LIESEL is a prospective Computer Science Major in the College of Engineering at Cornell University. At Cornell, she is part of the mentorship program from Women in Computing at Cornell (WICC), which connects her with upperclassmen at Cornell and other women in the CS industry. Liesel is also involved in hands-on work for Aquaculture in Cornell University Sustainable Design, which hopes to create a feeding device that uses machine learning to reduce food waste in the fish farming industry. Some coursework Liesel has taken so far is Object-Oriented Programming, Calculus II, General Chemistry, and an Introductory course to Machine Learning.
Liesel attended Stuyvesant High School, with a SHSAT score of 610. By the end of her senior year, she had a 94.5 numerical GPA, or a 4.0. During her sophomore year, she found her passion for computer science. In the years following, she took BC Calculus, AP Computer Science, AP Biology, and other advanced placement stem courses. She also further developed her knowledge through elective courses like Biological Lab Techniques, Software Development, and other STEM-focused courses. At Stuyvesant, Liesel was Co-President of Girls Who Code, and spent two years developing an introductory Computer Science curriculum in a variety of topics. Liesel effectively led a group of 15 board members, communicating with faculty advisors, and led the transition from online learning to in-person teaching. Liesel also was very active in the school’s Cheerleading and PSAL Stunt teams. For Stunt, which is generally considered part of cheerleading, Liesel served as Junior and Senior Captain. Outside of that, Liesel worked as an editor for SIGMA (the school’s research paper publication), a humor writer for the Spectator (the school’s newspaper), and the first-chair Bassoonist for the Stuyvesant Symphonic Orchestra.
In the summer of her junior year, Liesel interned at Columbia University’s Nectow Lab where she worked on analyzing Single-Cell RNA Sequencing Data using Seurat, a library in the programming language R. Liesel also taught graduate and undergraduate students the basics of programming in data science and R.
Outside of school, Liesel worked on the website for a Long Island-based hackathon called TeenHacksLI from 2020-2021. Liesel worked on paper-writing skills, teamwork, and mathematics through the High School Mathematical Contest in Modeling (HiMCM), and her team won a Meritorious Award for their work on a job search algorithm for high school students.
Liesel has extensive experience with standardized testing. She scored a 1560 on the SAT, with a reading subscore of 770 and a math subscore of 790. Liesel took Advanced Placement courses and received top scores in AP Biology, AP European History, AP US History, and AP Computer Science. Liesel also took the SAT Biology exam and received a 760 out of 800, and scored near perfect scores on the NY State Geometry and Living Environment Regents. Finally, Liesel received numerous academic awards, including the National Merit Finalist Designation (2022) and an AP Scholar Designation (2021).
Liesel is familiar with the nuances of the SHSAT, AP Computer Science, and the SAT. Liesel is also experienced in teaching introductory courses to multiple CS languages, including HTML, CSS, Javascript, Java, and Python. She is familiar with both group and private tutoring classes. Liesel is a great teacher that prioritizes connecting with students. She strongly believes that tutors should not just teach the curriculum but also serve as mentors to their students. Outside of academics, Liesel enjoys playing with her 5-pound Bishon poodle, playing Genshin Impact, and spending time with her family from Malaysia and Singapore.