Computational Thinking

Upper School students conducting advanced scientific research in our new science center at 590.

AT BREARLEY

A major highlight of this year’s curricular developments is Computational Thinking. With its focus on science, technology, engineering, art and math (STEAM), the initiative aligns with the goals of Opening Doors, our Strategic Vision, to enrich and advance the exceptional teaching and learning that lies at the core of the Brearley experience. While strengthening our students’ foundational skills for a changing world, it also hopes to ignite and grow their love of applying analysis and logic to their work.

Currently in the first phase, the initiative, led by Colin Samuel, Chief Technology Officer, is launching with AI/SITE: An Immersive Summer Interacting with Technology and Engineering. A collaboration between Brearley and New York University Tandon School of Engineering, AI/SITE, which will be piloted this summer exclusively for Brearley Upper School students, will provide a rigorous interdisciplinary introduction to essential areas of college-level STEM courses. The comprehensive six-week program will offer units in computer science, machine learning applications, physical computing and remote sensing, robotics applications, science ethics in the modern context, and presentation skills and challenge preparation, as well as include social events with other high school program students and a challenge week and final presentations. Classes will be taught by NYU professors and graduate students at the Tandon School.

Another component of Computational Thinking in phase one is a speaker series, in which students will hear from women working in computational thinking. As the curricular program expands, further plans include appointing a director of computational thinking, who will be responsible for leading a summer Computational Thinking Institute for students from Brearley as well as throughout the city, designing scope and sequence for computational thinking across the divisions, and supporting and promoting faculty professional development in this area.

For Mr. Samuel, the initiative has been long in the making. “It is gratifying to see this highly anticipated endeavor come to light. A Computational Thinking program will not only enable our students to become more persistent and tenacious in the face of iterative and experiential problem solving, but it will also provide greater opportunities for those who seek to be leaders in technology. We are on the threshold of an exciting new era at Brearley, and one that will have a far-reaching impact over time.”

COMPUTATIONAL THINKING: STUDENT INITIATIVES

In a school known for teaching its students to deeply analyze texts, to write thoughtful and sharply reasoned pieces, and to excel in the liberal arts, Brearley is forging new paths in the study of science, technology and math. Problem solving is an exciting focus for many in our Upper School who have incorporated their love of STEM into brand-new Brearley traditions. They, in the middle of a pandemic no less, launched a successful coding competition that brought together students from nearly two dozen schools for an afternoon of computer science, programming and mathematics. They founded a new publication, Catalyst, which enables their classmates to explore science writing, combining their strengths as writers and their interest in the biological, physical and environmental sciences. And they introduced the Brearley Math Bowl, which is generating a love of numbers and logic and computational thinking among peers in the Middle as well as Upper School. It’s inspiring to see how students are taking their passion for these disciplines and creating wonderful opportunities for Brearley and its future generations of adventurous learners.

Clockwise from top left: Allie Brevetti-Bergman ‘23, Eileen Ye ‘22, Gabrielle Ross ‘23, Nina Piesanen ‘22, Ainsley Scheiner ‘22.

THE FIVE Ws

(AND MORE) OF BREARLEY’S NEW REGIONAL CODING COMPETITION

by Nina Piesanen ‘22, Gabrielle Ross ‘23 and Eileen Ye ‘22

WHO: Technology CIO and Computer Science Club. The inaugural event was planned and run by Alex Lee ‘21, Nina Piesanen ‘22, Gabrielle Ross ‘23 and Eileen Ye ‘22 with help from advisors Ms. Blumberg, Ms. Donovan and Mr. Samuel. A total of 50 students from 20 schools throughout New York and New Jersey attended workshops organized and taught by the Technology CIO and the Computer Science Club. They also participated in the two-hour-long coding competition across skill divisions.

WHAT: A competitive programming competition for all middle and high school students, regardless of previous experience. We taught workshops entitled Introduction to Python and Introduction to Competitive Programming to students in beginning and intermediate divisions to make our event accessible to everyone.

