11/4/22

Happy November, LinkedIn! 🍁 I’m happily on my Fall Break after a jam-packed summer and Fall semester (thus far) and I thought it was about time I shared some life updates about what I’ve been up to these past 6 months.

💫 I finished my sophomore year at Barnard on the Dean’s List and immediately jumped into two 6-week internships on campus. I worked at the Athena Center for Leadership as their Entrepreneurship Intern organizing and emceeing our annual Barnard Start-Up Summit! The event was a massive success. We brought in speakers from the Barnard entrepreneurship ecosystem to share their experiences founding their own companies and hosted an inspiring networking event. I also continued my work with STEAM in the City, spending the summer as a STEAM Pedagogical Summer Institute Administration Fellow. The team worked on a handful of different projects for our Teacher Fellows and prepared for our annual STEAM Summer Institute. My favorite event was STEM Fest, a STEAM celebration we worked on for the elementary school students at the Boys and Girls Club of Harlem (BGCH).

🏕 I wrapped up my internships at Barnard and headed up to the middle-of-nowhere Massachusetts where I spent the rest of the summer working at my childhood sleep-away camp as a bunk counselor. Going back to camp was the best decision I’ve ever made. I learned so much about pedagogy, spent my time playing games and making cool projects with kids, and worked with the best staff possible. I can’t wait to go back next summer.

📚 I started my junior year at Barnard taking 5 classes: two computer science courses, User Interface Design and Digital Game Design; one education course, Gender, Sexuality, and School; and two psychology courses, the Psychology of Learning (Lecture and Lab). The best part about creating my own major is that all the classes I take are totally my vibe and fulfill major requirements! I also always get to work on projects that directly relate to my interests. In my Psych of Learning Lab, my group is working on an independent research project studying the learning rates associated with students (half of whom have learning disabilities) learning a computer science topic through static media versus dynamic media.

🇩🇰 We’re officially going abroad, baby! I was accepted into DIS Copenhagen and will be studying Child Development & Diversity in Copenhagen, Denmark in Spring 2023. My Core Course is titled Child Development and Education in Scandinavia and I’ll be gaining 35-45 hours of fieldwork throughout the semester working in a Danish classroom one day a week! Scandinavia is famous for its pedagogy, so it’s a perfect place for me to go given my academic interests.

📣 Say hello to Barnard’s newest tour guide! I started a new role in Admissions at Barnard working as a Barnard Student Admissions Representative. I’ve just started giving tours and it’s been so much fun. I’m also continuing my role working in Social Media in Admissions, so catch me on the Barnard Admissions IG and Tiktok 😉 I’m working on a new blog post for Admissions on designing my own major which I’m so excited to be sharing since I get asked so much questions about my major.

🌱 I’ve been promoted to a Senior STEAM SEED in STEAM in the City! We rebranded this summer to a title that better encapsulated the work we do. SEED stands for Student Educational Experience Designer. We’ve just finished our semesterly training where we learned about the history of Columbia’s relationship with Harlem, New York City’s Public School System, bias, Universal Design for Learning principles, special education and disability students, & much more. Our classroom projects are just now rearing up and I’m so excited! We recently did a field trip with one of our Teacher Fellows and her kindergarten scientists to Central Park where we explored lots of pine cones and rainbow leaves. Next week, we’ll be beginning our Spy Science unit with another Teacher Fellow’s elementary school students at BGCH. In a few weeks, we have a class coming to Barnard where they will be conducting a STEAM Scavenger Quest around campus to practice their math skills!

✍️ I’m a founding member of the brand-new Barnard-founded Columbia University Journal on Science, Technology, Ethics, and Policy (JSTEP). I serve as the Community Innovation and Learning Co-Lead where we’re working on launching the first-ever Columbia JSTEP Global High School Fellowship for high school students all over the world passionate about STEP topics. We released an interest form and it got over 1000 responses in a mere few days. The JSTEP Team is so excited about the interest in the Fellowship and I’m honored that it is spearheaded by the Community Innovation and Learning arm of JSTEP.

🗣 As an upperclassmen at Barnard, I thought it was a good time for me to get involved in some of the many committees we have for students on campus. I was selected as a member of the Center for Engaged Pedagogy’s Student Advisory Committee and was also selected as a member of Barnard’s Student Government Association’s Academic Affairs Committee. I’m excited to be a part of both of these committees and to adhere to the academic needs of students at Barnard.

🤳 I’ve been stepping up my TikTok game and have been trying to consistently make content about all things college, computer science, education, and everything in between. I also make tons of educational content about Notion. If any of those things sound like your vibe… join me at @izzylapidus on the good old TikkyTokky!

🫶 I’m really tryna step up my social media game in general and put out more content!!!! I have so much fun writing, filming, and creating & I wanna connect with as many folks passionate about the same stuff I’m passionate about as possible ❤️ Let’s grow together besties 🌱 If you made it this far in my updates, thank you :) I appreciate you!

And a big thank you to all of the mentor folks in my life who have been such amazing role models and supporters of me these past few months. You all know who you are and I would not be here without your belief in me!

Cheers to a well-deserved Fall Break and I’m wishing you all an amazing rest of your semesters!

Izzy <3