Krass: wicked, cool, OMG - no word in the English language can fulfill the weight nor the satisfying pronunciation of krass. A Berliner jumping a 3-meter subway station gap: krass. Bicyclists wheelie-ing down a frosted street: krass. Doch: a concise, more gratifying version of "Was, too!" used during playground squabbles. "The Fußball wasn't out of bounds!" "Doch!" These two words, I realized, were untranslatable. We sat criss-cross applesauce across from each other on my weathered porch, my eight-year-old Music...

At nine, I was a cartographer. At ten, a novelist. At eleven, a spy; at twelve, a dog trainer. Each year, I took on a new profession, new interests and fresh enthusiasms. Climbing into my teenage years, I have filtered these, yet my multifaceted mindset has not changed. As I considered which learning environment would best complement this, I initially wavered - larger schools, maybe? Lecture- heavy? I’ve found, though, that this mindset coincides with Barnard’s multifaceted foundation:...

How does language acquisition and development interact with cognitive functioning? In what ways are human behavior and linguistics interconnected, and how are cultures molded by those connections? How can we bridge language barriers to improve global health and education? Cognitive curiosities and problem-solving have always been at my core: my well-used copy of “The Ways Things Work” sits on my bookshelf, beside it my “Inventors-only” journal inscribed with my earliest sketches of the “Mind-write” and “Get-this-song-out-of-my-head app.” My experiences have...

Pippilotta Viktualia Rollgardina Pfefferminz Efraimstochter Langstrumpf is my muse. The freckled, gap-toothed, 9-year-old Fräulein Pippi Langstrumpf, or "Longstocking," is the star of the classic book series named after her. Pippi has been, and is, the vivacious embodiment of who I aim to be. With her superhuman strength and mismatched stockings, Pippi sails to Taka-Tuka-Land, works out by lifting her horse, Kleiner Onkel, grows bottles of lemonade on trees, and lives in her enormous, flamboyant "Villa Kunterbunt" with her monkey,...