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More than 30 years ago, biological sisters Lizzie Valverde (GS’15) and Katy Olson (GS’14) were adopted by different families. In the spring of 2013, they met by chance in a nonfiction seminar at Columbia’s School of General Studies. This year, Valverde graduated with a bachelor’s degree in creative writing. Olson, who graduated last year with the same degree, is now pursuing her master’s at the School of the Arts.

Columbia University’s Rare Book & Manuscript Library has acquired the archive of pioneering ballet dancer, artistic director and choreographer Arthur Mitchell.

Last year, President Lee C. Bollinger asked Pulitzer Prize-winning History Professor Eric Foner to lead a research project on the role of slavery in Columbia’s early history.

Teodolinda Barolini was beguiled the first time she encountered the poetry of Dante’s Divine Comedy in high school. The daughter of an Italian poet, who hoped one day to become one herself, she was trying to memorize T.S. Eliot’s The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, which starts with a stanza in Italian from the Inferno.

Columbia University’s Rare Book & Manuscript Library has acquired the archive of pioneering ballet dancer, artistic director and choreographer Arthur Mitchell.

“I believe that dance, and the arts more broadly, can be used as a catalyst for social change—this is why I started the Dance Theatre of Harlem,” said Mitchell. “With these materials now at Columbia, artifacts of American dance history and African-American history will be accessible to young scholars, academics and the general public, furthering this push for change.”

Freshman orientation, 2011. Steven Bennett was playing cello in his dorm room on the 15th floor of John Jay Hall when he heard a knock on his door. When he opened it, another student with a broad grin exclaimed, “Cello!”