Congratulations to Sagar Castleman, CC'26, Daniella Davia, CC'26, and Lindsay Koo, CC'26 on being named Kellett Fellows! Congratulations to Sarah Bryden, CC'26 on being named a Doctorow Fellow, and Madison Garrett, CC'26 on being named a Carman Fellow!
Five Columbia College seniors will attend the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge this fall, supported by Columbia fellowships. Since 1932, Columbia University has awarded the Euretta J. Kellett Fellowship annually to graduating seniors of the College to pursue post-baccalaureate study at the University of Cambridge or the University of Oxford. The fellowship recognizes academic excellence and distinguished intellectual accomplishments during a student's undergraduate career.
The Harry J. Carman Fellowship supports graduating Columbia College seniors each year to defray costs of graduate study for any degree, in any field, in any location. The Fellowship was established by friends of former Dean Carman in 1949. Since 2005, Columbia University has awarded the Jarvis and Constance Doctorow Fellowship to an outstanding graduating senior of the College proposing to pursue post-baccalaureate study at the University of Oxford and who will live in St. Edmund Hall.
Sagar Castleman, CC'26 is an English major from Takoma Park, Maryland. His research interests include nineteenth-century British poetry, theories of literary originality and exhaustion, narratology, and the history of the novel. His research on Oscar Wilde’s derivative poetry, pursued through Columbia’s Humanities Research Scholars Program in 2024, was published in the journal Literary Imagination. In 2025, Castleman researched Pre-Raphaelite thought and art in London through the Columbia English Department’s Richmond B. Williams Traveling Fellowship. As a Rose Research Ambassador in the College, Castleman advises younger students who are interested in research and writes for the CC Research Ambassador blog. He has also written essays and interviews for The Blue and White and book reviews for the British magazine Literary Review.
As a Kellett Fellow, Castleman will pursue an MSt in Modern Languages (French) at the University of Oxford. His research there will focus on experimental narratives by eighteenth-century French writers like Diderot and Rousseau.
Daniella Davia, CC'26 hails from Roslyn, New York, and studies Biology. Outside of the classroom, she has worked in a spine research lab at the Columbia University Medical Center, exploring molecular targets behind intervertebral disc degeneration caused by injury. Daniella also plays the trumpet, and is a member of the Columbia University Orchestra and Columbia Pops. She tutors organic chemistry through the Center for Student Advising, and might be one of the few students you can find who thinks organic chemistry is fun.
At the University of Oxford, Dani will pursue a masters by research (MSc Res) in musculoskeletal sciences, studying musculoskeletal fibrotic processes, expanding her knowledge of biologic mechanisms leading to clinical disease.
Originally from Seattle, Washington,
Lindsay Koo, CC'26 will graduate with a major in Astrophysics and a double minor in Mathematics and English. Lindsay is fascinated by the observational and experimental methods used in studying cosmology and galaxy evolution. As such, her research has focused on the applications and analysis of a range of astrophysical instruments. At Columbia, she worked with Professor David Schiminovich on instrumentation development and Professor Mary Putman on the baryon cycle. She also conducted research at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, where she prepared for the launch of the Roman Space Telescope with Dr. Ami Choi. Lindsay was also deeply involved in physics and astronomy teaching and outreach efforts on campus.
As a Kellett Fellow, Lindsay will pursue an MPhil in Physics at the University of Cambridge, where she will further her investigations of the evolution of the early Universe with Professor Sandro Tacchella.
Sarah Bryden, CC'26, from Nashua, New Hampshire, studies History and Linguistics. Her research focuses on knowledge production in Quechua and Yucatec Maya, particularly in the colonial period, and the linguistic development of these languages. At the Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán, Sarah spent a summer in Yucatán helping to build a Yucatec Maya linguistic corpus called “T’aantsil." She has also conducted archival research in Seville, Spain through a fellowship from the History Department. As a research assistant for projects at Lancaster University/Tec de Monterrey and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Sarah has supported public-facing research about Yucatec Maya using both historical and linguistic methods. On campus, Sarah has worked as a Teaching Assistant in several linguistics courses. She works as a Peer Academic Skills Consultant for the CSA, and has been a student representative to the Committees on Instruction and the Global Core.
As a Doctorow Fellow, Sarah will pursue an MPhil in Early Modern History at the University of Oxford.
Raised in Brooklyn, New York,
Madison Garrett, CC'26 is a Political Science major. Committed to amplifying overlooked voices, Madison hopes to dedicate her career to serving others. Recognizing the low percentage of Black attorneys and the high incarceration rate of Black Americans, Madison founded Columbia's Black Pre-Law Society, a student organization that provides resources for underrepresented undergraduates aspiring to enter the legal field. She also founded Columbia's Black Pre-Law Journal, an undergraduate law review that invites pre-law students across the country to write about injustices facing marginalized communities within the law. Madison served as a research assistant at Columbia Law School under Professors Olatunde C. Johnson, Jamal Greene, and Bennett Capers. Off campus, Madison gained political and legal experience interning at the Office of the Mayor, the office of Senator Chuck Schumer, the Clinton Foundation, and with CNN's Chief White House Correspondent Kaitlan Collins.
As a Carman Fellow, Madison will pursue an MSc in Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Oxford, where she plans to center her dissertation on the broader political impact of criminal punishment on low-income communities.