For competition, teams split into breakout rooms by division, where they collaborated on some fun computing problems:

• Beginner: for students who have never programmed before. Participants in the beginner division attended the pre-competition Introduction to Python workshop. • Intermediate: for students with coding knowledge but no competitive programming experience. Participants in the intermediate division attended the pre-competition Competitive Programming workshop and could work in whatever language they knew best. • Advanced: for students who had previously participated in competitive programming competitions.

WHERE: On Zoom and HackerRank. We hosted the competition on HackerRank, an interface that provided an environment where competitors could code and submit their answers. The platform also allowed the competition managers to easily grade the submissions by testing each submission with the test cases we provided.

WHEN: May 22, 2021

WHY: Until the Brearley Coding Competition, there were no competitive programming competitions for high school or middle school students hosted in the Interschool. Our mission was to introduce our local community to computing and create a vibrant and supportive environment for programmers. Competitive programming is a unique intersection of mathematics and computer science, blending problem-solving skills with hands-on programming. Computing is math-based, which appeals to both math competitors who want to learn to code as well as programmers who want to learn this specific problem-solving technique.

HOW: A lot of time (around 100 hours), a lot of support from our advisors, the technology department and the administration, and a lot of snacks—chocolate and chips in particular!

LOOKING TO THE FUTURE: We are excited to continue to connect Brearley and Interschool students to the incredible world of competitive programming. We plan to host the competition annually to encourage students interested in CS. Through our workshops, skill-based competition divisions and emphasis on supporting new programmers, we have already begun to see younger students further involving their own schools in STEM fields. Many students who learned and competed in computing as Middle Schoolers have become CS leaders as they transitioned to Upper School. It has been truly amazing to see Middle Schoolers we have taught join our programming and competition and start helping us organize them. Soon they will also be able to uphold this new event and embed it as one of Brearley’s annual traditions for years to come.

Hopped on Zoom for one last technology dry run.

Our volunteer proctors joined us. We debriefed everyone, took some pictures and prepared for the competitors to join.

Our first wave of competitors arrived for our competitive programming workshops.

All remaining competitors arrived. We welcomed everyone with our opening remarks and a walk-through of the competition.

Competition time. Each division had nine problems, worth the same number of points but varying in difficulty. We did not expect everyone to be able to complete all the problems in the two hours—we instead encouraged competitors to try to solve as many as they could in the allotted time.

Awards ceremony. Each member of the winning team in each division received either a sweatshirt or a microbit. (Congratulations to Brearley team members for coming in first and third place in Beginner and third place in Intermediate!)

CATALYST

NEW STUDENT PUBLICATION

Ainsley Scheiner ‘22, Founder and Co-editor Allie Brevetti-Bergman ‘23, Co-editor

IT SOUNDS LIKE CATALYST HAS BEEN A LABOR OF LOVE. WHEN DID YOU FIRST COME UP WITH THE IDEA? The journey began in the spring of my [Ainsley’s] sophomore year, just after Brearley shut down for Covid. I have always had a passion for both science and writing, and I thought that a STEM magazine would be the perfect opportunity to combine the two disciplines. In addition, the magazine would allow like-minded Upper School students to share their scientific writing. After drafting a PowerPoint to pitch the key aspects of my idea, I reached out to Ms. Kramer, and together we launched the process of founding the magazine.

FOUNDING A MAGAZINE IS NO EASY TASK. DID YOU LEARN A LOT IN THE PROCESS? Yes! I [Ainsley] learned how to communicate my ideas in an accessible and convincing manner. Throughout the process, I created many PowerPoints and proposals in favor of the publication. It was challenging to find the right way to express my ideas and excitement, but I am lucky to have had the opportunity to develop these skills, which I know will be important in the future. I also was reminded of the value of communication and teamwork. Catalyst would not exist without the help of Ms. Kramer, Dr. Noel-Pierre, Ms. Fried, Mr. Moroney, Mr. Squire and everyone who expressed support during the process. At first, it was daunting to reach out to faculty about this idea, but I was met with nothing but encouragement and advice and am grateful that we were able to bring Catalyst to the Brearley community.

