Happy New Year! As we all gear up for spring semester, we have an invitation to our next visa seminar and great news to share on recent accomplishments by our GWC-UAW international students working group on ongoing efforts to make Columbia a more inclusive university through fighting for expanded funding opportunities for international students!
New Summer Fellowship for International Students
In early December a group of us met with GSAS Dean Carlos Alonso to discuss improving and expanding the international student Summer Language Fellowship we successfully advocated for last spring, and to begin dialogue on many other important issues we face as international students at Columbia.
You should have received a recent email from the Graduate Student of Arts and Sciences about GSAS internal fellowships, including the Summer Language Fellowship. We encourage all interested to apply and continue to work with us to put pressure on the university to continue this fellowship and to create more funding opportunities for international students in the interest of a more inclusive university.
Last spring we worked together with the Graduate Student Advisory Council and mobilized the large network of graduate students that the union has brought together, to deliver a letter with nearly 500 signatures to Dean Alonso to secure more summer funding for international students who are excluded from major grants because they are not U.S. citizens or residents.
To get more involved with our efforts to work on issues faced by international students at Columbiaplease contact us at gwcinternational@gmail.com.
Workshop on International Student Visa and Immigration Issues
With Christine Brigagliano, a partner at Van Der Hout, Brigagliano, and Nightingale, LLP, a nationally-renowned firm specializing in immigration and nationality law.
January 28th (Thursday), 4-6PM
Lerner Hall Room 555
Dinner will be provided
Last March after speaking with our co-workers and finding that many of us share the same questions and concerns about the complexities of tax, visa and immigration law we held two workshops for international students. At our workshops we invited an immigration lawyer and certified public accounts to come and answer our questions. With over 200 graduate workers who attended the exciting workshops we will once again be holding the workshops again this semester. We will announce when our Taxes Q&A will be soon.
All are welcome to attend. There will be an open Q&A session but if you have any questions beforehand please e-mail us with your questions at gwcinternational@gmail.com to ensure your answers will be answered.
The event is co-sponsored by the Indian Student Association at Columbia and Taiwanese Graduate Student Association.