Meet the people breathing new life into agèd Bwog.

Bwog, like many other things, is a living, breathing organism whose parts expand and contract over time. At the beginning of each semester, Bwog expands to hold many new and wonderful Staff Writers, Daily Editors, Illustrators, and members of our Tech Team in our internal ecosystem. To familiarize everyone with these new additions to Bwog, some key questions were asked: the infamous “fun fact”; the intended major (ever-fluid, especially for first-years); and, most crucially, whether our new staff would rather fight a horse-sized duck or 1000 duck-sized horses. The official tally of those that would rather fight a horse-sized duck: 27. 1000 duck-sized horses: 15. (It should be noted that three staffers elected to fight neither or both animals. Statistically, we have no idea what to make of this.) Read on to discover the rationale behind their choices:

New Daily Editors

1.

Name: Ella Diaz (Daily)

Pronouns: she/her

Hometown: Portland, Oregon

School and year: Barnard 2025

Major/intended major: Political Science 

Fun fact about yourself: I don’t own a single canvas tote bag. Can I really say I go to Barnard?

Would you rather fight a horse-sized duck or 1000 duck-sized horses? Why? Despite the fact that I would probably have to wear sound-canceling headphones to this fight, I would fight a horse-sized duck. I’d simply bring said duck some homemade loaves of bread, throw them, and run in the other direction as fast as I can (which, admittedly, isn’t that fast). 

2.

Name: Emerson Boone, but I go by Emma! (Daily)

Pronouns: she/her

Hometown: Virginia Beach, VA

School and year: CC ’24

Major/intended major: English, Creative Writing, and possibly a special concentration in Business Management 

Fun fact about yourself: I love tennis and YA fantasy lit

Would you rather fight a horse-sized duck or 1000 duck-sized horses? Why? 1000 duck-sized horses because they would probably travel in a pack and be easily lured into a trap.

3.

Name: Conor Wolff (Daily)

Pronouns: he/him

Hometown: Yarmouth, Maine

School and year: CC ’25

Major/intended major: Environmental Biology

Fun fact about yourself: I broke my spine while sledding. 

Would you rather fight a horse-sized duck or 1000 duck-sized horses? Why? 1000 duck-sized horses. They would be fun to punt.

New Members of Tech Team

1.

Name: Hana Memon (Tech Team—shoutout WordPress)

Pronouns: she/her

Hometown: Yardley, PA

School and year: BC 2024 

Major/intended major: Computer Science

Fun fact about yourself: I’ve been learning American Sign Language for 16 years! 

Would you rather fight a horse-sized duck or 1000 duck-sized horses? Why? I’d rather fight a Horse sized duck because their small arms are no match for my body.

2.

Name: Hailey Shewprasad (Tech Team)

Pronouns: she/her

Hometown: Mahwah, NJ

School and year: SEAS ’24

Major/intended major: Computer Science

Fun fact about yourself: I have an extensive collection of different kinds of paper clips and binder clips!

Would you rather fight a horse-sized duck or 1000 duck-sized horses? Why? I think I’d rather fight a horse-sized duck! Even though duck-sized horses would be smaller and easier to fight, 1000 of them is a bit much, whereas one horse-sized duck is less intimidating, and something really cool to see, like King Kong but duck form (and smaller). Plus, saying that a giant horse-sized duck is the way I went out is way cooler than saying a bunch of tiny horses eliminated me, in my opinion.

3.

Name: Jeremy Carin (Tech Team)

Pronouns: he/him

Hometown: Durham, NC

School and year: SEAS ’24

Major/intended major: CS, with sociology minor for funzies

Fun fact about yourself: I’m only doing my major because I wanted to make minecraft mods in middle school

Would you rather fight a horse-sized duck or 1000 duck-sized horses? Why? The horse-sized duck. It would be a bit like a dinosaur and that’d be cool even if it ate me.

New Illustrators

1.

Name: Sofia Covarrubias (Illustrator)

Pronouns: she/her

Hometown: Mexico City, Mexico

School and year: Barnard 2025

Major/intended major: Economics and political science

Fun fact about yourself: I have been dancing for 16 years!