WHAT ARE YOUR ROLES? HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE ON STAFF? This year, we have the founder and co-editor from Class XII and a co-editor from Class XI. Together, co-editors hold staff meetings, review submissions, plan announcements to the community and oversee the publication process from beginning to end. Our staff also includes an art editor from Class XI who handles publicity and layout of the publication and two staff writers who contribute at least one article for each issue and serve as representatives, drumming up submissions from the Upper School. Our team is advised by Mr. Squire in the Science Department. In future years, we expect to have two co-editors and one or two art editors from Class XI, as well as additional staff writers.

WHAT IS THE SYSTEM FOR SUBMISSIONS? WHAT ARE CRITERIA FOR PUBLISHING ARTICLES? Any STEM-related article is eligible to be published in Catalyst. We encourage articles ranging from interviews of STEM professionals to student research to overviews of recent scientific breakthroughs—the possibilities are endless. Once students decide they want to submit an article, the submission process is simple and brief. When submissions open, a Google Form link is provided where they can upload their name, grade and article for submission.

WHAT SETS CATALYST APART FROM OTHER BREARLEY STUDENT PUBLICATIONS? Unlike other Brearley student publications, such as The Beaver, The Zephyr or Panoramic, Catalyst is strictly a STEM magazine dedicated to making science and scientific writing more accessible to the greater Brearley community. The goal is to create a well-rounded publication that features a blend of articles with a broad overview of scientific topics, as well as more in-depth articles. This way, the magazine can cater to students who are generally curious about science or want to stay updated on current events and students who seek an intricate understanding of specific scientific topics. We also hope that the student writing will empower the young voices at Brearley who may populate the future scientific community.

WHY THE NAME CATALYST? In biology, a catalyst is an enzyme that promotes chemical reactions within the body. We chose this name because we wanted a STEM magazine to promote the fusion of writing and science, two disciplines often viewed as mutually exclusive. We have learned from our research experiences that scientific writing plays a huge role in any STEM pursuit, whether you are writing a funding proposal for NIH or writing for the New York Times Science section. Covid has also taught us the importance of understanding how to read scientific writing to stay informed about public health. We believe that Upper School students will benefit from this early exposure to scientific writing and the chance to try it themselves.

HOW OFTEN WILL CATALYST COME OUT IN A YEAR, AND HOW CAN COMMUNITY MEMBERS ACCESS IT? We plan to release two issues of Catalyst: one in the winter and one in the spring. The 2021–2022 academic year will be unique in that the winter issue will be digital, so students and families can access it through a link or the Brearley portal. We hope to have a printed issue for the spring edition and all subsequent issues.

HOW DO YOU HOPE TO SEE CATALYST GROW OVER THE COMING YEARS? We hope that Catalyst will join the ranks of the other Brearley publications and become a permanent aspect of Upper School life. More importantly, we hope Catalyst will become an outlet for new ideas and serve as a vehicle through which the student body can inspire one another through STEM and writing.

BREARLEY MATH BOWL

by Eileen Ye ‘22

Throughout Middle and Upper School, I have loved Brearley’s math community. Besides teaching our math teams, Catherine Ye ‘19 and I co-founded the Brearley Summer Math Workshop in 2017. Since then, for two weeks every summer, we have honed campers’ computational thinking skills with a variety of extracurricular topics and fun puzzles. In April 2021, noticing that younger students often expressed disappointment at being unable to approach most competition problems, which required ideas taught in higher grades, Emma Zhu ‘21 and I created the Brearley Math Bowl with a division specifically for 5th and 6th graders. On the day of the competition, 160 bright students came from 10 schools across the city. Congratulations to Brearley’s 6th-grade team for winning first place! I am excited to cement the Math Bowl as an annual Brearley event, like the Summer Workshop, and to see Brearley girls expressing their passion for math for years to come.

COMPUTATIONAL THINKING: ALUMNAE

While creating a dedicated computational thinking program is a new undertaking at Brearley, computational thinking is not a new area for many of our alumnae, who shared how they use it in their jobs and how their Brearley education may have shaped their professional lives. Ironically, though perhaps unsurprisingly, most credit their studies in the liberal arts—English and history—as invaluable preparation for careers in which efficiently and persuasively expressing oneself and complex thoughts is essential. We are grateful to all who participated; here, edited for clarity and space considerations, are their responses.

