Leila Leibert embraces juxtaposition: Community college to the Ivy League, San Francisco to Hong Kong, mathematics to art history. This juxtaposition has allowed Leibert to view the world through a more holistic lens. “She is a maverick. She likes to try everything and go for everything,” said Manuel San Millan, Leibert’s boyfriend. Not only does Leibert try everything, but San Millan explains that Leibert puts her all into everything that she tries, making her a truly special person to be around.
Leibert spent her first year out of high school at a community college near her hometown in San Francisco, California. It was there that she first embraced her varied interests and genuine desire to learn. “I had taken 120 units, which is almost four years worth of courses in a year and a half. So I was taking a lot of courses in many disciplines like art history, architecture and math,” she explained.
In community college, Leibert was immersed into a non-traditional college environment. “A lot of the students there came from all backgrounds, and all ages, so in a lot of my classes I was surrounded by adults and even people who were working full time or returning back to college to pursue their studies.” Despite these varied backgrounds, and having classmates who were only in college part time, Leibert fully immersed herself into her studies. She explained how she has never been a stickler for grades, and instead was always focused on taking classes she was interested in, and building relationships with professors.
No one from Leibert’s community college has ever transferred to an Ivy League, and no one from Leibert’s high school’s graduating class went to an Ivy League. It was only through Leibert’s involvement in research that she was introduced to the opportunities available to apply to and attend an Ivy League. Evidently, Leibert was an anomaly and a trail blazer.
However, being the first to do something is never without its struggles. Leibert had to grapple with how her old classmates and friends would perceive her move to an Ivy League. “I told no one I was applying, so I just kind of left and disappeared, because people already have preconceived notions about going to a school like Princeton.” Leibert was also worried about how her life would be at Princeton, and what it would be like to make new friends in a school where transferring is rare. “When I got in, I didn’t even pick up the phone call. I was a bit apprehensive about whether or not it was a mistake.”
Although Leibert describes her first year at Princeton as “pretty rough,” she was able to hit her stride during her second year at Princeton and find great success. Leibert was able to leverage the strengths that she embodied in her academic curiosity while studying at a community college to find success at Princeton. Although her major, ORFE, is known to be a tough one, she really enjoys it because “you don’t need to specialize or feel confined to one specific field of study. ORFE is for generalists who love quantitative challenges,” she described.
Just as would be expected from someone with such diverse interests and backgrounds, you cannot put Leibert in a box. She has since lived in Hong Kong, Wyoming, and Los Angeles, pursuing research related to ORFE and beyond. “Leila is very difficult to describe in words, there is a certain energy about her – very warm and positive, and everyone feels very heard when talking to her,” said Leibert’s friend from Princeton, Isabelle Tseng. Tseng also explains that Leibert has the extra enrichment of being on another college campus and is very open minded.
Although it wasn’t easy for Lubert to take the jump into attending an Ivy League, she was able to leave her mark on the people she left behind in California, as well as inspire those that she met at Princeton. There is a portrait of Leibert hanging proudly in her community college, displaying her name, major, and education at Princeton. “Whatever she does, she cares about it very deeply. Anything from horses to sailing, or interior design, she loves to talk about it and immerse herself in it,” San Millan said. “She is the whole package,” said Tseng. “Talking to her is like a warm ray of sunshine.”
By: Carina Fucich
