Columbia College Rose Research Ambassadors
The Columbia College Rose Research Ambassador program allows students who have successfully completed Contemporary Civilization to promote a culture of scholarship, investigation and community that Contemporary Civilization fosters early on in students’ time at Columbia. It provides an opportunity for students to consider how Contemporary Civilization informs their intellectual investigations in specific fields and/or areas of research.
Writing about and reflecting on research, and by building on their earlier exposure to texts covered in CC, Research Ambassadors consider research as an extension of their engagement with core texts. They are able to demystify the research process, allowing them to consider how research further strengthens the skills they developed in Contemporary Civilization. The program allows students to consider how research gives them the flexibility of mind required in any post-graduate plan they seek to pursue, a mission that is at the heart of Contemporary Civilization.
Research Ambassadors are also available for near peer advising*, and contribute blog pieces to a webpage on the Academic Affairs website. The objective of this blog is to allow students to reflect upon their CC Journey, to promote a culture of research and scholarship among undergraduates, to empower the broader undergraduate community to engage in or consider research opportunities.
Read the CC Rose Research Ambassadors Blog.
* Students can find the near-peer advising schedule on our advising page, where you are welcome to sign up with a Near Peer Advisor to learn more about their experiences conducting research, applying for funding, connecting with faculty, etc.
2024-2025 CC Rose Research Ambassadors & Near-Peer Advisors
Xavier Amaro, CC'25
Xavier Amaro is a senior in Columbia College majoring in History. His research interest is in the social history of persons of Mexican descent in North Carolina from the 1940s to the present. He is interested in their understandings of race, place, and Southern belonging, as well as that of those around them. As a historian who grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina himself, he is also interested in how historians use concepts such as identity, white supremacy, and ideology to advance historical arguments. In the future, Xavier hopes to pursue a Ph.D. and join the professoriate to continue his research and teaching endeavors. As a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow and historian of the Chicanx Caucus, Xavier would be more than happy to talk about anything related to the Core, research experience, student organization and social movement history, picking a major, and the queer, first-generation, low-income experience in general.
Madeleine Cesaretti, CC'25
Madeleine Cesaretti is a senior in Columbia College, majoring in Urban Studies and History. Her interests include geography, environmental policy, legal theory, education, and art history. Maddie has worked on research projects with the Columbia Center for Science & Society as well as the Center for Spatial Studies and History Department. She has also been involved with arts, cultural heritage, and environmental advocacy groups in both New York and Florida. Maddie is excited to chat about maps, majors, museums, project grants, course planning, study abroad, interdisciplinary research, and just about anything between or beyond.
Alan Chen, CC'25
Alan Chen is a senior in Columbia College studying history and philosophy. With interests in modern France, Europe, and the U.S., his research focuses on the history of the family from the 18th century to the present. When he’s not trying to turn the whole student body into history majors, he serves as the editor-in-chief of the Columbia Political Review, co-chair of the Columbia Mentoring Initiative, and as a campus tour guide. On an academic level, he would love to chat about the Core, the humanities and social sciences, course and major selection, the archival research process, academic engagement in a foreign language and/or abroad, and pre-professional planning. More broadly, as a three-time NSOP orientation leader, he would be equally happy to talk about his favorite hole-in-the-wall restaurants, the city’s best public spaces, and how to make the most of one’s time in college, at Columbia, and in New York City at large.
Joshua Martin, CC'25
Josh Martin is a senior studying Philosophy and Italian. On campus, he edits for the undergraduate history journal, serves on the Academic Awards Committee, and has acted in productions by the King’s Crown Shakespeare Troupe. He has also conducted faculty-guided research to study Italian legal documents from a case in Sicily in the 1980s. He’d love to chat about the Core, anything to do with the Humanities, research, studying abroad, and how to make the most of one’s time at Columbia.
Janus Yuen, CC'25
Janus Yuen is a history major in Columbia College with wandering interests in classics, history, literature, and religion. Besides these preoccupations, he's also a geography nerd, milk tea connoisseur, and Wikipedia junkie. While his ideal state is watching Minecraft redstone videos on Youtube while snuggled under his favorite blanket, he has nevertheless found himself involved with the Freedom and Citizenship program at the Center for American Studies and an occasional attendant at meetings of the Philolexian Society. Recently, Janus has largely been working on a faculty-guided project involving early American court records, but he's happy to chat about accessing archives and microfilms, course planning, academic writing, project design, and just about anything else.