A large part of my life was a complete lie to most people I knew until I reached high school. “So, whose house am I dropping you off at?” The harmless question invited a sharp pang of anxiety in my stomach that came every time someone asked me about my family. This time, I was 12, and my friend’s dad was driving us home from a bat mitzvah in Coney Island. Without lifting my firm gaze from the floor of...

What I value most about Columbia is its ability to amalgamate the seemingly disparate. The classrooms of the nontraditional school I attended in 9t​ h​ grade were full of students of wide-ranging ages and backgrounds. This truly diverse environment was something I greatly valued, and it made our class discussions deeper and multi-dimensional. In a similar way, at Columbia, students from the College, General Studies, and Barnard learn and study together, fusing different perspectives, ages, identities, nationalities, and ideas. This...

Boats of migrants slicing through dark waters. Dramatic portraits of civil rights activists. The front page of the New York Times has long served as my lens for understanding the world. It has influenced my love for the power of visual communication and the versatility of storytelling. Art isn’t just “art” - it’s an instrument for social change. Images make me think, cry, wonder, and act. I can distinctly recall how I felt after moments of experiencing this...

The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz; This is How You Lose Her, Junot Diaz; Call Me by Your Name, André Aciman; Running with Scissors, Augusten Burroughs; The Plague, Albert Camus; The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien; Giovanni’s Room, James Baldwin; The Photographer’s Playbook, Jason Fulford and Gregory Halpern; It’s What I Do, Lynsey Addario; Evicted, Matthew Desmond; The Hate U Give, Angie Thomas; Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in...