My second year at Hopkins was a whirlwind full of new classes, new friends, and new places to explore. Here’s a little highlight reel of some moments from the last academic year in no particular order.
This past semester, I’ve loved exploring new cafes at Baltimore and beyond. It’s always such a refreshing study break and a great time to catch up with friends. This picture is from Cafe Olivia in Dallas, Texas, from when I travelled there for a conference, but still managed to get a few moments to hang out with friends, both old and new.
This is the executive board of the Women in Computer Science (WiCS) student organization at JHU (from left to right: Lucky, me, Vrinda, Anvii, and we’re lifting this year’s club president, Angela). This picture is from when our spring professional headshots day took a fun turn. This club has been such a big part of my Hopkins experience over the past two years: from attending Friday coding circles to planning them. In the 2025–26 academic year, I was secretary for this club, so I handled our instagram page and email list. I’m super excited to be the incoming president of this club for the next academic year.
Since I had more leadership roles in my club, I got to really take ownership of events we organized. This is a picture from the Estimathon we hosted at HopAI (Artificial Intelligence Organization at Johns Hopkins University). An estimathon is a quiz game in which participants guess mathematical answers to questions (think: what is the volume of all the ice in Antarctica?). This was a fun game, and a lot of computer science and applied math students came to play.
I’ve loved going to more and more tech-focused events this semester which always turn out to be more academic and fun. This picture is from TreeHacks 2026 at Stanford University. It was really cool to see a humanoid robot boxing match for the first time. These events always remind me of how far we have come with technology, as well as the opportunities and concern that comes with that.
This year, I visited New York City for the second time (the first time being when I was 5 years old) for Jane Street’s INSIGHT program. It was such a great chance to learn about quantitative trading but also just the city. I got to see this breathtaking view, and I just knew this deserved a spot on the recap.
I did more travel than I have ever done before this past year. This is me right before a flight from San Francisco to Baltimore. I learnt to enjoy and prepare well for travel through the many flights and trains I took over the last two semesters. This was a very welcome change for me because during my first year, I primarily focused on getting acclimated to campus and the surrounding area, so that’s where I spent most of my time.
One thing I really liked doing after every event (whether at Hopkins or outside) was getting a little souvenir to stick on my dorm room wall. Here, I have souvenirs from HackMIT, TreeHacks, the JHU Writing Center, and the Hopkins Symphony Orchestra (I went to multiple performances last year).
In this photo recap, I’m sure I’ve missed just about a billion memories and many of the people who have made this year super special. Although the past year has had its highs and lows, I have come out of it with a more confident and self-assured version of myself.
