Jeremy Malhotra Graduates from Columbia University
The new graduate of Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, Jeremy Malhotra with his mom Dr. Claudine Giacchetti, dad Jawahar Malhotra and brother Sanjay Stefan Malhotra after the commencement ceremony on May 19, 2016
By Jawahar Malhotra
NEW YORK: The white tents on the South Lawn stood out in the bright sunshine under incredibly blue skies as the new graduates from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs strode across the stage to shake the hand of the Dean, Merit E. Janow and be formally recognized for their achievement. The graduation address was given by Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala of Nigeria, who is a Senior Adviser at Lazard and Chair of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization. She ended by revealing the harrowing experience she had as the first Finance Minister of Nigeria when her 80 year-old mother was kidnapped and held for ransom for a week unless Iweala resigned and stopped her investigation into fraud. She did not and her mother was rescued safely. She cited this example to illustrate the need to be practical in leadership positions.
The day before, on May 18, under equally brilliant conditions, the entire 15,000 graduating students sitting in the temporary bleachers, were conferred their degrees in the North Lawn, by the Columbia University President Lee Bollinger and they heard a speech from the Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-Moon in which he implored them to focus on the challenge of climate change by not voting for politicians who deny the problem, not buying the products that aren’t sustainable and “for heaven’s sake, turn off the lights!”.
Among the graduates was Jeremy Gyan Giacchetti Malhotra who received his Masters degree from SIPA, with specialization in International Security Policy. He started his degree in September 2014 and prior to that was working with a NGO in Washington, DC. Previous to that, Malhotra worked in the US Peace Corps for two years in the western African country of Togo. He received his Bachelors from the College of Media and Communications at the University of Houston, Main Campus in 2009. He is the son of Indo American News Publisher Jawahar Malhotra and Dr. Claudine Giacchetti, a Professor at the University of Houston.