First/Second Experience
Summer 2019
SNU ISP & ABL Bio
My first Honors Experience was a trip to my motherland, South Korea! It was an incredible educational experience as I attended the Seoul National University International Summer Program (SNU ISP) for 5 weeks and then transitioned to a two-week internship at ABL Bio which is located at the Institute Pasteur Korea in Seongnam. During my time at SNU, I was able to meet incredible people from all over the world which gave me an opportunity to improve my communication skills with people whose first language is not English and who do not share the same cultural background as me. I was able to interact with people from England, Australia, Singapore, China, Hong Kong, and many others. Notably, I forged a friendship with Eve from England, Liberty from England, and Emma from California. On top of the marvelous opportunity to talk to people from all over the world, I also took 2 courses. I took Statistics to refresh my skills in preparation for my third year and Cognitive Science. My cognitive science course was taught by Columbia professor Dr. Lisa Son who really inspired me to reflect on who I am as a person as a student. Lisa truly was an incredible role model and she was so helpful to me in particular because I was able to relate to her due to our similar backgrounds.
My time at ABL Bio was also an incredible experience. I was able to work with multiple supervisors who mentored me and who truly cultivated a welcoming learning environment and held patience for me despite my mistakes and errors. I was able to experience many different lab techniques in a professional setting. This enabled me to refine and add more skills to my own repository. This internship was an incredibly educational experience as I was able to learn and experience many new things not just in the biomedical field but also in a professional work culture. Before this, I had never worked in an office setting so to be able to witness and learn from this company in such a formative period of my life was a marvelous blessing. Even though the internship was only two weeks, I feel that I have grown and developed professionally and personally in that short increment.
All in all, this honors experience was truly an educational experience and I am so grateful for the opportunity to embark on this journey.
My time at ABL Bio was also an incredible experience. I was able to work with multiple supervisors who mentored me and who truly cultivated a welcoming learning environment and held patience for me despite my mistakes and errors. I was able to experience many different lab techniques in a professional setting. This enabled me to refine and add more skills to my own repository. This internship was an incredibly educational experience as I was able to learn and experience many new things not just in the biomedical field but also in a professional work culture. Before this, I had never worked in an office setting so to be able to witness and learn from this company in such a formative period of my life was a marvelous blessing. Even though the internship was only two weeks, I feel that I have grown and developed professionally and personally in that short increment.
All in all, this honors experience was truly an educational experience and I am so grateful for the opportunity to embark on this journey.
Third and Fourth Experience
Fall and SprinG 2020-2021
COVID Contact Tracer CO-Op 2.0
I think it is fair to say that the pandemic has caused many people to feel a lack of control. For many people, life seemed to stop and there was the sudden inability to do something to help. These feelings of inadequacy, frustration, fear, and others is what pushed me to pursue a position as a UC contact tracer. As a contact tracer, it is my job to contact UC affiliated people who have been exposed, tested positive, or are symptomatic and explain to them their next steps. This includes informing them of their isolation/quarantine periods, refer testing options, monitoring symptoms, and contacting other people who may have been exposed to the virus. We also work with many other departments in UC to help meet all the needs of those we contact as it is a difficult time for them. During my time in this position, I also took the INT1000 class for 1 credit to help me develop professionally. Through this class, I was able to establish goals to develop my communication and decision-making skills which I believe I have done so. I also worked on a project to develop a better curriculum for cultural competence. As someone who is pursuing a minority health certificate, this topic is incredibly important to me, do I decided on attempting to fill the gap. I have attached the presentation I made for this project below.
In the spring semester, I continued with this honors experience. I maintained the same position as a contact tracer with the UC COVID Check Team. The responsibilities with the position were basically the same as last year, but there were some added protocols with the addition of the COVID-19 vaccines. During my time in this position, I was also in a professional development class in order to further polish and reflect on the professional skills gained during this experience. Below, I attached a Flipgrid I made for this class which further explains the development I made in this role. In the fall semester, most of the time spent I just learned the basics with the job as mentioned above. This semester, I further refined these skills and also gained the opportunity to develop other skills as well. Since the COVID-19 pandemic is relatively new, there are constantly new things being learned about it. Due to this, the protocols were constantly changing which helped me develop more quick-thinking skills and decision-making skills. Through my experience as a contact tracer, I was also able to obtain another professional experience in the CoVAC Initiative which is under the American College Health Association in partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. I was selected to be a student ambassador to help push for health equity and vaccinations among college students.
In the spring semester, I continued with this honors experience. I maintained the same position as a contact tracer with the UC COVID Check Team. The responsibilities with the position were basically the same as last year, but there were some added protocols with the addition of the COVID-19 vaccines. During my time in this position, I was also in a professional development class in order to further polish and reflect on the professional skills gained during this experience. Below, I attached a Flipgrid I made for this class which further explains the development I made in this role. In the fall semester, most of the time spent I just learned the basics with the job as mentioned above. This semester, I further refined these skills and also gained the opportunity to develop other skills as well. Since the COVID-19 pandemic is relatively new, there are constantly new things being learned about it. Due to this, the protocols were constantly changing which helped me develop more quick-thinking skills and decision-making skills. Through my experience as a contact tracer, I was also able to obtain another professional experience in the CoVAC Initiative which is under the American College Health Association in partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. I was selected to be a student ambassador to help push for health equity and vaccinations among college students.
FIfth Experience
Spring 2021
Honors Seminar: Environmental Futures
My final honors experience was an honors seminar. I took the course Environmental Futures with Dr. Jay Twomey and Dr. Lucinda Lawson. The purpose of this class was to study dystopian and apocalyptic literature and media to reflect on the current issues within the modern world and how they can develop in the future, and to investigate solutions to solve these complex problems. During this course we read four books, Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood, Pale Rider by Laura Spinney, Zone One by Colson Whitehead, and New York 2140 by Kim Stanley Robinson. Each of these books tackled different aspects of environmental crises and helped further develop an understanding of the environmental issues plaguing current society and how different aspects of a societal system exacerbate them. The class was incredibly refreshing as it gave me an opportunity to be in a class unlike anything I have had before. The class took a mostly Socratic approach that really helped to put the focus of the class on our own thoughts and how to critically analyze them. The class was also super interesting because of the intersectionality of the topics and my fellow peers as we all studied different things and were able to bring numerous fresh perspectives to our discussions. I definitely walked away from this class with a deeper understanding of environmental issues and how collaborative approaches can be a possible solution to the world’s problems. Below, I have attached our final group project where we discussed collaboration within our study materials and further reflected on everything we went over in class.