Sydney Liu is a senior at the University of Pennsylvania majoring in Neuroscience with a minor in Computer Science. She first caught the teaching bug as a freshman, in her role as a TA for Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science at Penn, but did not yet realize that education could be a valid career choice. After exploring a variety of fields—from computer graphics, to medicine and research—Sydney discovered that teaching was the path where she felt most authentic. Since then, Sydney has taught and mentored students through programs like Choate Rosemary Hall’s Summer Programs and the Community Physics Initiative at West Philadelphia High, where she worked to make STEM concepts accessible and engaging to younger learners.
Sydney is passionate about creating classroom environments that foster curiosity, confidence, and community. Growing up as a twin who once saw herself as the less capable sibling in STEM, she was deeply shaped by the mentors at her middle and high school who encouraged her to find her voice. Their support, and her research experiences at Penn, helped her realize that science is not about innate talent but about persistence, observation, and questioning. She brings this philosophy to her teaching, aiming to help all students, regardless of background, see themselves as capable scientists. As a visual artist, she loves that teaching allows her to be creative and bring curiosity into students’ everyday lives.
Through her SNF Paideia Program Fellowship, Sydney is exploring how the arts can serve as structures for dialogue and community-building. As a PennArts Pre-Orientation leader, she shared her comic The Weed-Out with incoming freshmen, facilitating a vulnerable dialogue about the competitive environment at Penn through floral metaphor. At Choate Summer Programs, she built community across cultures in her international advisory. Each week, she created original activities like “advisory map,” where students drew where they were from, and discussed how life at an American boarding school differed from life at home. As a member of the UPenn Quackers Birdwatching club, she also leads a chapter of the Bird Collisions in the Anthropocene, a national arts initiative using collaborative sewing to spark conversations about preventing bird window strikes. She also volunteers at the Ginger Arts Center, fostering a welcoming and creative “third space” for local students in Philadelphia Chinatown.
Sydney is incredibly grateful for SNF Paideia’s generous support and warm community. On Fridays, Sydney has found her home sipping tea and puzzling at Cafe Paideia, and is inspired to create similar spaces in the future. She hopes to live by the program values of intentionality, curiosity, humility, and community, both in her everyday life and her career.
Sydney hopes to become a science teacher at an independent school, where she can nurture students’ curiosity and confidence while building inclusive, supportive communities.