Year in Education

Additional Stories

• Columbia Neuroscience Opens More Pathways to PhDs: Two programs in the Department of Neuroscience, Columbia Access Neuroscience and Columbia Access to Doctoral REadiness, are helping students from underrepresented groups prepare for neuroscience graduate programs.

• VP&S White Coat Ceremony Welcomes Class of 2027: The 140 members of the VP&S Class of 2027 gathered on Aug. 11 at the Armory for the White Coat Ceremony, an annual event at which Columbia’s incoming medical students are welcomed into the profession and cloaked in white coats by faculty members. 

• Virtual Reality Teaches Students About Real Bias: Students in Columbia’s occupational therapy program, taught by Razan Hamed, PhD, are using virtual reality to learn how to spot and respond to instances of bias. 

• VP&S Students Host Latino Medical Student Association Meeting: VP&S hosted the Latino Medical Student Association’s Fall House of Delegates conference for the first time in LMSA’s 50-year history, bringing together 95 medical students from across the Northeast. 

• Columbia Students Build Life-Improving Devices for Kids with Disabilities: Occupational therapy and physical therapy students build low-cost adaptive devices to improve the lives of local kids through an adaptive design course, taught by Rochelle Mendonca, PhD. 

• VP&S Class of 2026 Celebrates Transition to Clinical Education: Second-year medical students at VP&S celebrated their transition to clinical education with the Steven Z. Miller Student Clinician’s Ceremony on Jan. 5. 

• CUIMC Students Travel to Albany for Advocacy Day: A group of students from VP&S and Mailman spent a day in Albany, meeting with legislators and other policymakers to lobby on issues of importance to the students. 

• VP&S, Mailman Students Win Honors at Three-Minute Thesis Competition: Doctoral students from VP&S and Mailman participated in a university-wide competition designed to help students develop communication skills for future careers. Julia Davis-Porada (VP&S) and Gloria Huei-Jong Graf (Mailman) shared top honors. 

• VP&S Students Honored for Research Achievements: 74 students presented their research to colleagues, fellow students, faculty, and leadership. The presentations included research posters with explanations of the students’ methodologies, results, and inspiration. Twelve projects won awards in four categories: MD/PhD, Research Year, Scholarly Project, and Summer Research. 

• Climate Change, Sustainability, and Health Training Program Launched: CUIMC launched a new graduate medical education (GME) initiative, run by the emergency medicine and Ob/Gyn departments, designed to develop expertise in climate change and healthcare sustainability that falls outside of existing specialty-specific GME curricula and foster multidisciplinary collaboration across GME programs. 

• New Mental Health Training Empowers Pediatric Residents to Better Serve Young Patients: A new program at Columbia, NYP-HRSA CARES, is working to equip the next generation of pediatricians with the skills to address common mental health concerns in their patients. 

• Accepted Students Visit Campus for “Life at VP&S” Day: More than 150 applicants accepted to Columbia’s medical school visited campus in April to get a look at what they can expect if they choose to attend VP&S. 

• Columbia Undergraduates Learn More About a Future in Neuroscience: Students intrigued by mysteries of the mind and brain spent a day speaking with Columbia neuroscientists at the Zuckerman Institute, sharing research experiences and getting career advice. 

• White Coat Ceremony Welcomes New Medical Students: The 139 members of the VP&S Class of 2028 donned their white coats for the first time and were welcomed into the medical profession by faculty members at the Aug. 9 White Coat Ceremony. 

• CUIMC CEO Katrina Armstrong Named Interim President of Columbia University: Katrina Armstrong, an internationally recognized investigator in medical decision-making and a practicing primary care physician, became interim president of Columbia University on August 14, 2024. 

• Roy and Diana Vagelos Make Historic Gift to Biomedical Science Research and Education: A new $400 million gift from Roy and Diana Vagelos will significantly expand the mission of the Roy and Diana Vagelos Institute for Basic Biomedical Science, created in 2023. The gift is the single largest ever made to Columbia’s medical school.