About
I'm Zoya, a 17 year old interested in the development of human-centered software and interfaces. I love exploring the intersection between the humanities and STEM, from ethics and policy to technology and neuroscience.
Currently, I'm working on increasing AI ethics literacy @ Encode Justice, introducing teenagers to a community of worldwide hackers @ Hack Club, and learning about the scope of neuroscience research @ Stanford.
Education
Receiving a liberal arts education from a classical charter school. Maintaining a 3.9UW/4.7W grade-point average, and currently taking Honors Calculus, Honors Spanish III, Humane Letters: Ancient Greek Literature and History, Studio Art/Drama, and Honors Physics.
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Newspaper publication writer and editor, working with peers to create inclusive and thought-provoking magazine issues
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Student body representative, leading my peers as an ambassador and event coordinator
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Founding chairperson for the Alpha Delta Omega STEM society, campus' first after-school STEM-based opportunity to meet industry professionals and increase depth of inquiry in applications of scientific research and academia
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Working with Master Teacher to help organize and create science labs for underclassmen
Selected to partake in two-semester, for-credit course on AI and intersectional applications, where we:
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Learn about ML Algorithms (KNN and k-means clustering), data visualizations, Reinforcement Learning, Deep Learning, and Natural Language Processing (NLP)
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Work on capstone projects for national military labs
Selected to participate in a Neuroscience Journal Program at Stanford University, where I learned about current advances in Neuroscience and research techniques from Stanford faculty members.
Work Experience
Worked with a team of high-school and gap-year students to organize large-scale seasonal events, including:
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Outernet (2023), a 4-day experimental coding/camping trip, bringing 200 high-schoolers together, working on event design, marketing, and storytelling.
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Days-of-Service, an initiative partnering with Girl Scouts to bring coding experiences to underserved communities. Working on four hackathons with 100+ total attendees, including design, workshop development, and mentorship.
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Boreal Express (2024), a trans-continental train hackathon focused on creating solutions to the ongoing climate crisis, working on event storytelling, logistics.
I worked as a Math and English Instructor at Kumon, where I:
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Taught 250+ regular students fundamental math concepts, ranging from addition/subtraction to Pre-Calculus and Trigonometry. Also mentored in English concepts, from grammar to comprehension in classical literature.
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Scheduled assessments for students and created curated lesson plans depending on student performance.
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Trained for data-entry specialization, tabulated student performance in center-specific database.
Volunteering
Founded a statewide organization with Encode Justice, the world's largest network of youth mobilized for creating human-centered AI. With our efforts, our team of high-school and undergraduate students is actively:
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Lobbying with politicians statewide to ensure that technology is compatible with democratic values; discussed implementation of C-COPS legislature created by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) with city council members and mayors.
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Partnering with youth-led organizations for large-scale events and social media collaborations
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Providing AI Ethics education workshops for several school districts, colleges, and congressmen, and organizing workshops, summits, and "learnathons" for 1000's of students statewide
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Researching intrinsic biases in popular LLMs (large-language models)
Worked region-wide to implement and oversee 3 campaign cycles (2020-'21, 2021-'22, 2022-'23) for IHL YAC's (International Humanitarian Law Youth Action Campaigns). In the process, we:
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Garnered 10,000+ unique participants throughout duration of campaigns
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Advocated for children's access to education in warring countries, the protection of cultural property, and environmental impacts of warfare
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Developed campaign websites to direct participants to educational resources and promote campaign messages
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Held events with school districts, local businesses, museums, and youth organizations
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(Coordinator-specific) Trained 150+ regional volunteers in an introduction to youth activism and campaign strategy, and supervised 12 region-wide campaign teams
Led a team of 15 high-school and undergraduate students on a year-long advocacy campaign, where we:
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Advocated for women's education rights in Nigeria to communities impacted by poverty, corruption, and lack of resources
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Created official censuses in consultation with human rights agencies to survey communities on sentiments surrounding education
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Organized and performed workshops demonstrating the importance of diverse perspectives in education
Projects
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Novel, patent-pending metric for biometrically-secure ID development in developing countries
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Conrad Innovation Finalist: Chosen as 1 of 5 in Cyber-Technology & Security to present innovation at NASA for patent and start-up support
Worked in a team to create a web-app for promoting environmental activism for youth. In the process, we:
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Used React and TailwindCSS to create a front-end application, and MySQL and Python (data science libraries: NumPy, Matplotlib, Scikit-learn) to create databases and data visualizations
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Compiled over 100 volunteer opportunities for local youth to get involved with climate activism in school clubs and organizations
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Worked with local volunteer organizations to educate citizens about sustainability
Worked with a team to develop an iOS app designed for students with neurodivergencies. In the process, we:
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Implemented time-tracking features with Pomodoro and flow-time techniques
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Included features for journaling and mindfulness
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Incorporated an ADHD-friendly user interface for frill-free, feature-driven use
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Received commendation from Congressman Van Taylor for efforts in STEM and activism
Awards
One of five teams chosen to participate in the Conrad Innovation Summit, the final stage of a year-long innovation competition spanning 50 countries and 5,000+ students. Developed a provisionally-patented innovation for creating biometrically-secure identification in under-developed countries.
Receives Gold Award for community contributions in technology, the highest accolade earned by <6% of Girl Scouts.
Invited to youth summit on diverse dialogues alongside 50 local youth, where I:
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Learned about diverse pluralistic perspectives and equity
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Proposed and planned a community initiative with local libraries and school districts to the congresswoman and city council members
Honored by National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) for aspirations in computer science
Teams
