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Today, Columbia World Projects (CWP) announced the 2023-2024 Obama Foundation Scholars at Columbia University. This cohort comprises 12 emerging leaders from across the globe who will undertake a residency at CWP for the academic year.

We eagerly welcome this new cohort of Scholars, each with a distinguished track record of commitment to serving their communities. As with previous cohorts, I know that they will take full advantage of the comprehensive offerings that the program provides. At the same time, their presence on campus will undoubtedly inspire us and the broader Columbia community, remarked Wafaa El-Sadr, Director of Columbia World Projects and Executive Vice President of Columbia Global.

The sixth cohort of Columbia University Obama Foundation Scholars will immerse themselves in a year-long program tailored to equip them with the skills, knowledge, and resources to amplify their impact and further contribute to their communities. Key components of the program include a weekly seminar, personal and professional development workshops, audited courses at Columbia University, a thought leadership speaker series, and bespoke programming crafted by CWP in collaboration with the Obama Foundation. The year will provide Scholars with the skills, tools, and connections to create profound change both locally and globally. A recent five-year review revealed that alumni overwhelmingly felt that the program significantly influenced their leadership journeys and evolution as social impact leaders.

I believe deeply in the mission of the Obama Foundation Scholars Program and am thrilled to welcome the sixth cohort of fellows to Columbia, said President Minouche Shafik, who began her tenure as Columbias 20th president on July 1, 2023. I know that these Scholars will benefit immeasurably from all that this University has to offer, and I am excited to see the impact they will have on our campuses, their communities, and the world in the months and years ahead.

Initiated in 2018, the Obama Foundation Scholars program aims to inspire, empower, and connect the next generation of leaders, equipping them to make more substantial contributions to their global communities. While one group of Scholars is hosted at Columbia University, another cohort joins the program at the University of Chicago. Throughout the year, Scholars from both universities partake in joint activities facilitated by the Obama Foundation and maintain strong ties post-program.

Columbia World Projectsmobilizes the universitys researchers and scholars to work with governments, organizations, businesses and communities to tackle global challenges.

We are part ofColumbia Global, established July 2022, which brings together major initiatives from across the university to advance knowledge and foster global engagement to address complex global challenges. As of July 2023, Columbia Global comprises CWP, theColumbia Global Centers, theCommittee on Global Thought, and theInstitute for Ideas and Imagination.

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Introducing the 2023-2024 Obama Foundation Scholars at ... - Columbia University

In August 2020, Mr. McNair moved to Evanston, Ill., to attend business school at Northwestern University, while Ms. Castor went to Harvard Law School. They continued their relationship long distance, and by that fall, Mr. McNair knew he wanted Ms. Castor to be his forever. He talked to her best friend and her three sisters to plan an elaborate, multipart surprise proposal near where they had first met.

In September 2021, he told Ms. Castor that they were going to a promotional dinner event in Cambridge, Mass., where there would be photographers, so they had to dress up. When they arrived at the restaurant, he said that he had mixed up the time and that they were early. He suggested they go on a walk to while they waited.

When they walked by Ms. Castors old dorm, she pointed it out and said jokingly that they could marry in the courtyard there. And Im like, Oh, interesting, Mr. McNair recalled. They reached a bridge, where he showed her a YouTube video he had made about their love story. At the end of the video, he knelt down.

When she said yes, their families came running and cheering from across the street. It was an epic surprise, Ms. Castor said.

Ms. Castor, who grew up in Rockland County, N.Y., has a bachelors in social studies and African American studies and a law degree, both from Harvard. She is a corporate associate at the law firm Kirkland & Ellis in Chicago. Mr. McNair, who grew up just outside Cleveland, has a bachelors degree in chemical and biomolecular engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology and a masters in business administration from Northwestern. He is a director at the Chicago office of EY-Parthenon, a management consulting firm. In June 2023, the couple moved to Chicago.

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Finding Her 'Barack Obama' With the Help of a Friend - The New York Times

In the annals of scandal, Aug. 29 was quite an eventful day. Ill try to unpack the proceedings.

The federal judge in the feds election subversion case decreed that the coup commander shall go on trial in Washington on March 4 and if he doesnt like it, well, tough: Mr. Trump, like any defendant, will have to make the trial date work regardless of his schedule. (He doesnt like it. He fled to social media and whined about fascist thugs.)

Meanwhile, ex-chief of staff Mark Meadows was in another court trying to weasel his way out of Georgias coup case, claiming that he was just trying to help Trump fight for free and fair elections. (Orwell just spun 360 degrees.) On a third front, a judge in Georgia decreed that Trump will be arraigned there next Tuesday.

Naturally, Inmate #P01135809s groupies are in high dudgeon about everything. I wont lard this column with their many fulminations. To nauseate and entertain you, two examples should suffice.

A Georgia congressman, Andre Clyde, denounced the sham prosecutions and said the House should defund special counsel Jack Smith: Americans hard-earned tax dollars have no place funding the radical Lefts nefarious election interference efforts. And one of his House colleagues, Claudia Tenney, said: Theyre trying to create this appearance of Trump being a criminal. (She is sooooo close to getting it.)

Youd think that four indictments and 91 felony charges in four jurisdictions should be more than enough to cement Trumps place in history as our preeminent lowlife. But the rabid right has its own unique take on what constitutes a scandal. Indeed, how fitting it was that Tuesdays various court proceedings occurred on the ninth anniversary of Fashiongate Aug. 28, 2014 when President Barack Obama wore a summer suit that was tan.

