On Wednesday, March 11, the GS community—students, staff, alumni, and donors—gathered in the historic Low Memorial Library for the annual GS Scholarship Celebration to honor this year’s scholarship recipients. The evening highlighted the generosity of alumni and donors, with many supporters meeting the students whose lives they’ve directly shaped for the first time.
Dean Lisa Rosen-Metsch ’90GS opened the program by celebrating the resilience of GS’s nontraditional students and the strong culture of support that defines the GS community.
“Tonight is a celebration, but it’s also a reminder of what access requires. For many GS students, the greatest obstacles are affordability, the cost of living, and balancing school with work and family responsibilities,” she said. “Scholarships change that reality in the most direct way: they protect time to learn, reduce financial pressure and debt, and make it possible for students to fully participate in the academic and co-curricular life here at Columbia.”
Following her remarks, Acting President Claire Shipman reflected on the remarkable generosity of GS alumni and donors and the meaningful difference their support makes in students’ lives. “GS plays a vital role in building the diverse classrooms and vibrant intellectual community that make Columbia so distinctive,” she said. “None of that would be possible without the generosity of the people in this room. These scholarships are more than financial support. They are votes of confidence. They are a signal to talented students—many of whom took unconventional, maybe even unlikely routes to get here—that their ambition belongs at Columbia.”
Throughout the evening, GS and Columbia alumni from across generations were invited to the stage to speak about their own transformative educational experiences and how GS made their dreams a reality, from Keren Gottesman ‘02GS, ‘08BUS and René Plessner ‘60CC, to a group of GS students and alumni who were current or former recipients of the René Plessner Scholarship Fund.
Robert Mulvey ’26GS, the evening’s featured student speaker, shared his journey from professional dancer to advocate, reflecting on how his nontraditional path became a source of strength.
“I stand on the threshold of a different kind of future, not in spite of my non-linear path, but because of it—because it was tested, and because I kept going,” he said. “GS did something extraordinary: it didn’t ask me to smooth out my story. It accepted it. It recognized the value in a life that doesn’t move in a straight line. And Columbia, in turn, embraced that path—inviting me to study and to belong.”
The evening concluded with a performance by the Columbia Clefhangers, as Dean Lisa Rosen-Metsch closed the celebration with a final reflection that captured the spirit of the night: “there is so much to be excited about at GS right now!”
