Most cover letters are boring, formulaic. Applicants are too afraid of offending to risk standing out. And in an era of robot screeners, one can wonder: Do cover letters even matter?

This workshop lays out the roles and goals of a good business letter, and explains why yes, indeed, cover letters do still matter. The session will outline core principles of persuasive writing that will help writers pitch themselves successfully to a range of readers. Through analysis of letters that worked, attendees will come to a new understanding of strategy, and learn to distinguish elegant flourishes from cheap gimmicks. The workshop will demonstrate how applicants can use audience insight to showcase themselves to greatest effect, and offer a framework for taking calculated risks in professional prose.

Presenter:
Edith Updike is managing editor of FundFire, a daily Financial Times publication covering institutional asset management. From 2008 to 2012, she was a full-time lecturer in the master’s degree programs in Strategic Communications and Communications Practice at Columbia University’s School of Continuing Education. She taught business writing, critical thinking, media studies and communications strategy. Updike earned an MS in Journalism at Columbia, and has covered business, politics and social issues for a range of publications from New York Newsday and Business Week to Slate and Travel Journal International. She has served as a consultant on media, communications and management strategy to internet start-ups as well as major companies such as PriceWaterhouse and Honda.

These intensive workshops, reserved for 40 to 48 participants, offer rigorous skill-building in narrative competence. Participants will learn effective techniques for attentive listening, adopting others’ perspectives, accurate representation, and reflective reasoning. Plenary sessions will focus on reconceptualizing empathy, narrative ethics, bearing witness, and illness narratives. Small group seminars will offer firsthand experience in close reading, reflective writing, and autobiographical exercises. Participants will receive a packet of readings prior to the conference that will include seminar articles in the field of narrative medicine by leading educators. You will be working closely and intimately with the founders and leaders in the field of Narrative Medicine and Inter-Professional Education.
For More Information visit:http://narrativemedicine.org

The workshop schedule is as follows:
Friday, February 22, 2012, 2 p.m.-7 p.m.
Saturday, February 23, 2012, 8:30 a.m.-4:45 p.m.
Sunday, February 24, 2012, 8:30 a.m.-4:45 p.m.

MY COMA DREAMS tells a true story of love at the dividing line between life and death.  An HIV-positive jazz musician is rushed by his partner to St. Vincent's Hospital in Manhattan. A mild cough has become a massive infection, shutting down every organ in his body. The doctors put him into a medically-induced coma. Over the next two months, he enters a highly personal dream world, full of vivid experiences of confinement and release, of surreal comedy and ineffable beauty. He finds himself in hushed cathedrals; trapped in a cage beside jazz legend Thelonious Monk; careening through the night in a runaway van; dancing the tango in an impossibly luxurious airplane. Meanwhile, his partner fights through panic and despair to try to reach out to him across the gulf of consciousness, while negotiating the real-world complexities of his medical care. MY COMA DREAMS is jazz theater: theater propelled by music, words, song, and images in fluid and ever-changing combinations.

For More Information visit: http://www.mycomadreams.com

There will be two performances of MY COMA DREAMS: times will be announced as soon as they become available.

Narrative Medicine Rounds are lectures, readings, and performances presented by scholars, clinicians, academics, writers, and artists engaged in work at the interface between narrative and health care. Rounds are held on the first Wednesday of each month (September to May) from 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm in the Columbia University Medical Center Faculty Club, followed by a reception. Rounds are free and open to the public. Students, staff, faculty, patients, friends, and interested others are warmly welcome to join us.

For More Information visit: http://narrativemedicine.org

Finding funding for scientific research is an ever-present problem in the medical community. Come hear the former president of the Greenwall Foundation, William Stubing, discuss his career in the field of grantmaking. He has more than 40 years of experience in philanthropy and education with 20 years spent at the Greenwall Foundation.

To R.S.V.P. or request more information, please contact Patricia Contino at pc2561@columbia.edu.

For further information on the Master of Science in Bioethics Program, please go to: http://ce.columbia.edu/bioethics.

Dr. Simone, a member of the Bioethics Commission in Spain, will be talking about his experiences in clinical ethics in Spain, and how they resemble, and differ from, those in the US.

Showcasing cutting-edge interdisciplinary work in conflict resolution, violence prevention, peace and sustainability at Columbia University. Morton Deutsch and Peter T. Coleman present their most recent book: The Psychological Components of Sustainable Peace – along with a panel of experts from the field. Information tables of related centers and programs at Columbia Poster session highlighting the latest research from AC4 fellows and projects. For more information visit the AC4 website.

Columbia Negotiation and Conflict Resolution Alumnus Film “Walking Merchandise” Premieres October 23
Ethan Downing, recent graduate of the Columbia Master of Science in Negotiation and Conflict Resolution program, is using his education in the service of an important cause.

Ethan is the director of a documentary film, Walking Merchandise – Child Trafficking and the Snakehead Trade, a glimpse into human trafficking of middle-school-aged Chinese children brought to the United States by smugglers known as “snakeheads.”  Sent by their parents to work as low-wage laborers as a source of income, the children embark on a perilous journey that can include physical harm, sexual assault, and even death.  Once in the U.S., they are trapped in a life of debt-bondage and forced to work around the clock in dangerous conditions with the hope of paying off debts as high as $100,000.

Produced over two years, this short film tells the story of five children trafficked to the U.S. and the lawyers, social workers, and journalists who have dedicated their careers to helping them, as well as understanding the global forces that brought them to the U.S.  Walking Merchandise premiered earlier this year at the prestigious Rhode Island International Film Festival.

New York City Premiere
Tuesday, October 23, 6:30 p.m.
Milbank Chapel, Teachers College, Columbia University
Admission Free
Following the screening, there will be a panel discussion featuring experts working in conflict resolution, or featured in the film, and a short Q. & A. session with the filmmakers.