On his way to Westside, probably

Next up in our Senior Wisdom series, we have Yadir Lakehal – who is meme famous and 3D prints food.

Name, School, Major, Hometown: Yadir Lakehal, SEAS, Mechanical Engineering 3-2 Program, Casablanca, Morocco

Claim to fame: Most of my friends know me as the dude who 3D prints food in the first floor of Mudd, but my greatest achievement was reaching ~3k likes on a columbia buy sell memes post.

Where are you going? I’m usually on my way to Westside. Where are you going?

What are 3 things you learned at Columbia and would like to share with the Class of 2021?

1) Your life leading up to Columbia was and is probably going to be full of successes, but you will also see lots of failures. Don’t let your past failures define your path. For example, I once got a 6% on a midterm, eventually did better than a C in the class, and subsequently ended up writing a Senior Wisdom, so we can all do great things.

Can we talk more about 3D printing food, though?

The actual sport has more water than this photo

The Columbia Women’s Water Polo team started from the bottom, and climbed their way to nationals. Here is their story. 

Amy Gong Liu started the year as the captain of the Women’s Water Polo club team. She was also the only member of the Women’s Water Polo club team.

“It was just me at the club fair,” the CC sophomore said of recruitment season. Club sports don’t receive the same financial and institutional support as their varsity counterparts at Columbia. The Club Sports Governing Board gave the team about $4000 this year, over half of which went to paying league dues. And while head coaches of varsity sports normally recruit from elite high schools, Women’s Water Polo didn’t have a recruitment process, or a head coach.

“I knew that if I didn’t recruit a good set of new people, our team wouldn’t have enough people to compete in the league.” The 2015-16 team’s captain had graduated, and the president chose to study abroad. With only her own resources, Gong Liu recruited as hard as she could. “My pitch at the club table was, ‘Hi, do you know how to swim?'” Of the 11 members of the team who were recruited and stayed, only five came in with any water polo experience.

The newly formed Women’s Water Polo club team, comprising not a single graduating senior, would need dedication and perseverance to succeed and even survive. They solicited and received help from some unlikely sources. Granger Abuhoff brought his YMCA club team to scrimmage with Columbia every Sunday. “They kick our ass every single weekend,” Gong Liu admitted, “but it’s been really really good for our growth.” Preslav Djippov, formerly involved with Bulgarian and American national teams, runs drills with the team every practice. “But I think the most valuable people we’ve had coaching this year have been People on the men’s water polo team.” Gong Liu thanked Wei Shen Ng and Casidhe McClone specifically for their contributions.

While it took sacrifices for members to show up for 9:30-11:30 pm weekday practices (let alone four other days of practice, on land or in the pool), the experience drew them closer. Gong Liu’s main goal as a captain was to “make the team feel like a family.” Part of this was pragmatic – you get people to show up to practice by becoming friends with them. But late practices and later nights brought the team together. “We were sitting at our holiday party, and we were writing notes to each other about how much each other have impacted our lives. We passed around sheets, and we looked at each other and collectively started crying. I looked around and thought… ‘this is it.'”

Find out how they did after the jump.

Take us wherever this is?

Our next senior wisdom comes from Sophie Laruelle who wants you to get off your phone (after reading this). 

Name, School, Major, Hometown: Sophie Therese Laruelle/CC/Music/New York City!! JK Westchester. Ok……Scarsdale.

Claim to fame: Over the past four years, I’ve played everything from a demonic environmentalist to an incestuous queen to a frisky CUMB member to Jeb Bush. And that’s just on stage!

Where are you going? Back to square one. That’s not as depressing as it sounds.

What are 3 things you learned at Columbia and would like to share with the Class of 2021?

1) Capitalize on Columbia’s resources! That student life fee isn’t for nothing. If there is something you want to use or change or create on campus, find out how you can. This is your school. Use it!

2) Get off your phone. Acknowledge the person next to you in the elevator. Make eye contact with the other living, breathing humans around you and live in the present moment. Look out for people- ask them how they are and genuinely find out. No one can make Columbia a community except the students within it.

3) Be warned: If you sign up for a meal plan, you can’t cancel it once classes start. It’s a year-long, fiery, emotionally charged commitment. You’ll go through ups and down, shockingly good and inevitably bad days, but surf and turf will make it all worth it maybe.