Would you rather fight a horse-sized duck or 1000 duck-sized horses? Why? I would fight a horse-sized duck, I don’t think I would survive but if I got it to be nice to me he could be a cool pet. 

2.

Name: Ariel Wu (Illustrator)

Pronouns: she/her

Hometown: China and Boston!

School and year: Barnard 2023

Major/intended major: Psychology and CS minor

Fun fact about yourself: I was chased by a sheep!

Would you rather fight a horse-sized duck or 1000 duck-sized horses? Why? 1000 duck-sized horses, because ducks scare me in some weird ways, and I cannot imagine a giant duck! Too scary….. But I like horses and I can use tricks to make them like me instead of wanting to fight me.

3.

Name: Eli Reville (Illustrator)

Pronouns: he/him

Hometown: East Providence, RI

School and year: CC 2025

Major/intended major: I am more undecided by the second

Fun fact about yourself: I drink caffeinated black tea to help me go to sleep. Also, at one point I consumed so much caffeine in one week that I had mild withdrawal symptoms and now am barely affected.

Would you rather fight a horse-sized duck or 1000 duck-sized horses? Why? I would rather fight 1000 duck-sized horses because mostly I’m afraid of horses because they can step on me, but I am afraid of almost every part of a duck and a two-foot-tall horse probably doesn’t step very high or with much force.

4.

Name: Prisha Samdarshi (Illustrator) 

Pronouns: she/her 

Hometown: Saratoga, CA

School and year: BC 24

Major/intended major: Econ & Math

Fun fact about yourself: I made a parody of Taylor Swift’s “You Belong with Me” about the benefits of socialism and called it “Socialism’s Neat” 

Would you rather fight a horse-sized duck or 1000 duck-sized horses? Why? Like Doja Cat, I am against violence towards animals, so neither. 

5.

Name: Ava Morouse (Illustrator)

Pronouns: she/her

Hometown: Santa Barbara, California

School and year: Barnard 2023 (ish)

Major/intended major: Art History 

Fun fact about yourself: ooooh ok so random but my brother and i sang, as children, on michael bublès ICONIC xmas album (he really did that)

Would you rather fight a horse-sized duck or 1000 duck-sized horses? Why? def one thousand duck-sized horses, and they would all barf rainbows and butterflies, and we would live together in peace and harmony forever <33333

New Staff Writers

1.

Name: Sahmaya Busby (Staff Writer)

Pronouns: she/her

Hometown: Charleston, South Carolina

School and year: CC ‘25

Major/intended major: Political Science

Fun fact about yourself: I have a podcast!

Would you rather fight a horse-sized duck or 1000 duck-sized horses? Why? I would rather fight a horse-sized duck. It’s not that I think I’d win or anything; it just may increase my chances of survival.

2.

Name: Simon Panfilio (Staff Writer)

Pronouns: he/him

Hometown: Denver, Colorado

School and year: Columbia College 2025

Major/intended major: Political science

Fun fact about myself: Last year I wrote, directed, and performed in a short-form play about coping with the aftereffects of watching Cats (2019)

Would you rather fight a horse-sized duck or 1000 duck-sized horses? Why? I would rather fight 1000 duck-sized horses—while this will be utterly overwhelming, I do fear that the horse-sized duck still has at least some capacity to fly, which means I can’t escape by going somewhere it can’t reach. The battle with the 1000 duck-sized horses will be a war of attrition, but I think I can gain more of a tactical advantage by jumping onto a ledge or something, and make enough of a dent in their numbers before the tiny horses start coordinating to climb on top of each other to reach me.

3.

Name: Maxwell Lurken-Tvrdik (Staff Writer)

Pronouns: he/him

Hometown: Freeport, MN (I’ve been told 600 people doesn’t count as a “town”)

School and year: CC 2025

Major/intended major: Double in philosophy and human rights

Fun fact about yourself: I used to work at a zoo!

Would you rather fight a horse-sized duck or 1000 duck-sized horses? Why? I’d fight a horse-sized duck. 1000 of anything is overwhelming, so I suppose one big duck would be easier. Regardless, I’d beat the hell out of it one way or another.