From top, left to right: Nina Schwalbe ‘84, Cordelia McGee-Tubb ‘07, Emily Maher Reuter ‘02, Aditi Gupta ‘18, Alexandra Slade ‘11, Francesca Slade ‘06, Jaclyn Lyman ‘03.

NINA SCHWALBE 1984

POSITION AND DESCRIPTION OF JOB/RESPONSIBILITIES: Director, COVID-19 Vaccine Access and Delivery Initiative, USAID Principal, Spark Street Advisors Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Population and Family Health, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University Principal Visiting Fellow, United Nations University International Institute of Global Health

HOW DO YOU APPLY COMPUTATIONAL THINKING TO YOUR WORK? I currently am working two jobs in global public health, with a focus on vaccines. In both, I use data and evidence every day for my work, mostly conducting secondary analysis and to read and assess the scientific literature in my field so that we can make evidence-based decisions.

DID YOUR TIME AT BREARLEY INFLUENCE YOUR CAREER CHOICE? While my interest in social justice and social determinants of health was formed during my time Brearley, my interest in public health came after college.

WHAT WERE SOME OF YOUR FAVORITE CLASSES AT BREARLEY? That is like being asked to choose your favorite ice cream flavor! Impossible!

I often do think about the fact that we were assigned The Communist Manifesto at least three times between the 8th grade and graduation. The history teachers definitely had something in mind with their choice of curriculum.

WHAT ARE SOME CHALLENGES YOU’VE FACED IN YOUR CAREER? Being a smart woman still has its challenges in the modern workplace.

AND SOME HIGHLIGHTS OF YOUR CAREER? Having met wonderful people at every step along the way.

WHAT ARE IMPORTANT QUALITIES NEEDED TO THRIVE IN YOUR PROFESSION? Probably the same as in any profession: patience, understanding, the ability to listen, the ability to think out of the box, and being solution oriented.

HAS THE FIELD CHANGED SINCE YOU FIRST ENTERED IT? We used to send letters by post and when urgent we used telegrams, telex messages or faxes. We now have the internet and smartphones. The world works 24/7 and the globe is connected in real time.

WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO A BREARLEY STUDENT CONSIDERING YOUR LINE OF WORK? Full steam ahead.

CORDELIA MCGEE-TUBB 2007

POSITION AND DESCRIPTION OF JOB/RESPONSIBILITIES: Until October 2021 I was principal accessibility engineer at Salesforce. As an accessibility engineer, I collaborated with product teams to build products that work well for people with disabilities. I advised designers and engineers on accessibility requirements, techniques and opportunities, built and tested prototypes of new accessible solutions, and created educational resources to help teams learn more about accessibility.

Starting November 2021 I became staff design technologist at Color. Design technologist is a hybrid role at the intersection of design and development. In this role, I’ll collaborate closely with other designers and engineers to create robust, scalable, accessible components and design patterns, to provide consistent product experiences for all our users.

DID YOUR TIME AT BREARLEY INFLUENCE YOUR CAREER CHOICE? Yes! At Brearley, I got to experiment with Flash animation and web development in a multimedia class I took with Ms. Jackson and Ms. Ennis, and later I built a website for Brearley’s drama program as my main senior spring project. I had previously been dabbling in web design and development on my own time—building fan sites on Geocities, styling my LiveJournal, and the like—but these opportunities at Brearley were my first formal introduction to, and mentorship in, building interactive digital experiences. I loved discovering new ways I could use a computer to stretch myself technically and creatively, which is what led me to study computer science in college and start a career in tech.

WHAT WERE SOME OF YOUR FAVORITE CLASSES AT BREARLEY? Algebra, biology, multimedia and studio art

WHAT ARE SOME CHALLENGES YOU’VE FACED IN YOUR CAREER? When I started my career as a software developer, I had just graduated from a small liberal arts college with a BA in computer science. I spent just as much time there (if not more!) studying the humanities as I did computer science. At my first job I was surrounded by software developers who had received one or two technical degrees at top engineering schools. I felt like an imposter, like I’d never be as strong and confident a developer as my colleagues. It took me a few years to realize that my liberal arts background was a strength, not a weakness.

