One of the hallmarks of the CIPA experience is the Colloquium speaker series. Each semester, CIPA’s Colloquium Committee, composed of Fellows, works to bring between six and eight speakers to campus to address all Fellows on topics of interest to the public service community. These topics can range anywhere from the United States’ role in international development to clean energy implementation to funding public transportation in major cities. The variety of topics is endless. Colloquium is one unique way that CIPA exposes all Fellows, regardless of their specific policy interests, to the broad range of policy issues facing the United States and the rest of the world today.
Colloquium also offers Fellows the opportunity to engage in conversation with prominent industry leaders. Fellows who are especially interested in a particular speaker or topic often have the chance to speak with the visitor in a smaller group setting over lunch or dinner. Most speakers take questions from the audience during the course of their presentations, allowing all Fellows to engage with the issues.
Each semester, CIPA Fellows are asked to nominate speakers they would like to see come to campus to participate in Colloquium. The Colloquium Chair, a Fellow, and other students work with CIPA faculty and staff to coordinate a comprehensive and varied schedule of speakers for the semester. Members of the Colloquium Committee introduce speakers, organize lunch and dinner meetings for other students, and set up interviews during the course of the speakers’ visits. It is one more unique way for CIPA Fellows to become involved in the policy community outside of the classroom.
The variety and caliber of Colloquium speakers is truly impressive! This year alone, speakers have included a former U.S. ambassador, a managing director of a major financial firm, the former Minister of Foreign Investment of Macedonia, and a program director at the U.S. Department of Energy. Later this semester, the President of Panama will be traveling to Ithaca to deliver a Colloquium address. These speakers and many others deliver insight and reflections from all corners of the policy arena – both international and domestic – that many CIPA Fellows find invaluable as they shape their own career paths. Furthermore, Colloquium brings all CIPA Fellows into one room each week to hear about new ideas together. Fellows may find themselves hearing the perspective of someone they’ve never met or had class with before. Colloquium offers the chance for all of CIPA to come together and digest current policy issues as a community.
Check out the Colloquium page of our website for full details about past and upcoming Colloquium speakers.