Art for Earthquake Relief, Harvard & MIT Acceptance, Gender in STEAM, and Colorado
Letter? I Hardly Know Her! - April 2023
Welcome, WELCOME to Letter? I Hardly Know Her! I’m Apoorva (the her in question), an 18 y/o researcher, keynote speaker, artist, writer, and advocate for youth and gender minorities in STEAM. This newsletter is a means for me to keep track of my personal & professional growth, and to share all the good stuff I’m working on! First-timers: it’s great to meet you, I’m so glad you’re here! For my regular hardly-knowers, here’s your promised, extra special greeting: welcome you random deer—seeing you is a delightful surprise!
If you too want an extra greeting, you better subscribe:
As a heads up, I publish newsletters on each MONTH/MONTH, i.e. 1/1, 2/2, 3/3, … , 12/12. Is it the most efficient system? Frankly, no. But is it the most funky fresh? Absolutely it is.
Hello, hello Hardly-Knowers! Hope you all had a fantastic March and that you’re enjoying the start of spring! Man has it been a busy month - let’s hop right to it!
IWD 2023 Art Auction Update!
For International Women’s Day 2023, I painted a portrait of Rigoberta Menchú Tum, a K'iche' Guatemalan activist, feminist, and 1992 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, to pay tribute to her lifelong advocacy for Indigenous peoples, women’s, and human rights globally. The courage she has displayed throughout her life is beyond inspiring and her story is one everyone should know. To learn more about her life and advocacy, you can watch the video below!
Today, Menchú continues to advocate for Indigenous rights around the world and creates awareness for issues like economic inequality, climate change, and education.
In mid-March, the eBay Auction for my portrait officially ended and thanks to the winning bidder, corporate matches, donations from family and friends, and your amazing support, the total amount raised was an incredible $7,400! Of these funds, $5,400 have gone towards the International Rescue Committee's earthquake relief efforts in Türkiye and Syria to provide the families there with emergency services and to support refugee families in countries around the world. I'm incredibly happy and grateful that we were able to raise this money for such an important and necessary cause right now.
I want to give a special thank you and shoutout to the wonderful auction winner, Ishita Majumdar, VP of Data Analytics Platforms at eBay, who is someone I look up to very much. I’m so grateful for all of her support, especially since she has been a loyal auction bidder for the last 5 years!
The other $2,000 went to the Navajo Nation Math Circle as a part of their Indigenous Outreach Fund, since my own math circle played a huge role in my love for math.
Rigoberta Menchú embodies the purpose of IWD and Women’s History Month, showing us first-hand the power of resilience and firm belief in a brighter future. As she says, “What I treasure most in life is being able to dream. During my most difficult moments and complex situations I have been able to dream of a more beautiful future.”
In recognition of Rigoberta Menchú’s ongoing work and activism, let’s all continue to dream and create a better world for all identities, peoples, and cultures.
(If you still wish to donate, you can shop for prints, canvases, masks, and other products featuring my portrait here! Proceeds from the shop will go towards these causes.)
Accepted to Harvard and MIT!
I’m incredibly honored and excited to share that I was accepted to Harvard and MIT this past month! I’m beyond grateful for my family, friends, mentors, and teachers who taught me so much about myself and the world, I wouldn’t be here without them.
Celebrating Harvard at Denver’s Union Station!
I now have to decide between Stanford, Harvard, and MIT, which is not going to be an easy decision, but I’ll be using April to talk to some friends/professors at each university so that I can find the best fit for me. It’s an exciting time!
GLAM Coding Event with LSEG
On March 18, we wrapped our first 2023 GLAM Coding Event with the LSEG (London Stock Exchange Group) WIN Tech Network for International Women’s Day!
For our two-hour event, we had almost 100 girls aged 8-14 joining us from 13 countries, including England, Romania, Israel, Philippines, South Africa, and more. Talk about a global event! I had such an amazing time co-hosting it with our GLAM Operations Specialist, Stephanie Luna-Lopez!!
We heard from two inspiring LSEG keynote speakers: Triona O'Keeffe, Chief Information Officer of Data & Analytics, and Sandra Lee, Chief Information Security Officer. Triona taught us all about inclusion and financial literacy and freedom, and Sandra shared her inspiring journey so far as a woman in finance and the importance of speaking up for yourself. We then jumped right into coding a maze game using Scratch, led by our amazing LSEG coding volunteers. The girls took on the challenge fearlessly with energy and excitement, and weren’t afraid to ask for help if they needed it. Afterwards, they shared how thankful they were for our volunteers, how much fun they had, and how they will definitely continue their coding journeys!
An enormous thank you to the LSEG Team who made this happen, Akua Opong, Suruchi Grant, Chloe Cope, Georgie Mason, Miriam F., Sarah Hepworth, our keynote speakers, and all the volunteers from LSEG who took the time to share their valuable insights and expertise on a Saturday! And, as always, I’m so thankful for Team Girls Leadership Academy Meetup (GLAM)'s hard work to make this event happen. Thank you all, I can’t wait for the next ones!
