolitionist and suffragist Elizabeth Cady Stanton. A “faculty wife” of the former dean of Columbia Engineering who organized countless student events and ran a local charity shop to benefit Uptown nonprofits.

In 1942, three women founded what is known today as Columbia Community Service (CCS), one of the most prolific and longest-lasting philanthropic and community engagement initiatives of Columbia University. Their names: Isadore Gilbert Mudge (1875-1957), Elizabeth Cady Stanton Blake (1894-1981), and Lolita Mollman Finch (1882-1964).

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Avery Hall blobs.

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Out and About

Featured

Kate Calvin
Columbia Climate School Signature Speaker Series: Space, Aeronautics, and Climate

TUESDAY, MARCH 26

Earth's climate is changing, and space provides one of the best places to observe the impact. NASA’s leadership and work with partners in research, modeling, and Earth observation help us better understand how the planet is changing. In this talk, Dr. Katherine Calvin, chief scientist and senior climate advisor at NASA, will discuss NASA’s climate portfolio, including recently launched missions, recent climate data, space exploration, and how NASA is working to advance aeronautical science and develop innovative technologies. Attend in person at The Forum or register to livestream the event.

More Stories

Thanks to US Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, Project Start Right will extend DDC’s resources to first- and second-year college stude

Opa shared how the Columbia Employment Information Center was a launchpad for furthering his career at Columbia University.

The collaboration between Columbia University’s Bundles Scholars and Incite will create enhanced funding, mentorship, skill-building, and networkin

This week, 140 medical students at Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons received the results of their residency match.

Starting with the sale of a single bouquet from Isadore Gilbert Mudge’s garden in 1942, Columbia Community Service, largely run by women over the p

When he’s not in the lab, Kevin Fleshman might be at the Met Cloisters or eating dim sum in Chinatown.

From basketball record breakers to Franklin Medal winners, Columbians made the most of the year's shortest month.

Students, faculty, and staff gathered in person and online to explore how the often binary conversations around current events inform our understan

Going pro beckons after college, but before then, she’s trying to fit it all in, while breaking a record or two. 

This Valentine's Day, Columbia Community Service extends the deepest gratitude to donors, new and old, for their support throughout the 77th Annual

The award, given by the New York Blood Center, is especially poignant because Dr. Charles Drew was an alumnus of Columbia's medical school.

Omid Cohensedgh's childhood experiences inspired him to enter the field of medicine.