Later, as I started specializing in digital accessibility, I went from writing production code to advising other people on how to write their production code. I was also often the only person in the room advocating for accessibility. Being in this advisory role has really challenged my confidence (and my introversion!) and pushed me to be a better communicator. As an advisor, there’s also a lot of pressure—from the people seeking advice but mostly from myself—to have all the answers and be right all the time. This has been one of my biggest challenges, and I’ve been working on saying, “I don’t know, but let’s figure this out together!” AND SOME HIGHLIGHTS OF YOUR CAREER? I’ve now had the great pleasure of speaking at several technical conferences (this from a kid who was terrified of public speaking!), among them an accessibility conference in Stockholm (with my talk live-translated into Swedish and multiple sign languages!), keynoting another accessibility conference in Sydney, and emceeing one in Toronto.

At one of these conferences, I met someone who was a blind user of my company’s products. He told me the core product’s user experience was much more accessible than it used to be, and that he first noticed improvements about a year and a half prior. Well, gosh, that was when I started working on that product! It was so exciting to hear this positive feedback directly from a user and know that my work had directly contributed to a more robust and usable product experience for him.

WHAT ARE IMPORTANT QUALITIES NEEDED TO THRIVE IN YOUR PROFESSION? I cannot emphasize enough the value of soft skills in technical roles. You can know every algorithm and every programming language by heart, but what really matters at the end of the day is being a good collaborator and communicator. Be empathetic and generous with your colleagues, your customers and yourself.

It’s also important to stay curious; technology and society change quickly, so there’s constantly more to learn about what problems need to be solved and what tools we can use to do so. Be thorough in every step of the process, from initial research to final testing, to ensure you’re creating the highest-quality experiences you can for everyone.

HAS THE FIELD CHANGED SINCE YOU FIRST ENTERED IT? Absolutely! There’s much more awareness about digital accessibility now than 10 years ago. More and more tech companies are hiring for people with accessibility skills, and I think that Twitter and other social media have provided a great platform to amplify the voices of users advocating for more accessible products.

In general, the web technology field is changing incredibly rapidly. (For example, my new title, design technologist, is a role that didn’t really exist until recently.) I’ve loved seeing the shift in recent years toward tech companies paying more attention to the social impact of their products and investing in diversity, equity and inclusion. It’s a really exciting time to be working in tech.

WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO A BREARLEY STUDENT CONSIDERING THIS LINE OF WORK? If you’re interested in working on the web, I’d recommend learning semantic HTML. There are a lot of ways to build websites that look good at first glance, but semantic HTML is the foundation to making equitable, robust websites that work well for all users.

EMILY MAHER REUTER 2002

POSITION AND DESCRIPTION OF JOB/RESPONSIBILITIES: Mobility CFO, Uber. Leading finance for Uber’s mobility segment, which consists primarily of the rides business, I am responsible for the mobility segment’s financial performance. I work closely with the head of mobility to devise short-, medium- and long-term strategies and financial plans for the business and help execute against those plans, ensuring we are making smart trade-offs to achieve our strategic and financial goals.

HOW DO YOU APPLY COMPUTATIONAL THINKING TO YOUR WORK? Leading finance is first and foremost about numbers. We build out indepth forecast models to predict what we think we can achieve with our business in the year ahead, and then track and actively manage our performance closely throughout the year. We look at financial metrics as well as operational metrics to understand how we are doing in terms of reaching our financial goals and serving our customers effectively, and to make trade-offs like where we want to invest. My job is to go very deep into the numbers to understand what is happening at a granular level but then to also take a step back and summarize the key takeaways of what is happening in the business.

DID YOUR TIME AT BREARLEY INFLUENCE YOUR CAREER CHOICE? I was personally drawn to math and science from my earliest experiences at Brearley, so it’s not a surprise that I found myself pursuing a career based on numbers that requires a facility with math and a focus on precision.

WHAT WERE SOME OF YOUR FAVORITE CLASSES AT BREARLEY? Math and science, in particular biology.