4.

Name: Linus Glenhaber (Staff Writer)

Pronouns: he/him

Hometown: Somerville, Mass

School and year: CC ’23

Major: History and American Studies

Fun fact about myself: My friends from high school and I still use a fully defunct social media app from January 2016 as our primary mode of communication

Would you rather fight a horse-sized duck or 1000 duck-sized horses? 1 horse-sized duck mainly cause I could yell “duck” before it attacked me and I think that that would be a good way to go out.

5.

Name: Judy Goldstein (Staff Writer)

Pronouns: she/her

Hometown: Bethesda, Maryland

School and year: Barnard/Jewish Theological Seminary 2025

Major/intended major: English and Jewish Gender/Women’s studies

Fun fact about yourself: I am legally blind

Would you rather fight a horse-sized duck or 1000 duck-sized horses? Why? I would rather fight a horse-sized duck because I’m really scared of horses due to their large teeth.

6.

Name: Mason Cannon (Staff Writer)

Pronouns: he/him

Hometown: Albuquerque, NM

School: CC ’24 

Major: Creative Writing and Computer Science

Fun Fact: Riding Bikes and Indie Music are my only two personality traits

Would you rather fight a horse-sized duck or 1000 duck-sized horses? Why? I would rather fight the duck-sized horses. Looking up a picture of the inside of a duck mouth really convinced me an enormous duck would not be the move. Besides that, I have a lovely and depressing playlist called Duck Sized Horses that really could fit the baby-horse-punting vibe!

7.

Name: Anya Kopyra (Staff Writer)

Pronouns: she/her

Hometown: Grafton, Massachusetts 

School and year: CC 23

Major/intended major: Biochem

Fun fact about yourself: I’ve watched Cats (2019) on two separate occasions of my own volition 

Would you rather fight a horse-sized duck or 1000 duck-sized horses? Why? I’d take on both at the same time and win. 

8.

Name: Vicky Melkonyan (Staff Writer)

Pronouns: she/her

Hometown: Lanesborough, Massachusetts 

School and year: CC ’25

Major/intended major: Comp Lit

Fun fact about yourself: I’ll probably be fluent in 5/6-ish languages by the time I graduate!

Would you rather fight a horse-sized duck or 1000 duck-sized horses? Why? A horse-sized duck because I don’t think my soul could take having to put down 1000 little horses.

9.

Name: Lucie Swenson (Staff Writer)

Pronouns: she/her

Hometown: New York, NY

School and year: BC’22

Major/intended major: English

Fun fact about yourself: I can bike 50 miles in a single ride, but I can’t even run 5 blocks.

Would you rather fight a horse-sized duck or 1000 duck-sized horses? Why? I would choose one-on-one combat with the horse-sized duck, but then I’d try to call off the fight and befriend the duck, because it may be my one chance at riding a water horse.

10.

Name: Madison Rosenfield (Staff Writer)

Pronouns: she/her

Hometown: Boca Raton, Florida

School and year: JTS/Columbia 2025

Major/intended major: Maybe Political Science at Columbia and Jewish Ethics at JTS?? (Still very undecided on both)

Fun fact about yourself: I saw John Mulaney right after he got outta rehab. (Yes he talked about the Olivia Munn thing.)

Would you rather fight a horse-sized duck or 1000 duck-sized horses? Why? A singular horse-sized duck, no question. I would simply just run. There is no way a horse-sized duck has enough coordination and control of its own body to catch me. Plus, there’s strength in numbers ~as they say~ so I will never voluntarily put myself in a situation involving 1000 duck-sized horses. 1000 is way too many. 

11.

Name: Charlie Bonkowsky (Staff Writer)

Pronouns: he/him

Hometown: Salt Lake City, Utah

School and year: CC, 2024

Major/intended major: Political science (& maybe creative writing)

Fun fact about yourself: I have a twin brother who goes to college in California.

Would you rather fight a horse-sized duck or 1000 duck-sized horses? Why? A collection of 1000 horse-sized ducks would immediately fall to infighting, and besides, I think it’d be funny to witness. One horse-sized duck is too coordinated to fight.

