Fighting dorm overhead lighting one lamp at a time.

Name, School, Major, Hometown: Sofie Huang, Barnard College, Philosophy and Urban Studies specializing in Environmental Science, Chiayi, Taiwan and Ontario, CA (CALIFORNIA NOT CANADA)

Claim to fame: Longest running Bwog Daily Editor (five semesters!), the only graduating senior double majoring in Urban Studies and Philosophy, Barnard Writing Fellow, recently naturalized citizen, and being too active on Instagram.

Where are you going? To a suburban Target in a New York City outfit and then a rural 7-11 in Taiwan… but seriously to an environmental science, sustainability, legal, or writing related role in a major walkable city.

What are three things you learned at Columbia and would like to share with the Class of
2029?

• Say hello! Just say hi to people, even if you met them once at a party or have not seen them in months after a class you had together. They probably remember you, and if they don’t, they’ll act like they do and then eventually you guys end up being friends anyway. I am also partially face blind so you know I mean it when I say just say hi even if you’re not sure where you’ve seen them before.
• Hinge is an evil place, cultivate your relationships and either you will find the love of your life or the beauty of friendship will render your loneliness obsolete. Also, stop letting mediocre people waste your time. If someone complains that their entire friend group stopped talking to them, there is a huge possibility that they are actually the problem.
• Job and internship applications are not easy, especially if your parents aren’t big shot executives at the consulting company of your dreams. Be patient, be willing to exploreyour options, and don’t constantly compare yourself to others. Everything will fall into place even though it doesn’t feel like it right now.

“Back in my day…” We forgot to check a box on coverified and had to join a five student pile-up in front of Milbank to get into our 8:40s.

Favorite Columbia lore? The defunct Columbia spirit band that disbanded due to racism but used to cause all sorts of trouble around campus. Now it’s back but they’re not being a nuisance anymore.

What was your favorite class at Columbia? I don’t have a favorite but these are my highlights: GIS for Sustainable Development with Linda Pistolesi, Ethics of Sustainable Development with Adela Gondek, Carceral Geographies with Christian Siener, Gods, Ghosts, and Ancestors with Robert Hymes, Religious Histories of NYC with Gale Kenny, Ethics with Carol Rovane, Phenomenology and Existentialism with Taylor Carman, and Emotions with Francey Russell.

Whom would you like to thank? People: my friends, both those who have been here since NSOP and the ones I’ve collected along the way, my suitemates in every semester, my philosophy peers and my Urban Studies senior thesis class, my thesis advisor, my GIS professor, both of my departmental advisors, my partner who pays for my food and argues with me over nothing, my parents who offer me their endless support—sometimes financial sometimes emotional, my sister who bums around in my dorm because her college breaks are longer, my high school brother and sisters who annoy me everyday but share their successes and their losses over the phone, my best friends from home who visit me despite the amount of money it costs to fly over the entire United States, Lorde, Taylor Swift, Phoebe Bridgers, Clairo, and the younger version of Sofie that believed she could make her dreams come true.

Places: that corner in Altschul that had all the bees, the steps between Futter field and Milbank that used to have grass we could sit on, my summer 2024 UWS sublet, the upper levels East Asian Library, Kent Hall, John Jay Floor 14, Lerner Piano Lounge, the now defunct Malaysia Grill, the Sulz 3 Lounge, Yale-NUS College, the Barnard Writing Center, Flushing, Queens, Lamont-Doherty Earth Laboratory, and New York City Chinatown Parks.

Things: my laptop of which I spilled water on so many times and is still up and running, the 70 posters I’ve accumulated, my polaroids, my photobooth strips, my mugs, my digital camera I dug up from my childhood home, my stuffed animals that were gifted, my Dyson airwrap, my Google Home, my CD player, and my lamps because god forbid I use the dorm overhead lighting.

One thing to do before graduating? Confront all your enemies. Not in a forgiving way, just to tell them off one last time.

Any regrets? I wish I did everything and tried everything. Also I maybe would have loved studying Art History or Religion or Environmental Science or EALAC, but I think it also means I just would like to keep learning about things forever. But unless I can split myself like Derek Parfit proposes in Reasons and Persons, I’ll leave all the things I want to try for the rest of my life.

Sofie via Sofie