Community Spotlight: Khadija Diop’s Journey of Exploring Science and Building Connections

Written by Oliver Elkins

Sarah Lawrence College, American History, ’27

“When I joined the Winter Water Academy, back when I was 15… that was my sophomore year. I was shy. I was introverted. I was struggling with a lot of stuff.” Khadija Diop, now a senior at Yonkers Middle and High School as well as a member of the CURB EELS team, discovered CURB in 2023 through an advertisement her father had found. Throughout almost 2 years with CURB, Khadija has progressed through the Winter Water Academy, Blue Team, and EELS Team internship programs. Winter Water Academy, a required course for Blue Team, sparked Khadija’s interest in joining, which focuses on researching the bacteria Enterococcus and its role in indicating fecal matter within the Hudson River. The Blue Team program concludes with an event, organized by other the high-school interns, to educate the Yonkers community about the bacteria. “I remember goofing off a lot,” Khadija said, “like we’re all planning it with everybody else, but then you’re actually doing it and getting serious about it and seeing it come together. It was a really nice thing.”

In addition to creating community with the general public, Blue Team centered around creating a community within CURB. “Blue Team is not about just learning, but it’s a lot about community… which is something I really admired because, at the time, it was something I never got enough of. Finding the community, finding the balance.” Khadija is still friends with peers from CURB programs, including one who has gone to college since, “I never would have met her without Blue Team.”

Khadija found CURB’s programs impactful not only for the community, “I had already known from ninth grade Earth science [that I] wanted to get into environmental science, geology, stuff like that.” she explained, “It was just a vague idea, now I know that I definitely want to go into geology - which to be fair isn’t really what CURB does, but what mattered most is that it gave me a preview to the scientific world.”

Before I finished my interview with Khadija, I asked if there was anything else important to her that I should include in this article. Khadija’s response was this: “Obviously, there’s other outside influences that helped me become a lot more confident and a lot more social, and to even say yes to having an interview with somebody. Being in Blue Team and being in EELS were a big part of that because, being in school, I see the same people every day. But being at CURB, it allowed me to meet people outside of my school, outside of my community, and I feel like it helped me blossom and grow as a person to who I am now.”

Khadija was recently accepted into Sarah Lawrence College, but has yet to make her final decision.