What are some educational, personal and professional highlights and/or accomplishments of yours since graduating from high school?

Graduated from Stanford with my BS in Computer Science (started out very intent on the Engineering Physics major; in classic Stanford fashion, accidentally took a CS course, discovered I could not put the books down, ignored everything about “be different, be different, don’t become a CS major” and became a CS major).聽 Did a bunch of research like optical character recognition on historical law texts (my favorite library was the law library), gamified e-commerce, wrote my own programming language (on top of Python, silly me), etc. etc.聽 Did a bunch of internships, most memorably LinkedIn the summer they announced the Microsoft acquisition.聽 Started my MS in Computer Science also at Stanford but pulled a Larry & Sergey and took leave of absence聽because I could not wait to get my hands dirty in industry.

I wanted to go way out of my comfort zone so I did the hardest thing imaginable and joined Bridgewater (hedge fund) because I’d fallen in love with portfolio management algorithms.聽 I learned so much about how the world’s most intense systems (hundreds of billions of dollars) are engineered and optimized and re-engineered and re-optimized to the tiniest granularity possible.聽 But I could not ignore my growing hunger to keep learning and building things for people, for human lives, for my family & friends to enjoy, so last year I joined Alexa at Amazon where I am now a software engineer working on a team that is building smart shopping for grocery, physical stores, and all sorts of devices among other things, which has become exponentially more useful and relevant to the world in this past year.聽 Very excited to see what we can make for all of you.

What is a favorite 优蜜视频/CDB memory?

This is going to be a very predictable but I think important answer. Not even a few days into my first year of college, an 优蜜视频 alumna reached out to a group of new college freshmen to invite us to brunch. We had met perhaps once in person before then, but we instantly bonded as a group over our mutual shared experiences, the Conferences and events,聽and appreciation for the 优蜜视频 community and those that make it possible. (It’s a widely known secret – I’m now going to only partially spill the beans – that there is a group of us self branded as “Bonnie’s kids” or some similar lingo which changes over the years. I am not sure what the current lingo is, so I’m not spilling the full beans, but Bonnie’s kids meet up all over the world and it is delightful and hilarious and heartwarming to me every time.)

What words of wisdom would you pass on to current 优蜜视频 students?

This question makes me laugh because I am absolutely not wise and do not feel qualified to write anything here.聽 Maybe I’ll be able to say more at an 优蜜视频 event someday.聽 One thing I do want to say, though, is to take the advice of your mentors seriously and yet not be afraid to challenge them and do things differently when your gut is screaming at you to聽do otherwise.聽 Who knows if this is the “right” way to do things, but I have found I am happiest and most able to act on my instincts when I know it’s right for me and it’s not what people expect of me.聽 I think when that divergence happens, if (especially) it’s painful to reconcile, that’s a great sign that you’re following your internal compass and being true to yourself.

Summer plans may not be shaping up the way we had imagined, but that doesn鈥檛 mean that traveling to new and exciting places are off the table. There are no limits to where our minds can take us. No matter where we find ourselves, there is always an opportunity for adventures and self-discovery right at the tip of our fingers!

Summer magic is manifested in books! Let the adventure begin.

Elementary School

Summer by Cao Wenxuan, illustrated by Yu Rong

Readers find out how some of their favorite animals stay cool during the summertime in this whimsical, poetic book. The animals fight until they are inspired by an act of love to offer shade to one another. Through lyrical text from Hans Christian Andersen Award winner Cao Wenxuan, the story comes alive with bright, delicate art from award-winning illustrator Yu Rong.

惭补帽补苍补濒补苍诲&苍产蝉辫;by Pam Mu帽oz Ryan

New York Times best-selling author Pam Mu帽oz Ryan is an American writer for children and young adults, particularly in the multicultural genre. In this magical story, Maximiliano C贸rdoba goes on a dangerous journey armed only with a compass, a mysterious stone rubbing, and legends about traveling mythical gatekeepers.

Clayton Byrd Goes Underground by Rita Williams-Garcia, illustrated by Frank Morrison

When his beloved grandfather, the blues man Cool Papa Byrd, dies suddenly, Clayton鈥檚 anger and misplaced alliances get him into trouble. This story of family grief, reconciliation, and the power of music is set in New York City.

Mindy Kim Series By Lyla Lee illustrated by Doug Ho

Lyla Lee’s Mindy Kim series is a heartwarming, authentic look at an 8-year-old girl trying to navigate life in a new state where her Korean heritage makes her stand out., launched in January 2020 with books,  Mindy Kim and the Lunar New Year Parade and Mindy Kim and the Yummy Seaweed Business.

