NOTABLE ALUMNI CONGRATULATE THE CLASS OF 2009
Under a clear blue sky and Columbia blue flags, the Class of 2009 celebrated their graduation at Class Day ceremonies for Columbia College and The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science and in an all-university commencement ceremony with Columbia University's 16 schools.
Attorney General Eric Holder, alumnus of both Columbia College and Columbia School of Law, joins a long line of recent distinguished College Class Day speakers, including actor Matthew Fox, Senator John McCain and New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein. Jim Albaugh, president and chief executive officer of Boeing Integrated Defense Systems and alumnus of Columbia Engineering, spoke to graduates at Engineering Class Day.
At University commencement ceremonies, Columbia awarded eight honorary degrees, including those granted to Kiran Desai, a writer whose second novel, The Inheritance of Loss, won the 2006 Man Booker Prize, and to Paul Farmer, a medical anthropologist, physician and human rights advocate who is founding director of Partners in Health, an international non-profit research and advocacy organization that provides health care services to those who are sick and living in poverty.
Celebrations of the Class of 2009 are not limited to campus. On May 20th, the Empire State Building was lit in Columbia blue in honor of the graduates.
Related Links:
White House Figures Go Back for Graduation (NPR story)