Masason D&I Event: Gender in STEAM
The Masason Foundation recently hosted a D&I event and invited me to speak about my journey relating to “Gender in STEAM.” I spoke to members about the root causes of early gender bias in STEM, how education needs to change to combat it, and what I’ve done to address this problem so far, from GLAM to Gems in STEM. I also got to hear from the amazing Samantha Ouyang and Yuko Nagakura, who spoke about their own journeys and how they overcame adversity to create impact. Such a fun event, thank you to the Foundation and the Secretariat An for organizing this!
2023 Pi515 Girls Entrepreneurship Summit
I had the opportunity to be a returning speaker at the Pi515 Girls Entrepreneurship Summit this year! It was such a fun experience, I talked about sparking innovation, my own personal journey, and answered their very thoughtful questions about how to cope with difficult emotions and live life meaningfully. Huge thank you to the amazing Pi515 team for inviting me and running such an empowering event!
Counselor at the Research Science Institute (RSI)
I'm super excited to be returning to the Research Science Institute (RSI) this summer, held by Center for Excellence in Education and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as a counselor!! I had such an amazing 6 weeks of research & friendship last summer, and I’m so excited to be supporting a new cohort of Rickoids with some of my favorite people as fellow counselors. It'll definitely be a summer to remember!
Launching Speaking Website
Based on multiple speaking/keynote requests from event organizers, there is now a published speaking website that covers all the popular topics I speak about (Gen Z, diversity & inclusion, innovation, etc.), testimonials for past conferences/corporate clients, and information + FAQs for booking requests.
Check it out here!
!! ARTWORK ALERT !!
I’ve started a new painting! In my expressive portrait class, we are now doing self portraits in the style of Egon Schiele, who is a pretty cool & funky painter. I haven’t yet been able to include too many elements of his style yet, but that’s the next step! I’m excited to show you the finished portrait next time.
(Feel free to follow my art account on Instagram to stay updated! It’s a good time. <3)
The Fun, the Fresh, & the Funky
No month can go by without the FFF. And this one had lots!
For spring break, my family visited Colorado for four days! We saw many many different ecosystems, from the snow in the Rocky Mountains to the dry Red Rocks/Garden of the Gods to the tropical conservatory in Denver’s Botanical Gardens.
We saw so many different animals, like bison, donkeys, elk, cows, and my personal favorite, sheep. <3
I also visited two of my wonderful friends from RSI, Maya and Anjali! It was so much fun catching up with them, eating amazing food, and laughing the night away.
I’ve also read some amazing books this month, including James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room which has just stunning yet heartbreaking prose. Baldwin writes with almost excruciating honesty. While short, Giovanni's Room is an absolute force of thought and complex portrait of desire, morality, and knowing (and perhaps loathing) yourself. I’ve started reading the very thick Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid and From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death, which explores how different cultures care for the death and think about mortality. I’m slowly but surely make my way through them!
Coming up next on Keeping Up With (K)Apoorva…
Harvard and Stanford’s Visiting Weekends
At the end of April, I’ll be flying to Boston to attend Harvard’s Visitas, the visiting weekend for admitted students that will give a little look into student life. Then I’ll come right back for Stanford’s weekend! It’s going to be tons of fun and I’ll get the chance to see a lot of my friends who are otherwise scattered across the world.
Gems in STEM: Computing Time Complexity — Big-Oh or Big No?
As always, there will be more articles published for my column on Medium, and the next one will be about computing time complexity and understanding Big-Oh notation to see how fast algorithms can run. Make sure to follow me on Medium to stay updated!
In-Person GLAM Event with Chase!
Team GLAM is super excited to have our first in-person event coming up in May! We’re partnering with Chase Bank to host this two-day event, and it’s going to be so much fun. We’ve already started preparing.
Training for 2023 Ottawa Marathon
After finishing my half-marathon in February, I’m now training for a full marathon at the end of May! I’ll be running the Tartan Ottawa Marathon with one of my best friends, Rachel, and I cannot wait.
A Quarter for Your Quote?
“Certain springs are tapped only when we are alone. The artists knows he must be alone to create; the writer to work out his thoughts; the musician, to compose; the saint, to pray.”
Anne Morrow Lindbergh
Alright Hardly-Knowers, we’ve finally reached the end! Phew. What a whirlwind. As always, thank you for taking the time to be here with me, and I can’t wait to see you again in May. In the meantime, I wish you the best April that ever Aprilled!
Sincerely,
Her (Apoorva)
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Feel free to contact me about speaker events, comments, and anything else at apoorvapanidapu@gmail.com! You can also connect with me on LinkedIn, follow me on Medium, and check out my art gallery, personal website, or Instagram.
Now that you are ready to delete “hardly” from Letter? I Hardly Know Her!, you can share this so that my publication name doesn’t become irrelevant & obsolete! <3
Impressive and Bold
let’s go apoorva!! so proud of you girl, I can’t wait to see what university you pick 🫶🏻