WHAT ARE SOME CHALLENGES YOU’VE FACED IN YOUR CAREER? The hardest thing for me was figuring out “what I wanted to be.” While I did not follow a typical career trajectory for someone in a corporate finance role, all of my roles have been at the intersection of strategy and finance, two areas that I find most interesting. Balancing pursuing roles that are interesting with the advice of progressing toward a particular career goal has been a challenge; that said, all of my experiences have really come together in my current role.

AND SOME HIGHLIGHTS OF YOUR CAREER? Running the IPO process for Uber to go public in 2019 and being able to be a part of the celebration on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange was a definite highlight! WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO A BREARLEY STUDENT CONSIDERING YOUR LINE OF WORK? My job is primarily about numbers, but I rely on so much more to do my job effectively. I need to be able to go deep but also take a step back and summarize what is going on succinctly and effectively; I need to be strategic; I need to be able to communicate and share my ideas or opinions persuasively with others; I need to be able to influence others to take the actions I think are most appropriate. While math and science came more easily to me as a student, I also use much of what I learned at Brearley in classes like English and history when I need to summarize my thoughts or express my ideas. For students interested in pursuing a career in business, I’d recommend actively developing areas of your studies that might not come as naturally, in addition to areas like math. I’d also recommend finding ways to gain exposure to the basics of how a business is run, such as through summer jobs or even nonprofit work. I spent a summer in high school managing a snack bar at a beach club where I got to understand the basics of making money, such as how to price products, save money on buying supplies, and upsell customers to try to maximize my profits. It made me realize I wanted a career in business!

ADITI GUPTA 2018

EXPECTED GRADUATION: May 2022

MAJOR: Computer science

HOW DO YOU APPLY COMPUTATIONAL THINKING TO YOUR EDUCATION? Most of my classes are in computer science, so computational thinking is somewhat of a requirement and expectation. Of course, I use computational thinking when I program because I need to think like a computer would in order to make the program behave in the way that I expect. However, I also apply computational thinking in other aspects of my work that are less directly relevant to computers. When writing mathematical proofs or developing new algorithms, it’s important to logically and precisely reason about how each step follows from the previous ones. If I’m trying to exploit a vulnerability in an insecure system or ensure that a system is secure, I need to think carefully about any possible adversaries, recognize the pieces of information that are important and relevant, and strategically account for any possible flaws in the system.

WHAT WERE SOME OF YOUR FAVORITE CLASSES AT BREARLEY? I loved Mrs. Sagor’s elective on William Faulkner’s fiction, as well as Dr. Gray’s History of Warfare elective and Ms. Marcus’s History of China and Japan. Although the content hasn’t been directly relevant to my major, I think these classes helped me develop critical thinking, analysis and communication skills that have been invaluable.

WHAT ARE SOME CHALLENGES YOU’VE FACED IN YOUR TIME AS A STUDENT? Something that I’ve struggled with quite a bit is finding meaning in my work; sometimes, tech can feel very impersonal to me, and I think it can be difficult to identify areas of tech that I feel are important and impactful. I’ve come to realize that computer science is much more than just programming or computers and can involve many different things depending on my specific interests.

It took me some time to figure out what I cared about and why, and I still don’t have it entirely worked out, but I’ve been trying to incorporate my interest in the humanities (especially international relations and security) into my computer science work. I really enjoyed history and English at Brearley, and I’ve missed being able to discuss books and politics with classmates since coming to college; being able to think about some of the human-level applications of different kinds of technology has become an important part of my caring about my work. WHAT ARE SOME HIGHLIGHTS OF YOUR COLLEGE CAREER? I’ve really enjoyed being able to do research with a professor in the Computer Science Department. My research focuses on designing languages that mitigate some of the existing limitations in parallel programming (in which several processors run different parts of a program simultaneously, thus speeding up the overall execution time). To do this, we have developed several iterations of a programming language that has built-in parallelism and resource tracking in the hopes that programmers can write efficient parallel programs without significant cost overheads.

Another important aspect of my college experience has been serving as a teaching assistant for a variety of computer science courses. As a TA, I’ve had the opportunity to significantly influence both the overall courses and individual students, from teaching recitations and holding office hours to designing lesson plans and developing homework assignments from scratch.

