<p>In addition, check out the opportunities that have been available to Columbia students in ex-Soviet republics:</p>
<p>The Eesti Link
By Paul Sonne</p>
<p>As critical students, we often focus our attention on how Columbia influences the surrounding world in a negative way, from the Manhattanville expansion to failed attempts at a graduate student union. Yet there are those times when we realize how Columbia’s positive impact extends beyond what we imagined. </p>
<p>Take, for example, Estonia. Unbeknownst to many of its students, Columbia has strong and positive ties to the tiny former Soviet republic in the Baltics. And as of last week, those ties got a lot stronger. </p>
<p>Nine days ago, Estonians elected Toomas Hendrik Ilves, CC '76, as their third president since the nation gained its independence. A Social Democrat, Ilves was born in Sweden to Estonian parents exiled from the Soviet Union. He relocated to the U.S. along with his parents, attended Columbia, and later returned to Estonia after the Soviet disintegration. Before becoming president, he served as Estonia’s foreign minister and ambassador to the U.S. </p>
<p>Though Ilves relinquished his U.S. citizenship before being appointed ambassador, he has maintained some of his American identity. For example, he retains a fundamental belief in democracy and, according to an interview published a few years ago, a love for alternative rock. It seems he has taken his Columbia education with him as well; rumor has it that he’s a big fan of the Core. </p>
<p>America’s political atmosphere tends to persuade Ivy League-educated politicians to sweep their educations under the rug for the sake of populist appeal, but for many foreign leaders, the more elite and Western the qualifications, the better. Ilves joins Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, Law '94, in the “Columbia Club” of post-Soviet leaders. Their educations fit with the political climates of their countries. As their nations drift increasingly westward, the presidents must talk the Western talk and walk the Western walk. Ilves should be all set-after all, he was a psych major at Columbia. </p>
<p>Ilves’s victory has solidified a trend. All three Baltic countries-Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania-now have “exile” presidents. Both Lithuania’s Valdas Adamkus and Latvia’s Vera Vike-Freiberga left the Soviet Union with their parents during World War II. Adamkus attended the University of Munich and later moved to the U.S. to work for the Environmental Protection Agency, while Vike-Freiberga attended University of Toronto and later McGill. </p>
<p>In recent years, the Baltic countries entered the European Union and NATO, expanded free market and democratic initiatives, and effectively quashed any undesirable remnants of their Soviet-dominated pasts. Westernizing their leadership was the next logical step in this westward-ho trajectory. Today, all three Baltic presidents are not simply Western sympathizers; they’re Western. </p>
<p>Jenik Radon, CC '67, is an additional component of Columbia’s “Eesti link,” (Eesti is the Estonian name for the country) and yet another example of how Columbia has impacted Estonia in a big, but little-known, way. Radon, who is now a member of SIPA’s faculty, arrived in Estonia in 1988 before the country had become one with the West. Ilves and Radon met during Estonia’s nascent independence movement, when Ilves worked as a journalist at Radio Free Liberty, and when the Soviet Union was ostensibly still in tact. </p>
<p>After the Soviet Union fell, the two friends went on to play fundamental roles in laying the groundwork for Estonia’s democracy and free market reforms. A Stanford-trained lawyer by trade, Radon crafted Estonia’s privatization laws, while Ilves lobbied to gain Estonia’s acceptance in Western political circles, first as Estonia’s ambassador to the U.S. and later as foreign minister. He helped secure Estonia’s EU and NATO memberships.</p>
<p>Radon then extended Columbia’s Eesti link. In 1990, he created the Eesti Fellowship, a program designed to send Columbia undergraduates to Estonia for the summer to work in government and public service. Radon unleashed the Columbia onslaught. </p>
<p>More than seventy-five Columbia undergraduates spent their summers working in Estonia up until the late 1990s. They wrote presidential speeches, authored parts of the country’s application to the EU, aided Estonian hospitals in their modification efforts, and wrote Estonia’s higher education accreditation laws. Their behind-the-scenes impact was no doubt extraordinary, and the fellows went on to win prestigious national scholarships and achieve remarkable successes in their professional lives. </p>
<p>In the late 1990s, Radon aptly declared “mission accomplished” in Estonia, renamed the fellowship “Eesti-Eurasia,” and began sending students to Georgia-a former Soviet republic in more dire straits. But Columbia’s “Eesti link” remains, and, with the dawn of Ilves’s victory, hopefully it will grow anew. </p>
<p>Columbia should look to alumni like Ilves, Radon, and the former Eesti-Eurasia fellows as potential mentors for today’s undergraduates. There are thousands of Columbia alumni both in New York City and around the world doing great things with their education. Yet only a precious few programs-such as the Eesti-Eurasia Fellowship-send Columbia undergraduates out of Morningside Heights to work alongside the University’s alums. Columbia College should spearhead an effort to reinvigorate and develop such programs, which connect the greater Columbia community in a special way. More importantly, these kinds of opportunities prove life-changing for undergraduates, many of whom could use the guidance of inspiring mentors.</p>