Karen Zhang CC’26 is being recognized for her contributions in academic and community engagement at Columbia. As a New York native, she strives to make urban spaces more resilient, livable, and sustainable. Studying history and economics, she was a research assistant at the Journalism School for Professor Richard John on the history of antimonopoly thought and has worked on research projects in the economics department on the spatial economic development of New York City and Texas energy grid prices. As a Laidlaw Scholar, she conducted ethnographic research on the impact of performance-based exit exams on immigrant students and economic analyses for the Brooklyn Marine Terminal waterfront redevelopment project at New York City Economic Development Corporation. Zhang also spearheaded neighborhood tours in Flushing, Chinatown, and Jackson Heights through Columbia’s Asian American Alliance and mentored first-generation low-income high school students on college applications through Matriculate. She played music on campus in The Varsity Show and Columbia Musical Theatre Society shows.