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Yeona Chun

Biography

 

Profile: After graduating from MIT in the spring of 2010, Yeona Chun moved ahead full steam with travel, academic, and work plans.  The South Korean-born Scholar received her diploma, and soon thereafter was off on the adventure of a lifetime traveling through China, where she not only took in the scenery and culture but also gave science lectures at universities and technical schools in Hong Kong, Chengdu, and Wuhan.  From the Far East it was back to her roots in Indiana and a research assistant position in the Biological Sciences Department at the University of Notre Dame, all the while preparing for her next academic step of medical school.  In her “spare time” Yeona works as a private math and science tutor helping students in her community prepare for college.  There were several highlights for Yeona during her time at MIT. At the top of the list was a month-long mission in Tanzania as part of MIT’s Developmental Lab.  Yeona surveyed the traditional medicines and health system of the Maasai Tribe and catalogued the information for a partner NGO.  She also taught a “practical science curriculum utilizing locally available resources” in a secondary school in rural Monduli, Tanzania.  Additionally, Yeona spent a summer in Uganda exploring the political and cultural complications in the civil war ravaged country and implications on those in poverty. During her time there, she had an opportunity to run a medical clinic for children of the Katanga slum in Uganda’s capital, Kampala.

Inspiration: Yeona’s parents and role models in her home community greatly shaped her desires to reach out and help the less fortunate.  That desire to help was evident at college when Yeona and fellow students established the MIT chapter of Camp Kesem, which works with children of cancer patients. Yeona found working with kids who have lost the most important people in their lives to be inspirational. “These kids have so much joy and were incredibly giving when they had the chance to be themselves. It was a privilege to work with them,” said Yeona.

Aspiration: Yeona plans to attend medical school and become a physician because “in no other field besides medicine can I combine my heart and mind, meld science with compassion, and touch both the homeless and affluent.”

Making a Difference: During spring break of her senior year at MIT, Yeona spent the vacation week working with Starlight Ministries of South Boston, an organization that provides programs for homeless.

Accolades: Yeona holds membership in Sigma Xi Scientific Research Society and received the James J. & Janet Bochnowski Scholarship for biology students at MIT.

Interesting Fact:  Yeona has been associated with the Foundation for a decade, as she was a member of one of the first classes of Young Scholars. 

 

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