12.

Name: Ava Slocum (Staff Writer)

Pronouns: she/her

Hometown: San Marino, California

School and year: CC ’25

Major/intended major: English (and hoping to minor/concentrate in something else—not sure what yet!)

Fun fact about yourself: I finally got my driver’s license this last May when I passed the test on my fourth (!!) try, after failing three times in three weeks.

Would you rather fight a horse-sized duck or 1000 duck-sized horses? Why? I feel like it would be easier to take on one horse/duck entity than 1,000, even if it’s horse-sized rather than duck-sized.

13.

Name: Obutor Ogonor (Staff Writer)

Pronouns: she/her

Hometown: Lawrenceville, Georgia

School and year: CC ’25

Major/intended major: Political Science – Statistics

Fun fact about yourself: I hate salt and vinegar chips. 

Would you rather fight a horse-sized duck or 1000 duck-sized horses? Why? Horse-sized duck. I know I wouldn’t win, but it’d mean I’d be one step closer to being able to ride that duck like a horse and go on whimsical adventures with my companion. Maybe after the fighting, we could work something out… become friends. 

14.

Name: Cher Li (Staff Writer)

Pronouns: she/her

Hometown: Beijing, China

School and year: CC’25

Major/intended major: Econ & Comp Lit

Fun fact about yourself: I didn’t perm my hair, it’s natural!

Would you rather fight a horse-sized duck or 1000 duck-sized horses? Why? I wanna fight 1000 duck-sized horses because imagine how cute those horses are gonna look?!?! I’ll call a truce and gain 1000 new duck-sized horse friends.

15.

Name: Boluwatife (Bolu) Oshuntolu (Staff Writer)

Pronouns: he/him

Hometown: Orange, NJ

School and year: SEAS ‘25

Major/intended major: Mechanical Engineering/Computer Science

Fun fact about yourself: I was born in Nigeria, and I have both Nigerian and US citizenships.

Would you rather fight a horse-sized duck or 1000 duck-sized horses? Why? I’d definitely rather fight 1000 duck-sized horses. Not because it’d make my chances easier or anything (which I think it would) but because it’d be kinda fun to just punt a ton of duck-sized horses. Not in an animal abuse way, though. I love animals.

16.

Name: Mariah Johnson (Staff Writer)

Pronouns: she/her

Hometown: Somerset, NJ

School and year: CC’23

Major/intended major: Psychology and History 

Fun fact about yourself: Everyone in my immediate family is left-handed.

Would you rather fight a horse-sized duck or 1000 duck-sized horses? Why? I’d rather fight a horse-sized duck because I’d lose either fight but I’d rather be taken out quickly, and I just think 1000 duck-sized horses would make me suffer. 

17.

Name: Caroline Alpi (Staff Writer)

Pronouns: she/her

Hometown: Arlington, VA

School and year: CC ’24

Major/intended major: Theatre and political science

Fun fact about yourself: I’ve sung the national anthem in front of Dean Norris from Breaking Bad.

Would you rather fight a horse-sized duck or 1000 duck-sized horses? Why? I would rather fight a horse-sized duck because it would be less embarrassing to get beat up by a horse-sized duck than duck-sized horses.

18.

Name: Alice Rodi (Staff Writer)

Pronouns: she/her

Hometown: Lyme, New Hampshire

School and year: Barnard 2025

Major/intended major: Linguistics and Anthropology 

Fun fact about yourself: I’ve been craving corn recently.

Would you rather fight a horse-sized duck or 1000 duck-sized horses? Why? I would rather fight a horse-sized duck because last night I had a dream about camping with a bunch of tiny (like thimble-sized) raccoons and they were really cute and nice so I don’t think I could emotionally/spiritually fight a gang of similarly sized creatures (let alone 1,000!). (*not that ducks are thimble-sized! just small)

19.

Name: Rachel Powell (Staff Writer)

Pronouns: she/her

Hometown: River Vale, New Jersey

School and year: Barnard ’22

Major/intended major: Political Science and Human Rights

Fun fact about yourself: I do the NYT mini every day!

