Student Spotlight - Georgiy Lapin

George Lapin, a passionate math and computer science student at Everett Community College, is completing his Arts and Sciences DTA before pursuing a bachelor’s in computational math. A second-generation immigrant and active campus leader, Lapin founded the EvCC Chess Club and serves as a MESA Ambassador, where he leads Academic Excellence Workshops to deepen STEM learning. He first joined EvCC through the Running Start program, drawn by its flexibility and faster-paced classes. His most memorable experience has been developing a math-prep mobile app under a NASA grant. “I see startups as the most learning-filled and life-altering job a person can have,” Lapin said. “I hope to build something meaningful in my twenties.”

Tell me a little bit about yourself, including what you're studying here at EvCC.

My name is Georgiy Lapin, but everyone just calls me George. I'm a programmer, math lover, tennis player, piano player, second-generation immigrant, high jumper, and chess player (I actually recently founded the EvCC chess club). I'm finishing my Arts and Sciences DTA this quarter, then going to get a Bachelor's in computational math.

Why did you choose to attend EvCC?

I chose to attend EvCC because of the Running Start program; it gave me the opportunity to get ahead in college while still collecting all the credits I need to graduate high school. I never liked how rigid, slow, and boring high school classes were, so the opportunity to take faster-paced and more interesting college classes was amazing. EvCC's opportunity for online classes is also really nice because they allow for a very self-paced style of learning that I'm a big fan of.

What are your educational and/or career plans?

I'm still not fully decided on my educational goals. I'm definitely getting a Bachelor's degree, probably at UW, but after that I'm not sure if I want to just work, get a graduate degree, or do something else. After I'm done with my education, I'd like to work on startups at some point. It probably won't be right away, but I hope I'll have the opportunity in my twenties to work for myself and build a company because I see it as the most learning-filled and life-altering job a person can have. Other than startups, I'll probably work a pretty normal job that has something to do with computer science and math, most likely in AI with how technology is progressing.

Tell me about your involvement in MESA

I first found out about and joined MESA during my second quarter at EvCC, in the beginning of 2024. I was intrigued by an email looking for people to run the then-new Academic Excellence Workshops, and I applied. As a result, I also became a MESA scholar. After being an AEW coordinator for the winter and spring quarters, I was informed in the lead-up to the fall quarter that I had an opportunity to become an ambassador, and I took the opportunity. Ever since, I've been a MESA ambassador.

What does a MESA Ambassador do?

A MESA Ambassador has several responsibilities, some big and some small. Starting with the small ones, we often take care of the shared space on the first floor of PSU. We hang decorations, move stuff around, and generally clean the area up. We also work at the front desk, directing people on where they need to go. One of our main responsibilities is being available for drop-in tutoring in the subjects each of us is best at; I tutor any level of math and computer science to any MESA student that shows up when I'm there; that's one of the benefits of MESA. Outside of this, we live up to the title 'Ambassador' by promoting the MESA program and its events on campus often and in many different ways. Personally, I also have a big project I'm in charge of at MESA called the Academic Excellence Workshops. They're basically a quarter-spanning series of workshops in various STEM topics led by MESA Ambassadors. Their main point is to focus on a deeper understanding of STEM topics and fostering cooperation between students as they work through hard problems in groups. For example, the math workshops don't actually require any advanced math knowledge; they are orthogonal to normal math education and are pretty much equally challenging for people of all levels because they require a deep understanding of math itself, not just formulas, and the problems are more confusing to think through than any regular math problem—they're really more like puzzles that require you to use math as the tool to solve them. I personally spend a lot of time planning the workshops and creating the general content for them all; it's been my main project as an ambassador. I recommend all students try showing up to an AEW; I think it'll be invaluable in building a very strong foundation for your current and future STEM classes.

Describe the best experience you've had at EvCC.

My most memorable experience was working on a coding project under a NASA grant with Mrs. Kristine Washburn. I spent my free time during the winter quarter building a mobile app for students in calculus and beyond who need to quickly brush up on their prerequisite skills in algebra, geometry, and trigonometry before taking a class. In my experience with tutoring math, I've almost never seen a struggling calculus student struggle due to them not understanding the calculus part—it was almost always them not having a mastery of lower-level math. More rigorous math courses require near-mastery of the classes that came before them, which is a big issue for many students who didn't grow to fully understand their previous classes. My overall goal for making the app was to increase students' confidence in their calculus classes—because math really isn't all that hard when you progressively learn; it's only hard when there's a sudden leap in knowledge you weren't prepared for. I'm currently working on getting the app uploaded on app stores, called MathDerust. It should become available sometime this quarter.

What's your favorite class project so far?

My favorite project was definitely the big research essay paired with a bibliography I wrote in Dr. Steven Tobias's English 102 last fall. The topic of the class was modern slavery, and it was very interesting spending a whole quarter researching how issues like human trafficking are brushed under the rug while maintaining their prevalence even in our modern and progressive society. I loved how the class let everyone pick a completely unique issue to cover; mine was slavery on shrimp farms in Southeast Asia. This freedom made the project feel very personalized and made me never lose motivation in my research or writing.

Who has helped you succeed at EvCC? What did that person do to help you?

The main drivers for me have been my boss, Dr. Marian Zappala, and my advisor, Mr. Chris Killingstad. Ever since Dr. Zappala first hired me at the beginning of 2024, she's always helped me with any issues I had and was an incredibly flexible and personable boss. She's also constantly telling me about scholarships, internships, and anything else that could boost my career, which has been a blessing. Mr. Killingstad I first met in my first EvCC class, linear algebra. I loved the class and his teaching style—it was a perfect introduction to EvCC and a welcome break from high school monotony. During the class, I also realized that he was my advisor, and I started coming to him with endless questions, all of which were quickly thereafter sorted. To this day, I can continually turn to him for help, and he always leads me down the right path. I'm lucky to have such a thoughtful advisor who's helped me tremendously in planning out my education to this point and beyond.

What advice do you have for new students?

My main advice is to take advantage of every opportunity that you find. If you ever see a flyer or an email talking about some kind of event, club, etc., that seems remotely interesting, just show up and see how it goes. You'll learn a lot, can make great connections, and can discover a new passion. Even if something ends up not being for you, the cost is just an hour or two, so it's worth the trade-off for sure. I've made a lot of friends through making myself go to different events whom I would've never met otherwise.