WHAT ARE IMPORTANT QUALITIES NEEDED TO THRIVE IN YOUR (FUTURE) PROFESSION? I think many of the same things are important in computer science as in any field: effective communication; being able to analyze a problem, decompose it into smaller subproblems and then slowly build up a solution; a logical mindset that allows you to understand a problem precisely and thoroughly; creativity and the ability to think outside of the box; and persistence.

WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO A BREARLEY STUDENT CONSIDERING YOUR LINE OF WORK? At first, it might seem like everyone has more technical experience than you. Even if that’s true, the fact that you’ve attended a school like Brearley means that you’ll be able to pick up any concrete technical skills you might need as you go; what’s really important is that you’re thinking about problems in the right way, not whether or not you know a particular fact, tool or concept.

Also, you might think that once you enter a technical field, your humanities skills are no longer important, but in my experience, being able to communicate your ideas effectively and think carefully about the points you are trying to make is absolutely critical, even (and especially) in tech, where precision is paramount.

ALEXANDRA SLADE 2011 AND FRANCESCA SLADE 2006

POSITION AND DESCRIPTION OF JOB/RESPONSIBILITIES: Alexandra: Tech lead/manager at Google on a team working on education queries in Google Search. Specifically I’ve worked on showing formulas in the Search results, providing Indian exam syllabus information, and providing homework help on Search. I’m responsible for managing a team of engineers (assigning projects, coaching them in their work), convincing other teams to work well with us, and defining the products we should build, especially based on what’s possible to build.

Francesca: Tech lead at Google on a team working on logs. I work on things like deleting personal data from the logs before it ends up in ad pipelines to comply with EU privacy regulations. I make sure that sensitive data from search queries is visible only to teams that are supposed to see it.

HOW DO YOU APPLY COMPUTATIONAL THINKING TO YOUR WORK? Alexandra: My job is about a combination of fitting my product into the large system it needs to be a part of, and justifying that it is doing what we think it should do. For me, computational thinking involves understanding the logical flow of the systems I am working within (how do I expect one to flow into another) and then how do I expect that to impact overall metrics. I often fall back to a scientific method whether I’m debugging a piece of code or trying to figure out whether a product is a good fit for users: What’s my hypothesis of what’s happening? How can I prove or disprove it?

Francesca: My job is all about designing large systems to process data. For me, computational thinking is all about understanding the trade-offs between different designs. This one might be easier to build but take longer to run, this one might make it easy to ensure we catch more bugs before we launch but at the cost of making it slower to add new logs to our system. I design a lot of options and analyze the trade-offs.

WHAT WERE SOME OF YOUR FAVORITE CLASSES AT BREARLEY? Alexandra: Some of my favorite classes were Modern European History, Latin and Modern Women Poets. I was inspired by that and other poetry classes I took to create a developer experience poetry wall for my team. This is a place where the team can put their frustration into poetry as a way to empathize and document it so we can make it better. Those classes and others at Brearley improved my writing and critical thinking, which are key skills I use in my daily work.

Francesca: I loved my whole Brearley experience, but my favorite classes were American History, Latin and anything I took in the English Department. My English classes gave me a love of poetry and fiction; they taught me how to think critically and write persuasively. WHAT ARE SOME CHALLENGES YOU’VE FACED IN YOUR CAREER? Francesca: At Brearley the smartest person in the room was always a woman, but the most confused person in the room was also a woman. That experience of competence and excellence divorced from gender set me up well to enter a male-dominated field with confidence and self-assurance that have served me well.

AND SOME HIGHLIGHTS OF YOUR CAREER? Francesca: As I’ve gotten more senior and more experienced, I’ve enjoyed mentoring and coaching younger engineers. I’ve especially enjoyed being able to encourage young women to be more assertive and more comfortable asking questions they worry might make them look bad. Less related to my career in tech, I designed a board game that got published in 2020. It’s called Poetry for Neanderthals and is about communicating to your team when your communication is artificially limited.

