Alicia Graf Named GS Class Day Speaker, Prize Recipient

Dancer Alicia Graf, GS ’03, will serve as the alumna speaker at the School of General Studies 2008 Class Day on May 19, the school announced Tuesday evening.

Graf, who began dancing at age 3, moved to New York at 17 to join the Dance Theatre of Harlem, where she quickly rose through company ranks. After a debilitating leg injury three years later, she entered GS in 1999. A history major, she completed her thesis on the Dance Theatre of Harlem under the guidance of history professor Eric Foner and graduated magna cum laude. Fully recovered, she returned to the dance world and is now an acclaimed member of New York’s Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.

Graf saw her time at Columbia, she told Columbia Magazine earlier this year, as a time of exploration and was active in groups including the Black Students Organization and a praise dance troupe she founded.

“In high school I didn’t have a social life, and I was never part of a club,” she said. “So when I went back to school, I was like, ‘I want to be in this club, and I want to be in that one!’ I just had fun doing everything that I had never done before.”

“It’ll be good to hear her thoughts and experiences about what she’s done since she graduated and how her time here affected her,” said GS senior Krystine Keeler, who had not previously heard of Graf.

Graf will also receive the University’s Medal for Excellence, which according to an e-mail from GS associate director of communications Allison Scola, is awarded annually to a Columbia alumnus under the age of 45 “whose record in scholarship, public service, and/or professional life is outstanding.”