Feb 2025

Hosting Code for Good by HackDuke, attending Investing in Womxn Conference, celebrating Valentine's Day, learning to Cook, flying to Boston for WeCode Conference

👋 Greetings from Pennsylvania!

I am currently seated in a car 4 left window seat of the Amtrak as we speak, from Philadelphia to Harrisburg (then bus → Lewisburg).

Good lord… Why were you in Philadelphia, Amy?

Let’s keep that a little surprise for the March newsletter, shall we 😉?

“Letters from Amy”: With so many changes happening in my life lately, I wanted to create a way to stay connected and share snippets of my journey with the people who matter most to me—my high school teachers, mentors, and friends who are far away.

If you ever feel like stepping back, no worries at all—you can unsubscribe anytime, no hard feelings (pinky promise)! And if you’re up for it, I’d love to hear from you—drop me a message and let me know how you’ve been 😊.

👩🏻‍💻 Code for Good 2025 by HackDuke

As many of you may know, I have hosted two hackathons in the past:

• BUILD’23 ($20k prize pool, 450 participants from 40 countries, and 15 partnerships all working towards UN SDGs)

• Build with AI by Beeloud ($64k+ prize pool, 400+ participants, and 10+ partnerships)

But I have never hosted hackathons for college students, and this experience has helped me realize the untapped beauty in it:

• The sky’s the limit: A lot of us college students have not dealt with the harsh limitations of our world. As a result, I saw some of the coolest and wildest ideas at the judging fair. So if you ever find yourself unmotivated and bored on a Sunday weekend, go check out a hackathon judging fair—trust me, you will be pleasantly surprised.

• The people make the journey soooo worth it: I nearly pulled two all nighters that weekend (one for my English paper, one for the hackathon), but because of who I was surrounded by—my HackDuke family who have all worked our bums off & brilliant, fun hackers—I have never been more excited to sacrifice my sleep.

• 70 18-inch pizzas is barely enough to feed 200 college students for a dinner (you never know when this info will come in handy)

💡 Investing in Womxn Conference

Last month, Kelsey—the most genuine and kind person I have ever met—invited me to the “Investing in Womxn Conference” held at Fuqua. I was a little scared when I walked in as the only freshman in a room of masters students. What I’ve learned: sometimes you have to just fake it till you make it!

Here, I have had the chance to meet my role model: Dr. Brittany Barreto.

Stigma and under-education are the biggest issues surrounding women’s health. A brief conversation with Dr. Barreto helped me realize that founding a college club surrounding femtech could be the way to go and a great way to tap into and build connections in the space.

I’m envisioning the formation of a mentorship & project-oriented club. Super excited to bring this idea up to the Feminist Connections meeting next month held by Duke’s Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies Department.

I also wanted to highlight a quote from Dr. Sarah Glova:

We’re more than just what we do—we’re the sum of everything we love and learn along the way.

Her message emphasizes the importance of valuing our hobbies and unique interests, as innovation often emerges at the intersection of our expertise and seemingly unrelated passions or knowledge.

Looking back, I realize my high school self needed to hear this. I used to believe that excelling in one area meant sacrificing everything else. But in reality, it’s about finding balance.

💗 My Valentine’s

My not-so-SMART-goal-type New Year’s resolutions this year was learning to be happily single. Sounds simple, right? But it’s much harder than you’d think—especially in college, where you’re constantly surrounded by happy couples while also coming to terms with the fact that all those myths about finding the perfect guy in college aren’t exactly true.

So first, I went to a Valentine’s Day themed Candlelight concert by myself in Raleigh.

Everyone else arrived in pairs (as expected), and as far as I could tell, I was the only one who showed up alone. Definitely got a few funny looks, but this is one of those experiences I learn to stop caring about what others think.

Next, I hosted a Galentine’s celebration with my friends!

Kicked things off with a quick Target run (karaoke in the car, of course), where we stocked up on some supplies. Later that night, we made sparkling water with fruits, heart-shaped pancakes, and chocolate-dipped strawberries.

Unfortunately, the night took an unexpected turn when we ended up witnessing a close friend’s breakup… think I’ll stay away from romance for a bit.

👩🏻‍🍳 The Chef-ing Journey

I recently joined a cooking class at Duke, taught by professional chef John Eisensmith, where I’ve learned everything from making pasta from scratch to crafting chocolate (and truffles!)—and also homemade mayonnaise (which is really just eggs and oil).

Surprisingly, this was one of the most stressful environments I have found myself in. Due to the tight constraints, we had to remember 10+ steps at once after seeing a demo. And if you mess up, you can’t exactly just “go back” due to the nature of cooking.

In fact, I found myself contemplating about not going back after the first session. But I learned to push through, and it’s taught me one thing: I will give anything two chances, no matter how much I despise it the first.

Something else I learned from these five-weeks of cooking: some things don’t have correct and wrong answers. Something that tastes out of this world good to one person may be poorly seasoned to another. Another example of how the world’s not that black and white after all.

✈️ Harvard WeCode Conference → Boston trip!

I flew to Boston for a weekend trip to attend the Harvard WeCode Conference! Unfortunately, things did not go according to plan. Originally, I was supposed to have all my midterms knocked out before the trip, but due to unexpected weather conditions in Durham, two midterms and a paper got pushed to the following week. What was supposed to be a stress-free weekend quickly turned into hell weekend.

This was also my first real experience traveling solo, and between academic stress and my own lack of clear intentions for the trip, I ended up attending far fewer events at the conference than I had hoped. I felt incredibly guilty afterward, so I decided to turn it into a learning experience—by making a playbook on solo traveling.

🏀 Duke vs UNC Game

We won. Obviously ;)

Got to watch a bench get set on fire though!

💭 Food for thought: Overthinking → Inaction

For my writing 101 class, I had to interview an adult on a decision that they made that they think changed their life trajectory. Kelsey (so thankful for her time), decided to speak on a gap year decision she made coming out of college, and I wanted to share a few points of reflection here:

Too often, we overanalyze, overplan, and overthink, allowing our fear of possible consequences to lead to inaction. Kelsey’s decision to take a gap year was not the result of careful planning or structured logic; rather, it was a response to life’s unpredictability.

Following a difficult breakup, an overwhelming job search with her English degree, and a life of following “the safe path,” she realized that she would never be at the same age again, which became the major driver of her decision.

I think this reveals a very realistic and often unmentioned aspect of decision-making: decisions are not always logical or perfectly planned. Sometimes, we need to take a leap for no other reason than that we will never be at this stage of life again.

Up next…

• My discovery flight with Raleigh Flying Club on March 22!

• Attending the Biomimicry Confluence from March 13-14

• Solo-trip to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from March 8-12

• Attending Feminist Connections event (March 19) → talk about idea for Femtech Club

• Writing a paper on “Medical Dismissal and Its Consequences for Black Women’s Healthcare Choices“

• 2025 Integrated Design Challenge for my Electrical & Computer Engineering class