Sophia Sun
Sophia Sun is from Rockville, Maryland and graduated from the Science, Mathematics and< Computer Science Magnet program at Montgomery Blair High School. Sophia plans to double major in applied math and computer science at Columbia University, where she hopes to continue conducting scientific research and break through the limitations of self-cognition to explore how mathematics paired with computer science can help human beings to understand, mitigate, and even solve real world problems.
In high school, Sophia actively participated in various national and international level math and computer science competitions, winning a number of honors including national first place awards. She was a 4 times AIME qualifier and was invited to the Math Prize for Girls in 9th grade. In the 2019 InteGirl Math Competition, she won 1st place in Geometry and Individual Overall. In 2022 Math Kangaroo USA competition level 11-12, she won the national first place with a perfect score. In 2021, she was awarded a National First Place Certificate by the American Computer Science League.
Sophia has been involved in research using machine learning since her high school. In her sophomore year, under the mentorship of professor Goldsztein in Georgia Institute of Technology, Sophia participated in a research project which simulated the possibility of a patient having a stroke. She saw first-hand how machine learning could be used to save a life. In this project, by using Python and machine learning methods, Sophia created a model that diagnoses patients who may have stroke symptoms and finished a research paper titled "Assessing the risk of strokes with machine learning.” In her junior year, Sophia did a summer research internship supervised by Professor Jianqing Fan in Princeton University. In this internship, Sophia used statistical machine learning methods to investigate what macroeconomic variables affect unemployment rates both contemporarily and predictively and finished a research paper titled “Which Macroeconomic Variables Drive Changes in Unemployment Rate.” Her research was awarded the Superior Excellence Certificate of Achievement by Washington Academy of Sciences.
Besides academics and research, Sophia is also passionate about art and music. She has played piano for over 10 years and received First Class Honors in the practical examination from the Royal Conservatory of Music. Sophia also began performing in musical theater in elementary school. The first role she played was Ariel in Shakespeare’s play The Tempest directed by Cheryl Sellitti. She has also played major female roles, such as Belle in A Christmas Carol directed by Arnetia Walker.
Since middle school, Sophia has been enthusiastically involved in voluntary teaching. Starting from tutoring underprivileged middle school students in mathematics and new immigrant kids in English, Sophia had played different roles in teaching various subjects such as being a teacher assistant in Math Kangaroo USA summer competition math class, English tutor and group leader in Communities Without Boundaries Foundation, and lead coach in Kids Connect Program youth fitness class.
In high school, Sophia held a few leadership positions in different clubs and nonprofit organizations both in and outside of school. She was an organizer and problems writer in her high school math club. In 2022, as a lead organizer, she worked with other members together and successfully organized the 2022 Montgomery Blair Math Tournament, the most influential middle school math tournament run by high school students in the greater DC area. She was co- president in EcoSwift, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to spread environmental awareness, primarily to students. Volunteering in EcoSwift, Sophia wrote an annual work plan, led the team members in writing a $40,000 grant proposal, organized various events and recruited volunteers. Sophia was also vice-president in GirlsGlobal, a local nonprofit organization run by local female high school students. She conceived activities during the early stage of the organization, selected inspirational quotes weekly, wrote and posted weekly quizzes on female figures.
In her free time, Sophia loves reading, painting, cooking, and wielding a straight sword and kung fu fan.