Would you rather fight a horse-sized duck or 1000 duck-sized horses? Why? 1000 duck-sized horses because I could earn their respect with my fighting skills and then keep them all as adorable pets/friends.

20.

Name: Jake Torres

Position in Bwog: Staff Writer

Pronouns: he/him

Hometown: Boynton Beach, FL

School and year: Columbia Engineering 2025

Major/intended major: Computer Science

Fun fact about yourself: I read all of One Piece in July this summer.

Would you rather fight a horse-sized duck or 100 duck-sized horses? Why? It’s a tough choice but I think I would go with a horse-sized duck. I think it would be really funny trying to watch a huge duck try and fit into a building or through doors while it’s chasing me.

21.

Name: Michelle Twan (Staff Writer)

Pronouns: she/her

Hometown: Oradell, NJ

School and year: Barnard 2024

Major/intended major: Economics (plus the pre-med track)

Fun fact about yourself: I once memorized 324 digits of pi in seventh grade for a contest—I decided to tie with my best friend at 312 digits.

Would you rather fight a horse-sized duck or 1000 duck-sized horses? Why? I would fight the horse-sized duck because I think that would be less scary than having an army of small horses coming at me.

22.

Name: Elizabeth (Libby) Walker (Staff Writer)

Pronouns: she/her

Hometown: Mechanicsburg, PA

School and year: SEAS ’23

Major/intended major: CS

Fun fact about yourself: Last year, there was nothing to do and I’d go insanely long walks. Probably the longest one so far was walking from Columbia to NYU and back in November.

Would you rather fight a horse-sized duck or 1000 duck-sized horses? Why? I would fight the duck-sized horses because I would probably die in both of these scenarios, and I’d rather go out laughing about the tiny horses than crying about the huge duck

23.

Name: Rose Joffe (Staff Writer)

Pronouns: she/her

Hometown: Cincinnati, OH

School and year: Barnard ’25

Major/intended major: Anthropology 

Fun fact about yourself: I have a twin sister!

Would you rather fight a horse-sized duck or 1000 duck-sized horses? Why? I’d definitely rather fight 1000 duck-sized horses because I think they’d be a lot cuter and more entertaining. I’m almost positive I’d lose though. 

24.

Name: Jasveenkaur Wahan (Jas !!) (Staff Writer)

Pronouns: she/her

Hometown: Flushing, NY

School and year: Barnard 25

Intended major: Computer science with a French minor

Fun fact: I’ve played 7 instruments over the course of my life! I’ve played the harmonium, trumpet, violin, recorder, keyboard, guitar, and drums.

Would you rather fight a horse-sized duck or 1000 duck-sized horses? Why? I would rather fight the horse-sized duck because I feel like ducks are small and stupid, and a horse-sized duck would simply be big and stupid. You can outrun and outfight big stupid things, and when you can’t, you could honestly just get on its back and ride the duck and it wouldn’t be able to get you off (probably). (Disclaimer: if you get killed by a horse-sized duck because of this advice it is not my fault.)

25.

Name: Habeeba Mansour (Staff Writer)

Pronouns: she/her

Hometown: Cairo, Egypt

School and year: Barnard ‘23

Majors: Computer science and Chemistry

Fun fact: I have 12 piercings! About to be 14 tomorrow!

Would you rather fight a horse-sized duck or 1000 duck-sized horses? Why? I’d rather fight a horse-sized duck because I’d lose either way, but a horse-sized duck would be a cute way to lose.

26.

Name: Catherine Beckett (Staff Writer)

Pronouns: she/her

Hometown: Austin, TX

School and year: Barnard 2024

Major/intended major: History 

Fun fact about yourself: I had a job at a grocery store where I dressed up as a bag of groceries named Buddy and took pictures with kids.  

Would you rather fight a horse-sized duck or 1000 duck-sized horses? Why? I would rather fight a horse-sized duck because I’d rather go out with a single fatal stomp than be trampled to death by a herd.

27.

Name: Mia Ogle (Staff Writer)

Pronouns: she/her

Hometown: San Diego

School and year: Barnard 2025

Major/intended major: Undecided (but probably either English or physics)

Fun fact about yourself: I was the principal’s daughter in high school.

