SIPA Love Stories 2018 A Life-Changing Experience for Anisa and Len COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY - SIPA Admissions Blog

SIPA Love Stories 2018 A Life-Changing Experience for Anisa and Len COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY - SIPA Admissions Blog Happy Valentines Day! Were sharing new SIPA Love Stories from our alumni check out our first installment with these world-traveling Seeples. Were closing this series out with two alumni that found expansive education opportunities, lifelong friends and each other at SIPA. Anisa (MIA ’98) and Len (MIA ’98) Anisa and Len visit the Taj Mahal with their two sons Jatin (L) and Ravi (R). Anisa and Len first first met at a party at International House and became friends. They were later assigned to the same study group in accounting, and ultimately starting dating toward the end of their second year at SIPA. They both chose SIPA because of their mutual interests in faraway places, their curiosities about politics and policy, and their desires to pursue careers with a strong international component. For Len, SIPA was an opportunity to study global economic and business issues as part of his training to become a financial journalist, and Anisa studied economics with a view toward a career in global banking. The breadth of their graduate education and the ability to understand inter-dependencies has served them well: after working for more than a decade as a magazine journalist at Fortune, Worth and Institutional Investor, Len moved into digital media and digital strategy. Today he is a partner at boutique communications consultancy RooneyPartners, based in New York, where he works with a range of corporate and nonprofit clients. Anisa pivoted from banking to philanthropy early in her post-SIPA career, working first for the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and then joining Tiffany Co., where today she serves as Chairman and President of the Tiffany Co. Foundation and Chief Sustainability Officer of Tiffany Co. Looking back, Len and Anisa agree that SIPA was a life-changing experience: “…Certainly in terms of the education we received and the doors that our education has opened for both of us, but also the experience of SIPA itself. Our classmates came from all corners of the globe, and we count many of them as our friends today. The opportunity to learn from them, and with them, is part of what made SIPA such a unique experience for us. One interesting fact about our statistics class, which we both took together in the political science department: we were just one of three soon-to-be couples in the class who went on to get married! We both believe strongly in SIPAs mission, which is arguably more vital today than ever before. We remain awed by the caliber of students that attend the School, the incredibly diverse and interesting projects theyre working on, and the breadth of their ambition all united by a strong desire to make a difference in the world. Wed like more of our fellow alums to reflect on what SIPA has meant for them and find ways to engage with and support the School.” Len and Anisa at SIPA graduation day, 1998. Len and Anisa celebrate a recent wedding anniversary. You can find our archives of  SIPA Love Stories here.