This update is slightly early, but the fall semester is over and I just completed a Winter course. I’m more than halfway done with my senior year!

(As of Jan 10, 2025) PSA: As an alum from GALA (Girls Academic Leadership Academy), I am deeply mournful for the 5 student families that have lost their homes in the Los Angeles wildfires. Please consider donating to the GALA Fire Relief Fund if able: https://www.fogala.org/galafirerelieffund

Highlights:

Clubs:

Girls Who Code:

• A few of our members are HarvardWECode Tech Fellows so we will be supporting them and students attending the conference in February!
• Follow Lehigh’s Girls Who Code LinkedIn Page

J.M. Ent.

• Shhh… Look forward to our future covers and performances next semester!
• Follow JM Ent’s Instagram Page

Classes/Courses:

Business Classes:

• I successfully completed and received high marks in my Entrepreneurship course, HR Management course, and Business Law course!

Computer Science Classes:

• Design and Analysis of Algorithms had a very difficult final but I passed!!
• I had to complete a programming project and a quiz during finals season for Operating System Design which was pretty difficult but I passed in this as well!
• My team and I successfully completed our final presentation with our sponsors and advisor.

Career/Professional Development

This winter I participated in an immersive course in the Bay Area called Lehigh Silicon Valley (LSV). This course opened my eyes to the possibilities and types of startups and funding options for those.

• I heard from some great speakers! Here are some of my favorites:
  • Founding Director of Soccer without Borders: Ben was a great person to hear from. His story about how he started Soccer Without Borders from Lehigh and his humility was great to see. Seeing a non-profit founder was an eye-opening experience during LSV because we met up with several VC’s and more money/growth-driven people prior to this meetup.
  • Co-Founder, CEO of SmartPass: As someone that is interested about the edTech space, it was cool to hear from someone that started their product as a side-project during university. In addition, my interest in SASS products was further fueled by how he was able to scale the product.
  • Venture Partner at Spero Ventures: As a computer science major, seeing someone like Marc, so invested in the technical side of things go into Venture was amazing. Some of the products/startups he has co-founded in the past are now huge and it was great to hear both his great successes and failures.
  • Member Board of Trustees at Museum of Flight: Sandy’s stories from her past experiences at Alaska Airlines and Boeing was phenomenal. She shared the great and the difficult times about her experiences. It was really great to hear about the number of hats she’s worn and as someone that has many interests, I loved seeing someone actually pursue that. Often times, I was told that I can have only one career in my life or that my goals were unreasonable, but Sandy encouraged me to continue to strive for my goals.
• Here are my takeaways from all of these great speakers:
  • Be curious
  • Just do it/go for it!
  • Fail hard and fail fast
  • Say “yes” to opportunities especially during early career
  • Take time to find your “why’s” in life/find your passion(s)
  • Network!! If you don’t like that, think of it as “Make new friends!”

So how am I de-stressing?

• Dance and Sleep are still my main de-stressers so that hasn’t changed.
• Networking and chatting with my LSV cohort!
• Going home and meeting up with hometown friends!

What are my next steps?

I’ll be starting a new semester in a week with less classes but more work/projects!

Here are some things I am looking forward to in 2025!

• CSE 217: Computer Science Projects: I’ve always wanted to start a computer science project but rarely had time to do so with my rigorous work and school schedule. This semester, that self-paced project will be part of a course!
• JM: It’ll be my last semester in the dance club so I’m looking forward to the performances and dance covers.
• Baker Institute: I have been seldomly involved in this great resource and now that I’ve completed LSV, I feel more confident to walk into this space and take advantage of the resources!
• Graduating, starting a new job, and moving to a new city!!

Five-ish months down, 4 more to go. Look forward to my update for month 6 out of 9!