Dassi Karp really just wants to bake a babka before her time here is up.

Name, School, Major, Hometown: Dassi, BC, History, Chicago!

Claim to fame: Does attending SGA meetings as a non-member for almost three years count?

Where are you going? Washington Heights

What are 3 things you learned at Columbia and would like to share with the Class of 2023?

1. The library system is magical. Learn how to use it. If you can’t get something through Borrow Direct or ILL, the library might buy it for you if you ask. And they have DVDs! I highly recommend the eighth floor of the stacks and making use of the Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

2. People start applying summer jobs in the fall (or earlier!). I don’t know how everybody else finds this out, but nobody told me and it would have really been a game changer.

3. Take all the classes. I’m a proud humanities person, but I think I’ve fulfilled the Quantitative Reasoning requirement (the nine ways were the best thing about Barnard, getting rid of them was a real loss and you can’t change my mind) eight times over. That’s not a brag–if you’re interested in something, don’t be scared of all the people who already know everything in that intro class because they took the AP in high school. They’ll be bored, that’s their problem. And this might be a class you don’t excel in. That’s hard to get over, but you’ve all handled greater disappointment. If you’re used to writing papers, you might like writing proofs. If you build robots, try constructing an argument. Or, even better, lets get rid of that dichotomy completely and just learn and create things.

“Back in my day…” There was late night at Hewitt (brownies!), First-Year English (real bad), and the Barnard library was in Lehman Hall (it didn’t have any books, but there was a lot of quality graffiti which is just as interesting).

Favorite Columbia controversy? BARNARD IS ONE OF THE FOUR UNDERGRADUATE COLLEGES OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY AND ALSO IS AN INDEPENDENT WOMEN’S COLLEGE. ALL STUDENTS CAN BASICALLY TAKE THE SAME CLASSES AND PARTICIPATE IN THE SAME CLUBS AND REALLY YOUR EXPERIENCE IS SHAPED BY THE CHOICES YOU MAKE WHILE HERE.

Justify your existence in 30 words or fewer: Nope.

What was your favorite class at Columbia? I’m bad at favorites. But Culture and Politics in the Progressive Era, 1890-1945 with Hilary Hallett was a good time.

Would you rather give up oral sex or cheese? Nah.

Whom would you like to thank? Bwog for letting me write for them even though I barely ever came to meetings and never once pitched an article. Professors who force everyone to speak in class. Joy from Peet’s. The Manhattan Eruv. Barnard’s Institutional Funding and Sponsored Research team.

One thing to do before graduating: I think I’ll bake a babka.

Any regrets? Sure, a bunch. But I’ll be okay.