Headlines

Coding Collab

A Barnard-FIT partnership teaches students how to use computer science to make art

How can you reenvision the way students learn and apply coding? That question inspired two professors — Barnard’s assistant professor of computer science Mark Santolucito and the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT)’s Maria Hwang — to come together to teach the interdisciplinary course Arts and Computing in NYC, in which students had the opportunity to apply computer science skills to create art. The scholars teamed up for the joint learning experience between the two Manhattan campuses in fall 2021. “One of the benefits of Barnard being where it is is that we have access to the City, and building partnerships with other universities allows us to leverage that,” says Santolucito.

Over the course of the semester, students learned how to use code in a number of creative ways, including producing stitch patterns and generating and manipulating music. Santolucito and Hwang also invited guest scholars and professors, such as Saima Akhtar, associate director of the Vagelos Computational Science Center, to share their expertise. The course culminated in a gallery show in the Barnard Movement Lab, where students, like Leah Teller ’22, a math and computer science major, presented her final project, an abstraction of the universe.

Students will be happy to learn that the course marks the start of an ongoing partnership between Barnard and FIT, says Santolucito, who is looking forward to offering more opportunities for the two institutions to collaborate in the near future. “It was a great experience,” he says.

—Mary Cunningham

Off the Field, A Winning Partnership

The women’s lacrosse team mentors young students in Harlem  

Image

For nearly a decade, the women’s lacrosse team has nurtured the next generation of athletes through a partnership with Harlem Lacrosse, which pairs Barnard athletes with students from the Sojourner Truth School (P.S. 149) in Harlem.

Skyler Nielsen ’25, who volunteers as a coach, says that life lessons are learned on and off the field. “Adaptability, communication, and leadership are all muscles that need to be worked on continuously in order to grow and develop,” says Nielsen. “The most effective ways [I’ve found] to coach the students [have been informed] by my own strengths.”

With over 1,500 youth participants across five cities, including L.A. and Philadelphia, Harlem Lacrosse serves the students most at risk for academic decline. For the youth at Harlem Lacrosse, the partnership provides insight into what’s possible.     

“They’re so young … but to see someone who they look up to and then to say, ‘Oh, I can do that,’ is the biggest thing,” says Lily Herrmann, program director of the Girls Harlem Lacrosse team for P.S. 149. “It’s a very tangible connection. Barnard and Columbia are not that far away — [the connection] is right there, in their backyard.”

The Barnard student-athletes play lacrosse through the Columbia-Barnard Athletic Consortium, a collaboration that supports Barnard athletes competing with Columbia undergraduates in the Ivy League Athletic Conference and NCAA Division 1 Athletics — making Barnard the only women’s college to offer this opportunity.

In addition, activities off the field help student-athletes bond with the young students in both meaningful and playful ways. Just before the holiday break, they teamed up in groups for the annual gingerbread house competition.

Fifteen boxes of graham crackers and 10 pounds of frosting later, the competitors presented 14 structures to be judged. Not that anyone ended up losing; the students had “won” coaches, tutors, role models — and friends.

—Tara Terranova ’25, with reporting by Preetica Pooni

Garden Circularity

A newly established program brings Barnard perennials to Morningside Park

This semester, Barnard plans to team up with the Columbia Climate School and Circular City Week for a citywide celebration. On March 10, Circularity Day NYC 2023, organizers hope to inspire New York consumers to think twice about where a product will end up when they’re done with it. Part of the celebration will include an opportunity to highlight local “circularity champions.” And while Barnard probably shouldn’t nominate one of their own, the College most certainly could hold up lead groundskeeper Keith Gabora’s recent efforts as a perfect example.

Image

Last February, on hearing that the Biology Department was throwing out grow lights, the horticulturist was quick to get ahold of them to repurpose for his shop’s nursery, where he was growing seedlings. From there, with the help of Barnard Garden Club volunteers, the young native plants found their way to the College’s green space along Broadway last spring. Over the summer, the sun-loving natives, such as black-eyed Susans, milkweed, and echinacea, flourished and established hearty roots. By fall, Gabora found the plants a permanent home in Morningside Park at 116th Street. His use and reuse of the plants, as well as the lights, demonstrate the efficacy of circularity practices.

“You can see where we’ve ripped out all the invasive plants [in Morningside] and have reintroduced native plants that we grew here on campus,” Gabora says, adding that circularity is already underway for this semester with yet another planting session set to take place on Earth Day, April 22: “It’s quite a big project that’s going to be taking place over many years.” Alumnae, students, and staff who want to pitch in can contact barnardgarden@gmail.com.

—Tom Stoelker

All photos by Carrie Glasser except lacrosse: Columbia/Harlem Teams