Hi Professor Zarghamee,

My name is Izzy Lapidus and I am a first-year in your The Economics of Gender course. I was super excited to take this class and had a really great experience in it today. I'm really passionate about a lot of the material you covered today and really loved analyzing the various graphs and data-representations. I've never taken an econ class class, but so far this might be my favorite class in my Barnard experience thus far!

Now onto introducing myself.

Hi again. My name is Izzy and I'm a first-year at Barnard majoring in Computer Science and minoring in Education. Both inside and outside of the classroom, I consider myself a "stemgirl." On a more professional level, I'm very involved in the girls in STEM social media space and additionally deliver talks frequently sharing my own STEM story. At the ripe age of 8, I declared to my parents that I wanted to be an astrophysicist. My passion for the universe eventually enabled me to conduct research as a senior in high school on brown dwarf binaries. Last February, my team discovered brown dwarf 2M2351B, a companion to brown dwarf 2M2351A thriving in a binary-system 66 light-years from us here on Earth. Fun fact: we made this discovery through an error in our code!

The culmination of major life changes, deep-thinking, and an exceptional summer coding experience made me switch my expected major to Computer Science. I want to obtain this degree so that I can go on to teach others—specifically girls and young women—how to code. I also want to obtain this degree to convey the message that if I can do it, you can do it.

My life mission is to re-envision the way we view STEM as a society. I aspire to develop innovative approaches to STEM education that bring science and computing closer to the people. Who I most want to be is a role model.

I'm thrilled to be in your class and excited to teach what I learn to my community.

I hope you have a great night.

All the best,

Izzy Lapidus ****she/her

Barnard College, Columbia University '24