Hello, world! 🌎 👋 👩‍💻 My name is Izzy Lapidus and I am a rising 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 🚀 In 2022, I was Barnard's youngest selected speaker at the annual Barnard Gala celebrating  past, present, and future Barnard students in STEM. 

I've just returned from studying abroad in Copenhagen in the Child Development and Education program. Through my practicum course, I worked 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 in 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 here 👩‍💻❤️🌎

I'm the incoming Head of Communications Committee at Barnard Admissions where I will oversee how our Barnard Student Admissions Representative (BSAR) team engages with our 14K social media reach. I also serve as a BSAR myself 🤳

Beyond Admissions, I serve as the Senior STEAM Student Educational Experience Designer 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 will be returning for my 3rd summer to serve as an Instructor Assistant in our Web Development camps. Through my work as a Content Creator and Community Ambassador, I've emceed KWK x Apple events, interviewed Karlie Kloss, and spoken on several panels 💚

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 educational 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! 💥

For networking calls and interests in connecting about CS in the City or organizing for CS Ed, please email me here with the subject line [CS ED ORGANIZING].

For speaking engagements, influencer marketing, and partnerships, please email me here, 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 :)