A student from Maspeth is headed to one of the country’s most prestigious Ivy League schools this fall: Columbia University.
Bryanna Geiger, who lives in Maspeth with her mother, father and two younger brothers, will be traveling to Manhattan every day beginning this September as she was accepted to Columbia University earlier this year. This will be nothing new for Geiger, who attended Loyola School — which is also located in Manhattan — and graduated with honors.
During her time at Loyola School, Geiger completed the high school’s most demanding curriculum, which includes taking at least five honors classes and six advanced placement (AP) courses.
“I was an honor student for four years,” she explained. “It was challenging, but I thought it prepared me better for when AP courses were offered.”
Geiger also participated in Blue Stamp Engineering, a summer program where she received her first real hands-on experience with robotics, coding and 3-D design.
Aside from her outstanding academics, Geiger has worked to make her community a better place.
She volunteered her Saturday mornings with Loyola School’s “Brownbaggers” group, a charity that distributes sandwiches to the homeless in Tompkins Square Park. For all of her hard work bettering the community, Geiger received the Magis Award, one of the most distinguished awards a student at Loyola can receive. The award is given to students who have made Loyola School a better place by their example and charity.
Geiger credits her love of charity work to the Maspeth community, which inspired her to work for others.
“The Maspeth community is really close, and that really guided my path and my desire to help others and impact my community,” she said. “Like during snowstorms the community really makes sure everyone is okay.”
Geiger will now need to take all the smarts she has gained from Loyola School and bring them with her to Columbia University because she is interested in studying engineering at the Ivy League school.
“I am planning on studying engineering, specifically leaning mechanical engineering,” she said. “I’ve always been interested in math and science, and this will help me branch into other fields and help solve real-world problems. I’m not sure what exactly what I want to do with engineering, but this gives me the opportunity to branch into other fields like medicine or helping in natural disasters.”
