Key Links
Year One · Columbia University · Complete
Computer Science at Columbia. Done. Year one of what is going to be a consequential education behind you — and you did it well. That matters more than the transcript. The people who build things that last are not the ones who coasted; they're the ones who learned how to learn. You are becoming one of those people.
Year 2 begins in September. The compounding has started.
Year 2 begins in September. The compounding has started.
Lithic · Summer 2026
Lithic builds card infrastructure — the API layer that lets companies issue their own payment cards without becoming a bank. Every fintech that wants to put a card in a customer's wallet uses a platform like Lithic to make it possible. This is unglamorous, essential plumbing. The most important infrastructure usually is.
Pay attention this summer not just to what you're asked to do, but to why the system is built the way it is. Card networks, ledgers, compliance constraints, fraud detection — these aren't arbitrary. They're the accumulated scar tissue of the payments industry. Learn the scars. They'll matter later.
One principle for the summer: every founder who later built something real in fintech had to understand, at some point, how money actually moves. You're getting that understanding at 19. That is an enormous head start.
Pay attention this summer not just to what you're asked to do, but to why the system is built the way it is. Card networks, ledgers, compliance constraints, fraud detection — these aren't arbitrary. They're the accumulated scar tissue of the payments industry. Learn the scars. They'll matter later.
One principle for the summer: every founder who later built something real in fintech had to understand, at some point, how money actually moves. You're getting that understanding at 19. That is an enormous head start.
Reading List · Summer 2026
LiteratureDavid Copperfield — Charles Dickens
LiteratureGreat Expectations — Charles Dickens
ScienceSpark: The Life of Electricity and the Electricity of Life — Timothy J. Jorgensen
What Matters · Joseph McNiff
Faith. Family. Friends. School. And the Nats.
🕊️ June in the Catholic Church
Month of the Sacred Heart — The entire month of June is dedicated to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, representing the physical heart of Christ as a symbol of His boundless, passionate, and enduring love for mankind. Core themes: divine mercy, reparation for sins, and unconditional love. The Feast of the Sacred Heart fell on June 7, 2026 this year.
Corpus Christi — The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ honors the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. Catholics believe that through transubstantiation, the bread and wine truly become the Body and Blood of Christ. Celebrated Thursday June 4 traditionally; observed Sunday June 7 in the United States. Parishes worldwide celebrate with Eucharistic processions through the streets, carrying the consecrated Host in a monstrance accompanied by prayers, hymns, and flower petals.
Immaculate Heart of Mary — June 13 · A worldwide Marian Procession took place this year for the first time, centered in Derry, Northern Ireland, with parishes across six continents joining in unity.
Nativity of St. John the Baptist — June 24 · Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul — June 29
NL East Standings · June 7, 2026
| Team | W | L | PCT |
| Atlanta Braves | 45 | 21 | .682 |
| Philadelphia Phillies | 35 | 30 | .538 |
| ★ Washington Nationals | 33 | 33 | .500 |
| Miami Marlins | 31 | 35 | .470 |
| New York Mets | 29 | 36 | .446 |
.500 ball. 12 back of Atlanta. It's June. The season is long. Stay with them.
Summer Events · New York City
Museum · Free with Admission
✓ No RSVP needed
Meet the Curator: Old Masters, New Amsterdam
Friday, June 19 · 12:00–1:00 pm · Free with museum admission
Join curator Russell Shorto in Old Masters, New Amsterdam — an exhibition using Rembrandt and his contemporaries to envision the Dutch settlement that became New York. Come to ask questions and see how an exhibition gets built.
📍 New-York Historical Society · 170 Central Park West at 77th St · 1st floor, Smith South Gallery
nyhistory.org →
Skyscraper Museum · Free · Hybrid
✓ Greg & Joseph registered
Building 42nd Street: A Chronicle
Tuesday, June 23 · 6:00 pm · Free · In-person + livestream
Carol Herselle Krinsky — NYU Professor Emerita of Art History, 59 years teaching, author of Rockefeller Center and Gordon Bunshaft of Skidmore Owings & Merrill, past President of the Society of Architectural Historians — lectures on one of the three great streets of Manhattan. From colonial times to the present: Egyptian Revival reservoir, Crystal Palace, Grand Central in its early and later forms, the New York Public Library, modest and lavish hotels, tenements, theaters, lobster palaces, automats, lost churches, and a private club. For a Columbia student about to spend four years on these streets, this is the architectural orientation the classroom won't give you.
📍 Skyscraper Museum · 39 Battery Place, New York, NY 10280 · Also livestreamed: Skyscraper Museum YouTube
skyscraper.org →
Plymouth Church · Free & Open to the Public
✓ Greg & Joseph registered
Ron Chernow on Mark Twain
Wednesday, June 24 · Doors 6:30 pm · Lecture 7:00 pm · Free
Ron Chernow — Pulitzer Prize winner for Washington: A Life, National Book Award winner for The House of Morgan, author of Alexander Hamilton — speaks on his #1 New York Times bestseller Mark Twain, one of Barack Obama's favorite books of 2025. The church itself is worth the trip: Lincoln sat in pew 89, the basement was an Underground Railroad station, and Branch Rickey — a Plymouth member — prayed in the pastor's office before inviting Jackie Robinson to integrate baseball.
📍 Plymouth Church · 75 Hicks Street, Brooklyn Heights, NY 11201 · Plymouth Sanctuary
plymouthchurch.org →
Museum of Mathematics · In Person
⚑ Register at momath.org
The Math Behind NASA's Webb Space Telescope
Saturday, July 11 · 6:30–8:00 pm · Registration required
Webb had 50 major deployment steps, 178 release mechanisms that had to perform perfectly, and more than 300 single points of failure. Come hear how mathematics planned, coordinated, and executed all of it — from retired NASA Mission Systems Engineer Mike Menzel, who was involved with Webb from its earliest planning stages in 1998. Menzel holds degrees from MIT and Columbia.
📍 MoMath · 635 Sixth Avenue, New York, NY 10011
momath.org → Register
Summer Calendar · June–July 2026
■ Lithic
■ Talks
■ Food
■ Baseball
June 2026
🕊️ June is dedicated to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus
Jun 7
ARRIVAL
Joseph arrives in New York — bus from DC. Summer begins.
Jun 8
LITHIC
First day at Lithic · Minetta Tavern dinner · Knicks game
Jun 19
TALK
Meet the Curator: Old Masters, New Amsterdam · NY Historical Society · 12–1 pm
Jun 23
TALK
Building 42nd Street · Skyscraper Museum · 6 pm · Registered ✓
Jun 24
TALK
Ron Chernow on Mark Twain · Plymouth Church, Brooklyn · 7 pm · Registered ✓
July 2026
Jul 11
TALK
Math Behind NASA's Webb Telescope · MoMath · 6:30 pm · ⚑ Register at momath.org
Jul 16
ARRIVAL
Jude arrives in New York.
Jul 18
BASEBALL
Yankees vs. Dodgers · Yankee Stadium
Jul 19
DEPARTS
Jude departs.
