On Friday, May 11, students in the MS in Sustainability Management (MSSM) program kicked off their graduation festivities at The Italian Academy to honor of this year’s graduates. About 200 people attended the dinner to celebrate the graduates’ accomplishments, including the family, friends, and faculty of current and graduating students.
“Talking to a few of the Sustainability Management students at Friday’s year-end celebration, I could see the relief on their faces as they had finally overcome the last obstacles before graduation, and had completed their final projects and exams,” said faculty member Grant Goodrich. “Since so many of our students have had to juggle their courses with a full-time work schedule and responsibilities at home, the completion of this degree is truly an achievement.”
This week, graduating MSSM students officially brought their studies to a close on May 15 at the commencement exercises for the School of Continuing Education where 87 MSSM graduates received their diplomas from program founder and Director, Professor Steve Cohen. Degrees were officially conferred to the graduates on May 16 at the Columbia University-wide ceremony.
“The relevance of our Sustainability Management degree in today’s rapidly changing world was apparent in many of the speeches made throughout both ceremonies,” stated MS graduate Eileen Quigley. “To know how important the work that we seek to do, and that many of us already do in the field of sustainability, set a nice tone for the graduation week in addition to the warm camaraderie already felt among students.”
The MS in Sustainability Management, co-sponsored by the Earth Institute and Columbia’s School of Continuing Education, trains students to tackle complex and pressing environmental and managerial challenges. The M.S.in Sustainability Management program requires the successful completion of 36 credit points. Those credit points are divided among five comprehensive content areas: integrative sustainability management, economics and quantitative analysis, the physical dimensions of sustainability, the public policy environment of sustainability management, and general and financial management. Please visit our website to learn more about the program.