Would you rather fight a horse-sized duck or 1000 duck-sized horses? Why? 1000 duck-sized horses. Idk I just really hate water-dwelling animals.  

28.

Name: Ayelet Glaser (Staff Writer)

Pronouns: she/her

Hometown: Teaneck NJ

School and year: Barnard 2024

Major/intended major: Poli-Sci and English

Fun fact about yourself: I was a competitive pianist throughout high school.

Would you rather fight a horse-sized duck or 1000 duck-sized horses? Why? A horse-sized duck. At least I’ll be able to allocate my strength and fighting skills to one thing, instead of being attacked from all sides!

29.

Name: Adam Frommer (Staff Writer)

Pronouns: he/him

Hometown: New York City

School and Year: CC’25

Major/intended major: Undecided

Fun fact about yourself: I recently found out that I am only sometimes allergic to corn! I don’t understand.

Would you rather fight a horse-sized duck or 1000 duck-sized horses? Why? One horse-sized duck. My not-too-bad-but-still-annoying horse allergy (surprise, surprise!) would make fighting horses an uphill battle.

30. 

Name: Emily Fernandez (Staff Writer)

Pronouns: she/her

Hometown: West Harrison, NY

School and year: SEAS ’24

Major/intended major: Earth and Environmental Engineering

Fun fact about yourself: My alarm used to be :One Less Lonely Girl” by Justin Bieber for five years. They were indeed five less lonely years.

Would you rather fight a horse-sized duck or 1000 duck-sized horses? Why? I would rather fight the horse-sized duck because then later in life I could raise the 1000 duck-sized horses on my farm which just sounds like a fulfilling life for me. This is making the wild assumption that I win the fight against the horse-sized duck, but that’s a life I’d fight for.

31.

Name: Daniel Caplan (Staff Writer)

Pronouns: he/him

Hometown: Ambler, Pennsylvania (Suburbs right outside of Philadelphia [Part of the 3% of PA that isn’t farmland])

School and year: Columbia General Studies/JTS ’25

Major/intended major: Economics

Fun fact about yourself: I was born on April Fools Day (April 1st) and that is one of the most on-brand things about myself. 

Would you rather fight a horse-sized duck or 1000 duck-sized horses? Why? I would choose to fight both the horse-sized duck and the 1000 duck-sized horses. I would first take on the horse-sized duck by taming it. I would feed it large amounts of bread crumbs and get it to trust me. Once it is tamed, I would then proceed to hop on it, and use the creature to trample the 1000 duck-sized horses. Easy victory. 

32.

Name: Danny Siegel (Staff Writer)

Pronouns: he/him

Hometown: Bronx, NY

School and year: GS ‘22

Major/intended major: Human Rights

Fun fact about yourself: I am in a fantasy baseball league that was founded in 1981.

Would you rather fight a horse-sized duck or 1000 duck-sized horses? Why? The giant duck. I used to have really red hair and was frequently called carrot top. Even though my hair is less red now, I still think the horses, however small, would be extra eager to take a bite out of me due to my carrot-like features.

33.

Name: Celia Bernhardt (Staff Writer)

Pronouns: she/her

Hometown: Nyack, NY

School and year: Barnard 2023

Major/intended major: Anthropology and human rights 

Fun fact about yourself: I can read your astrology chart, not very extensively but enough that you might be like “woah!” 

Would you rather fight a horse-sized duck or 1000 duck-sized horses? Why? 1000 duck-sized horses because I feel they might be easier to beat through trickery or running away whereas a horse sized duck could just stomp on me, and it’d be done.

34.

Name: Sophie Larson

Position: Staff Writer

Pronouns: She/her

Hometown: Manchester, Massachusetts

School and year: Barnard 2023

Major: English, Film concentration

Fun fact: I have never eaten a Pop Tart because my parents were very granola, organic people. 

Would you rather fight a horse-sized duck or 1000 duck sized horses? Why? 

A horse sized duck. I think I’d prefer one big problem to 1000 tiny problems right now. 

Reading from the book of Bwog via Flickr