Alexandra: Similarly to Francesca, I’ve enjoyed mentoring and coaching, and particularly my work as a manager was both a recognition that I was doing that well and an opportunity to continue doing more of that. My work as a manager on my team has also allowed me to help shape what we work on and prioritize based on what I believe to be important and worthwhile investments. It has been satisfying to feel like my opinion is heard, respected and then acted upon.

HAS THE FIELD CHANGED SINCE YOU FIRST ENTERED IT? Alexandra: I’m relatively early in my career so there hasn’t been that much change, but it seems like there are more women around me even than when I first started. That has been accompanied by a general better understanding of how to be inclusive (not just of gender, but also other underrepresented groups) and the importance of inclusion and diversity.

JACLYN LYMAN 2003

POSITION AND DESCRIPTION OF JOB/RESPONSIBILITIES: I am currently the director, pancreatic cancer programs and clinical science at the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy (PICI). PICI is a novel collaboration between leading immunologists and academic centers founded by philanthropist Sean Parker with the mission of turning cancer into a curable disease. Since 2017 I have been spearheading their pancreatic efforts, internally and externally, in collaboration with our academic, nonprofit and industry partners. Responsibilities range from clinical trial design, execution and analysis to establishing and navigating strategic collaborations aimed at reducing silos and redundancies in the field. Prior to PICI, I oversaw the breast medicine clinical research team at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC).

DID YOUR TIME AT BREARLEY INFLUENCE YOUR CAREER CHOICE? Absolutely. As for many young, inquisitive minds, George Tokieda was fundamental in encouraging and developing my appetite for science. It was in our 2nd-grade science class that he saw my passion for understanding “the why” as well as my introverted nature. He challenged me to speak up at least once each class and rewarded participation with inviting me to TA his kindergarten classes: both masterful ways of building my confidence and developing an innate curiosity. Looking back, I truly believe it was those early years at Brearley that shaped my later pursuits.

WHAT ARE SOME CHALLENGES YOU’VE FACED IN YOUR CAREER? Finding balance. As someone who is very mission driven, it can be overwhelming to see how much more there is to be done; however, there are only so many hours in a day. Pacing myself and letting go of perfectionism has been a lifelong lesson—and rest breeds creativity.

As a woman in STEM, and an introvert, there have unfortunately also been many circumstances when my voice was not heard and/or my ideas were taken without due credit. Finding the right allies and sponsors has been critical for combating this in addition to furthering my career development. With a growing focus on and education around implicit biases as well as workplace culture, I hope this narrative continues to evolve as others learn to create more space at the table. There are many styles of leadership, and being the loudest voice in the room does not always translate to making the most meaningful impact. AND SOME HIGHLIGHTS OF YOUR CAREER? At MSKCC, interacting with cancer patients and their families was a daily highlight. It was extremely rewarding to see the direct impact of our research.

At PICI I get to experience this on a different scale by growing the seeds of ideas into innovative therapeutic strategies for cancer patients. There is no greater feeling than dosing the first patients on a clinical trial, nor seeing the data we worked so hard to compile and analyze get released to the public. Most recently, this came in the form of a Lancet Oncology publication for our flagship pancreatic trial, PRINCE, as well as dosing the first patients on our follow-on trial, REVOLUTION. It’s exciting to be able to take what we learned and translate it into the next questions to tackle.

HAS THE FIELD CHANGED SINCE YOU FIRST ENTERED IT? The field has expanded drastically from the time I first began working in clinical research (2008). Back then, it was not a well-known career path even to those with a science background. With major advances in “omics” and AI, the field has taken off at an exponential pace, and now it’s become possible to study clinical research at the graduate level. Trials are also much more complex, sophisticated and plentiful. I feel fortunate I got into the field when I did and had the experience of watching this growth firsthand.

WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO A BREARLEY STUDENT CONSIDERING YOUR LINE OF WORK? We’re at a very exciting time in history and there’s an exponential amount of data to leverage. With such a wealth of possibilities (and challenges), it’s important to spend time learning where exactly your unique skills and passion lie to make the greatest impact. There’s so much more out there than what meets the eye and many ways one can contribute to clinical research without working in a lab or treating patients directly. Talk to as many people as you can and try as many things as possible. Be curious and stay open to where your heart leads you. Beyond this, balance, focus and persistence are key.