This summer I had the amazing opportunity to travel to South Korea with the Harvard Summer School study abroad program. Over the course of the program I participated in two classes, an intermediate Korean language course and an anthropology course with a focus on “Global Korea”.
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Over the past year, I’ve had the opportunity and privilege to travel through a number of Asian countries, meeting a variety of startup founders and learning about how innovation and the practice of business-building both stays the same and differs across geographies.
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During July this summer, I had the opportunity to travel to Busan, South Korea to serve as a U.S. delegate for the U.S.-ROK-Japan Trilateral Global Leadership Youth Summit.
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In light of the soon-to-be, Milken Center for Advancing the American Dream, I was curious to learn how the ideals of the American Dream—freedom, individualism, and upward mobility—resonate with people in Malaysia and the Philippines, where meaningful lives are built on values beyond material success.
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In Peru and many other countries in Latin America, it is extremely difficult for indigenous people to find sustainable and culturally conscious ways to earn money and support their families and communities. For many of these people, their primary source of income is agricultural production and sale. However, in a region that is so susceptible to drastic weather and climate changes, it is difficult to successfully produce and sell fruits, vegetables, and animal products.
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The Amazon, the world’s most expansive rainforest, contains multitudes of plants and indigenous knowledge that help people around the world. The Amazon covers more than six million square kilometers and is considered the most biodiverse place on earth.
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Spending a month in Japan, I started my journey in the cities. The cities, including Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto, were filled with hustle and bustle.
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This summer, I had the amazing opportunity to attend the International Society for Stem Cell Research Annual Summit in Hamburg, Germany to present my first leading author poster about the research I have been conducting at the Cheng Lab in the Columbia Stem Cell Initiative. During this conference, stem cell scientists from around the world come together to discuss the latest breakthroughs in developmental and regenerative research and medicine, all from new organoid models to study disease and forthcoming clinical trials to treat rare conditions.
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From August 4th to 10th, I embarked on a deeply personal and educational journey to Lahore, Pakistan. As my home country, Pakistan holds a special place in my heart, with its vibrant culture, rich history, and the widely practiced religion of Islam.
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Education is an essential pillar of the Milken Family Foundation and important for encouraging people to lead “productive and satisfying” lives. Following this mission, I am incredibly grateful and honored to have returned to my motherland, Taiwan, one decade later to embark on a personal endeavor to learn about and revisit Taiwanese culture and identity. The two elements I was most excited about exploring were street markets and temples, as they are two important sites of community building and gathering for Taiwanese people.
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In June 2018, twelve boys and their coach were trapped in a flooded cave system in Tham Luang, Northern Thailand, and an unprecedented international rescue effort ensued. There were many factors that increased the difficulty of this rescue mission: the size and complexity of the cave network, the lack of food and water, lowering oxygen levels in the air pockets where the boys took shelter, and heavy rainfall in the region which exacerbated the flooding. Due to the flooding, only highly-trained and specialized divers could perform the rescue.
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The Milken Institute’s mission is to advance the world’s progress on discovering the path to meaningful life for those in developing countries and prepare the world for what’s coming next. I can’t say that I brought anything incrementally valuable to the people in the countries that I visited, but I certainly left with an hugely increased appreciation and understanding for the community and cultural dynamics that street food ties together.
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