Just in Case You Want to Fly by Julie Fogliano, illustrated by Christian Robinson

What do you need for your next adventure? Explore this nurturing tale through colorful pictures and lyrical text. A joyful, inclusive cast of children fly, sing, and wish their way across the pages, with everything they could ever need-a cherry if you need a snack, and if you get itchy here’s a scratch on the back-to explore the world around them.

Middle School

Wink By Harrell Rob

A wrenching and hilarious story about embracing life’s weirdness and surviving an unthinkable diagnosis, based on the author’s own experience with a rare eye cancer. Twelve-year-old Ross Maloy just wants to be normal. Not to have a rare eye cancer, not to lose his hair, not to have to wear a weird hat or have a goopy eye full of ointment. Just normal. 

Queen of the Sea by Dylan Meconis, illustrated by the author

Cult graphic novelist Dylan Meconis offers a rich reimagining of history in this hybrid novel loosely based on the exile of Queen Elizabeth I by her sister, Queen Mary. As an added bonus Candlewick Press is offering a with Dylan, premiering July 24th .

The Bridge Home by Padma Venkatraman

Runaway sisters Viji and Rukku end up living on the streets of Chennai, where they find a new family of friends who help them to survive by scavenging the city鈥檚 mountains of rubbish. Penguin Middle School hosts an for added context after reading the book.

The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise by Dan Gemeinhart

Coyote Sunrise and her dad travel the country in their school bus. Along the way, they meet new friends who help them see their world in a new way and heal from the tragedy that hit their family five years earlier.

High School

Aix Marks the Spot by S.E. Anderson

Jamie has been dreaming of this summer forever: of road trips and intensive art camps, of meeting cute boys with her best friend Jazz. What she didn’t count on was the car accident. Anderson recently took part in , an online two-day event to celebrate and talk about all thinks YA Thriller.

Swing By Kwame Alexander & Mary Rand Hess

Kwame Alexander might be more well known for The Crossover series but these New York Times bestselling authors team up to tell this lyrical story about hope, courage, and love that speaks to anyone who’s struggled to find their voice. And the surprise ending shines a spotlight on the issues related to our current social divide, challenging perspectives and inspiring everyone to make their voice heard.

CIRCE by Madeline Miller

A bold and subversive retelling of the Circe from Homer and the Odyssey. This goddess’s story, a #1 New York Times bestseller. This remarkable journey into mythology brings the ancient gods directly and viscerally into the present. Circe is a perfect mashup of elegant language, glorious storytelling, and exquisitely modern sensibilities. 

American Road Trip By Patrick Flores-Scott

With a strong, loving family, an incredibly loyal best friend, and a budding romance with the girl of his dreams, life shows promise for seventeen-year-old Teodoro 鈥淭鈥� Avila. But he takes some hard hits the summer before his senior year when his nearly perfect brother Manny returns from a tour in Iraq with a devastating case of PTSD.

Adult

Exhalation: Stories by Ted Chiang (Chiang Feng-nan)
This is a perfect example of why science fiction now calls itself speculative fiction. No aliens, no space travel, no dystopias. Only nine mind-stretching tales based on technological or historical hypotheses. From an award-winning science fiction writer (whose short story “The Story of Your Life” was the basis for the Academy Award-nominated movie Arrival), the long-awaited new collection of stunningly original, humane, and already celebrated short stories

The Peanuts Papers: Writers and Cartoonists on Charlie Brown, Snoopy & the Gang, and the Meaning of Life: A Library of America Special Publication By Andrew Blauner (Editor)

This collection offers a delightful range of commentaries, by authors from Umberto Eco to Maxine Hong Kingston, including analyses of Lucy鈥檚 incongruity as a psychiatrist and Snoopy鈥檚 triumphant narcissism, to a Jonathan Lethem parody of Allen Ginsberg鈥檚 鈥淗owl.鈥�

On Looking: A Walker鈥檚 Guide to the Art of Observation by Alexandra Horowitz

From the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Inside of a Dog. Walk as Horowitz did, in the company of observers, from a toddler to a typographer, a diagnostician to an urban designer, a doctor to a sound engineer, your walks will soon exemplify Proust鈥檚 observation,鈥淭he real voyage of discovery consists, not in seeing new landscapes, but in having new eyes.鈥�

The Order of Time by Carlo Rovelli

Any writer on physics who鈥檚 praised by novelist John Banville, naturalist Michael Pollan, and actor Benedict Cumberbatch, as well as his professional colleagues, must be exceptional鈥攁nd Rovelli is. He uses analogy, witty diagrams, a sense of drama, and quotations from Horace, Shakespeare, Rilke, and the Grateful Dead to make his explanations of space-time, gravitational fields, and such, as Einstein said 鈥渁s simple as possible, but no simpler.鈥�

If you shop through , Amazon will donate a portion of the purchase to 优蜜视频. through our Amazon Smile link. Let us know which books you will be reading this Summer in the comments below!