More words wise and theatrical after the jump

Shreya Sunderram (left) and Allison Emmet (right) celebrating the launch of their podcast

A group of Barnard Speaking Fellows hosted an event last night in honor of the launch of their new podcast, “The Speakeasy”. Betsy Ladyzhets, Bwog Editor and Writing Fellow, attended the event, and was both entranced and inspired by the podcast’s words.

Last night, a group of Barnard Speaking Fellows led by Allison Emmet (BC ’18) released the first season of their new podcast, “The Speakeasy.” The goal of the Speaking Center is to help Barnard students become more comfortable with their voices and with the act of public speaking, and to be more thoughtful in what they say; Speaking Fellows do this through workshops with students, both individually and in small groups. “The Speakeasy” is a less formal extension of the Center’s goal, as its episodes discuss the relationship of speech to other social issues affecting Barnard students. The first season, which went up on iTunes last night, includes four episodes on speaking anxiety, activism, gender, and professionalism.

To celebrate the podcast’s launch, the Speaking Fellows hosted an event in a small Altschul lecture room. I’ve had a class in that room all semester, but when I stepped inside, I almost didn’t recognize it – the space had been transformed with low lighting, string lights, couches, streamers, and even a rug. Blackboards were adorned with Speaking Center mottos and a written-out link to the Center’s website. One Speaking Fellow brought in a group of large silver balloons spelling out the word “SPEAK” a few minutes into the event, just in case attendees were still unclear on the identity of their hosts. A classroom in which I once took an organic chemistry exam now felt like a comfortable space for a study break, where I could forget my responsibilities for an hour or two.

Poems, music, etc.

In our second senior wisdom today, Paulina Mangubat talks about memes and wise things. 

Ready to facilitate some discourse

Name, School, Major, Hometown: Paulina Mangubat, Barnard College, political science and East Asian studies, Phoenix, AZ

Claim to fame: In a past life, I worked for Spectator, where I appropriated the Bored@Butler “campus discourse” meme and transformed it into a branding strategy. Bored@Butler doesn’t exist anymore, so I’m not technically guilty of intellectual theft. I probably solicited an op-ed (or several) from you at some point in 2016!

In between all the op-ed solicitations, I also served as the co-president of Columbia University Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.

Where are you going? I’m going to finish writing a TV pilot based upon my Spectator experience. It’s a dark comedy/murder mystery, and someone (not the opinion editor) dies within the first five minutes of the show.

What are 3 things you learned at Columbia and would like to share with the Class of 2021?

1) Allow yourself to be starstruck. It’s true that everyone at Columbia is “just a normal person,” but it’s also true that we’re all doing really, really cool stuff. When I look at my friend group, I see a motley assortment of artists, dancers, scientists, astronauts, poets, shit-starters, activists, and everything in between. I’ll bet that your friend group’s the same way. So cheer for your peers! Read the shit they post on social media. Go to their shows. Hoot and holler when they walk into EC parties looking like a million bucks. Be utterly flabbergasted by their greatness.

She learned more than just one thing, right?

Herding sheeple or just making funny faces at them?

Read another senior wisdom to learn how to be wise! Rachel Ford shares a few things.

Name, School, Major, Hometown: Rachel Ford, Barnard, MESAAS, Cumberland, RI

Claim to fame: Former Personnel Manager of CUMB who herded sheeple I love. Former McAC chair who planned Barnard traditions. Left a freshman who joined a band trip under false pretenses behind in Ithaca, NY in November 2015. Will not shut up about my study abroad experience or the plight of the Palestinian people. Have attended all women academic institutions my entire life. Angry feminist.

Where are you going? I’ll be staying in the city and trying to make ends meet while I keep looking for a job (any leads appreciated lol).

We don’t have leads on jobs, but we have leads on more wisdom

the central park aesthetic

Bwogline: The UK and EU are arguing over a Brexit negotiation. Brexit Secretary David Davis says that the UK won’t pay a 100 billion euro fee as the “divorce bill.” (BBC)

Study tip: Get started on things early so you won’t be stressed near the deadline. This might seem like something really obvious to say, but go start that essay you’ve been procrastinating right now!

Music: Starman by David Bowie is a classic. Listen to it on repeat.

Procrastination: Go for a walk in the park! It’s a beautiful day outside. Maybe even go all the way to Central Park instead of Morningside or Riverside.

Overheard: (Very nonchalantly) “Have I told you about the time that [suitemate] tried to kill me?”