Now that was a scandal! Lets cue the talking heads.

A Fox News blondette said, I looked twice to make sure he wasnt a circus ringmaster.

Another Fox blondette said the tan suit made him look unpresidential.

Lou Dobbs huffed, I think its shocking to a lot of people.

Another Fox pundit said, Whoever talked him into wearing a tan suit? Theyre so desperate because of low poll numbers.

A Fox roundtable said, I think its a sign to enemies that hes a wimp.

Another Fox guy said, Only liberals could ever elect a guy with a tan suit.

Republican congressman Peter King said on NewsMax, For him to walk out Im not trying to be trivial here in a light suit, light tan suitWhen you have the world watching, it did not show the seriousness of purpose that you need from a commander-in-chiefThe suit was a metaphor for his lack of seriousness.

Right-wingers on Twitter wrote stuff like, Skin-colored suits dont scream POWERFUL.

And this: Obama sends the wrong message to our allies.

And this: You cant declare war in a suit like that.

Perhaps the real problem wasnt the color of the suit, but the color of the man who wore it. Perhaps the real problem is thinking that a suits color is more imperiling to the republic than a far-flung coup plot or the theft of classified nuclear secrets.

As we trudge ever closer to Trumps day of reckoning, the kind of people who excoriated a tan suit will continue to concoct absurd excuses for real scandal. It will be important to remind ourselves that they dwell outside the American mainstream, in a stupidity zone where fashion is deemed to be worse than fascism.

Dick Polman, a veteran national political columnist based in Philadelphia and a Writer in Residence at the University of Pennsylvania, writes at DickPolman.net. Email him atdickpolman7@gmail.com

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Dick Polman: Amid Trump's indictments, remembering Obama's ... - Press Herald

1. Obama biographer says ex-president 'as insecure as Trump,' would be 'terrible' on SCOTUS in stunning interview  Fox News
2. Obama reportedly warns Biden over strength of Trump 2024 challenge  The Guardian US
3. Barack Obama Is Also Scared Shitless That Donald Trump Could Win Another Term: Report  Vanity Fair

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Obama biographer says ex-president 'as insecure as Trump,' would be 'terrible' on SCOTUS in stunning interview - Fox News

Barack Obama and Michelle Obama she was Michelle Robinson then were among scores of Harvard Law students Ogletree guided and encouraged during his many years at the school.

Through his work as a lawyer and professor, Ogletrees legacy reached beyond the schools Cambridge classrooms. He counseled Anita Hill when she appeared before the US Senate Judiciary Committee, during US Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomass confirmation hearings. In addition, Ogletree counted among his law clients rap artist Tupac Shakur and former agriculture secretary Mike Espy.

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After meeting Barack Obama, Ogletree soon became a father figure as well as a mentor. We arent that much different in age, but here was someone he could talk or meet with, Ogletree recalled in a 2009 Globe interview.

Those conversations werent just about what he wanted to do as a young lawyer, Ogletree said of his talks with Obama, but that he, like many students, wanted to do something meaningful.

Ogletree became a lasting friend to the president and his wife, Michelle Obama, whom he also had mentored at Harvard Law School.

In his statement Saturday, Obama reminisced about how Ogletree took time on weekends to run something called Saturday School for Black students who didnt necessarily have the support systems at home to get them through the difficult first years of law school.

Saturday School soon became so popular that students of every background began showing up to hear Charles explain things in a way they could understand, the former president said. It was an example of the kind of person Charles has always been: unfailingly helpful, and driven by a genuine concern for others.

Obama was one of many who shared recollections on social media and elsewhere about Ogletree, who was known to friends by the nickname Tree.

You cannot imagine the influence Tree had on a generation (or three) of lawyers committed to fighting for justice, Sherrilyn Ifill, former president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, posted on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

His voice had an R&B timbre and his mind was so supple and sharp, Ifill added. I loved listening to him argue.

In an X post, Cornell William Brooks, the Hauser professor of the practice of nonprofit organizations at the Harvard Kennedy School, wrote that it is exceedingly difficult to overstate the stature of legal giant Prof. Charles Ogletree in the minds & hearts of multitudes of lawyers.

Ogletree represented an excellence of practice, pedagogy, & justice. For many, he inspired visions of what we might become, wrote Brooks, who also is professor of the practice of public leadership and social justice at the Kennedy School and a visiting professor at Harvard Divinity School.

Christina Swarns, executive director of the Innocence Project, posted on X that Tree was brilliant and an absolute warrior for justice. He was also incredibly kind, generous with his time, and a mentor to many, including me.

And Janai Nelson, the current president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, wrote that Tree, his friends say, could not have been more aptly nicknamed: He stood tall, offering protection and cover, and he was a force of nature who will continue to bear fruit for generations to come.

In his statement Saturday, Obama said that Michelle and I are heartbroken to hear about the passing of our friend and mentor Charles Ogletree, adding that their thoughts were with Ogletrees wife, Pamela, the rest of the family, and everyone who knew and loved this remarkable man.

In the 2009 Globe interview, two months after Obama was elected, Ogletree said that theres something special about trying to prepare for calling Barack Mr. President. And he predicted that his former student might object to such formality.

Hes going to say, Come on, Tree, Ogletree said. The point will be, Dont go so upscale on me.

Bryan Marquard can be reached at bryan.marquard@globe.com.

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Obama recalls the lasting influence of Harvard Law professor Charles Ogletree - The Boston Globe