Our children deserve to grow up in a world where we all have what we need to survive and thrive. We know that right now, this world is painstakingly far from reality. Over 13,000 children have been killed in Gaza since October 7th.

As a young person myself, I see education as one of the only paths towards a world where the actions of empire today are rendered impossible. There is so much I do not yet know, other than we must seek and have access to political education, lead with love and empathy, and commit ourselves to the lifelong struggle for collective liberation.

October 7th radicalized me in ways I have not been able to fully put into words quite yet. I intend to bring my politicized spirit into the elementary classroom and begin serving as an elementary school educator this Fall. The below bio is a snapshot of my work before October 7th. I've devoted as much of my time since then to organizing for Palestine and against the ongoing censorship of Pro-Palestinian and Anti-Zionist speech on my campus. More to come on this site once I have the chance. If you want to see my most updated digital presence, please feel free to follow me on Instagram, @izzylapidus.

Free Palestine. Our futures are intertwined. All empires will fall. A better world is possible. 

With love and in solidarity, 
Izzy, soon-to-be Teacher Squiz!
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Hello, world! 🌎 👋 👩‍💻 My name is Izzy Lapidus and I am a senior at Barnard College of Columbia University majoring in Computing, Design, and Pedagogy—a special major I created to pursue my passion for re-imagining computer science education 🚀 As a sophomore, I was Barnard's youngest selected speaker at the annual Barnard Gala celebrating past, present, and future Barnard students in STEM. 

In Spring 2023, I studied abroad in Copenhagen, Denmark in the Child Development and Education program. Throughout the semester, I spent 40 hours at a local elementary school where I designed and taught my own computer science curriculum to a class of 7-year-olds each week, curating a mix of unplugged and Scratch-based activities. See here for an example of my slide deck. 👾 I also took a Children With Special Needs course where I worked on a praxis project developing a 5-piece framework for creating an inclusive computer science education environment. See here for my Designing for Inclusion slide deck. 🧩

I’m particularly interested in exploring and dismantling the barriers that exist in CS education for those historically excluded from computing fields. For my senior thesis project at Barnard, I'm co-creating the very first computer science education course in Barnard's history: CS in the City, which will be co-taught by my two major advisors in Barnard's CS and Education departments respectively. I'm hoping to use CS in the City as a scaleable foundational CS course that can be brought to K-12 schools across my community, New York City. By laying a foundation in NYC, I'm idealizing that CS in the City can be expanded to schools across the nation and world. With this said, as I continue to finalize the course with my advisor, I'm additionally working on bringing together a global community of students passionate about advocating and creating in-school computer science education opportunities in their own communities. I believe that computer science education should be a foundational part of the in-school education of every student, in every school, everywhere. 47% of public high schools in the U.S do not offer a single computer science course—we have work to do! If you're interested in working with me to bring CS Ed to schools in your community, shoot me an email 👩‍💻❤️🌎

I also serve as the Head of Communications Committee at Barnard Admissions where I oversee how our Barnard Student Admissions Representative (BSAR) team engages with our 14K social media reach. I also serve as a BSAR myself & lead many tours for prospective students! 🤳

Beyond Admissions, I serve as a Senior STEAM Student Educational Experience Designer (SEED) in Barnard's Community Engagement and Inclusion Office. I've designed, taught, organized, and facilitated a variety of different STEAM learning experiences. I was the lead designer of the Math Olympics, an event for a class of 5th graders to practice their fractions and multiplication skills. I was also the lead designer of STEM Fest, an end-of-school-year celebration of all things STEM involving 5+ different hands-on STEM learning activities 🧬👩‍🔬👩‍💻

I'm an active member of the Kode With Klossy community and spent the early months of Summer 2023 serving as an Instructor Assistant in our Web Development camps. Through my work as a Content Creator and Community Ambassador with KWK, I've emceed KWK x Apple events, interviewed Karlie Kloss, spoken on several panels, and got a handshake in with Tim Cook 💚

In the past, I've interned with the Barnard Athena Center for Leadership as their Entrepreneurship Intern organizing and co-hosting our annual Barnard Startup Summit for aspiring and established entrepreneurs in the Barnard ecosystem 👥

I'm a self-taught iOS developer and am working on building my first app. It's called Codele—it's like the Wordle but it's daily coding questions! 🎲

I create tons of content across my Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn where I share about computer science education, applying to Barnard, Notion tips, and everything in between. Tap in! 💥

As a forever camp-kid, I spend the majority of my summers at my childhood sleepaway camp working as a bunk counselor in the middle-of-nowhere Massachusetts. I believe that this is the some of the most important work a young person passionate about education can do. There's nothing more relaxing to me than hanging out with a bunch of kids bedazzling things and making friendship bracelets. I serve on the Leadership Team at my camp and am already counting down the days till next summer!

My most-active email is ibl2105@barnard.edu.
- For networking calls and interests in connecting about CS in the City or organizing for CS Ed, please email me with the subject line [CS ED ORGANIZING].
- For speaking engagements, influencer marketing, and partnerships, please email me, with the subject lines [SPEAKING], [INFLUENCING], or [PARTNERSHIP] respectively.

Thanks for supporting me on my journey—know that I'm always supporting you on yours :)