On July 25th, 2021, AYLUS held its first national conference. Chapel Hill Branch member Luna Chen participated in all sessions. Please find her report below.
Finance/Business Panel
The special guests for the Finance and Business Panel were Jennifer Gan, Cindy Zhi, Ryan Chou, Myeisha Boyd, who first introduced themselves and their careers. They first started off by talking about the path that they took that got them into their career. Most of them found themselves on the wrong path, and ended up looking for the right career for them which ended up being business. They had many challenges that they faced, but overcame them, a few of them being knowing the expectations of a job, prioritizing yourself, and communicating with others. All of the guests had their own definition of what success looked like in their position. When Anthony asked them what characteristics and skills are necessary for people who want to get into their type of career, “curiosity, empathy, communication, and being able to tell a story” were popular answers among the guests. None of them believe that the major matters as long as you have the skill sets and passion in what you want that can help you get into your job.
Med/Healthcare Panel
The two special guests that were introduced were Dr. Xiu, who worked in cancer research as a transitional research scientist, and Professor Charney who is a professor at New York University and he is also a kidney doctor, a nephrologist. As of now he does clinical research and studies new drugs for kidney diseases. Both of them started off on a different path than to where they are now, showing us that it’s okay to direct your interest in something new, and going for it. Both of them had their own definitions of success, for Dr. Xiu’s believed that as long as she is contributing to science, then she is helping patients. Dr. Charney informs us of three things that prove to him that he is successful:
1) He feels like he’s influenced people (students, co-workers, etc.)
2) When he wakes up in the morning, he can’t wait to go to work
3) When people look forward to working with him/want to work with him.
Both speakers agreed that if you desire to go into healthcare, then it is important that you have the following skills/traits: you have to have some knowledge in science; you don’t have to be an A-student in every single area; you should spend time out of science; and you should be able to influence people in a good way.
Law Panel
In the Law Career Panel, two special guests came and talked to us about their experiences and thoughts from their career. Scott Lin currently works as a lawyer, and Leslee Cohen works at a law firm, occasionally associating with small businesses. Mr. Lin knew from the beginning that he wanted to become a lawyer ever since his interest in this career sparked in 8th grade. As for Ms. Cohen, she grew up with a family where pretty much everyone worked as a lawyer. So she knew that she would probably fall into the same career, too. However, she hated her law school, but eventually got into corporate law. Life was definitely not easy and relaxing as a lawyer. Mr. Lin proved that to us by telling us that you would have to constantly meet up with your clients, analyze business and legal documents, and communicate with other lawyers. Ms. Cohen adds that you’re mostly going to be writing, and you are likely to be intellectually challenged every day. They faced many challenges along the way, one of the biggest ones being finding clients.
STEM Panel
The two special guests that were introduced for the STEM Career Session were Alice Yang and Dr. Hualiang Shi. Alice is a recent graduate and currently works as a software engineer while Dr. Hualiang Shi is a hardware engineer, and has worked for many different companies/groups. From listening about their path to get to where they are, one of the most important things that I learned was that if you have any weaknesses, then you should try your best to work on them so they don’t become a disadvantage to you. I’m sure that everyone has had to make a very hard decision at least once in their life. Especially since your life revolves around decisions that you make that lead you to where you stand today, it’s normal to get stuck in a situation where you aren’t quite sure what to do. Sometimes success is not just determined by your achievements such as delighting your customers, but it can also be about what position you’re in. A good position to be in is one that allows you to continuously grow. Important skills and characteristics that you may need if you want to pursue this career are having a growth mindset, being able to solve a variety of problems, learning to ask for help respectfully, teamwork, leadership, and much more.
Personal Branding & Networking Workshop Panel
In the Personal Branding and Networking Workshop, Stephanie Su, who majors in computer science, taught us all about what personal branding was, and why it can be beneficial to you. A personal brand is basically how the world sees you, similar to a business brand however that leans more on how customers see the company. Personal branding pretty much boils down to reputation management and ensuring you work on the things that you find interesting and make you happy. When you build your reputation, it also allows you to create stronger trust bonds between you and others. More opportunities are likely to show up as well. She also informed us about networking, and a networking platform that she enjoys using is LinkedIn, which is one of the biggest networking platforms. So far, Stephanie Su has had leadership positions, influencer partnerships, and speaking engagements along with 2.2 million post views and 9,700 followers on LinkedIn. We were given information on how to get started, and how to grow your account from there. She gave us recommendations on what to post such as stories, thoughts, and unpopular thoughts, as well as the different types of posts which are announcements, advertisements, and stories/reflections.
Scientific Research Panel
For the Scientific Research Panel, four students came in and first introduced themselves. Ellen Xu is a high school student, who is currently exploring translational medicine. John Rho is a rising freshman at Harvard, and is studying economics, biology, and CS. Wenjun Hou will also be a rising freshman this fall, except he will be headed towards MIT. Lucy Zha will be starting her undergraduate career at Yale University, and she intends to pursue her interest in biomedical research and public health. All of them have won multiple competitions and gained many awards. They have come across many obstacles in their life, one of them being when COVID-19 occurred, which restricted them from entering the labs. Everyone had done their own type of research for their own reasons. Ellen’s sister being misdiagnosed played a big part in why Ellen was doing research on translational medicine. She was able to develop an algorithm that allowed it to take images and create a diagnosis. John and his friend had developed a software that would help those who had trouble hearing. His father had trouble hearing, so this inspired him to create this software. Lucy did research for biomedical health sciences due to the fact that a relative had been diagnosed with thyroid cancer. And for Wenjun, his research, quantum computing, was motivated by a colleague’s paper which had used Grover’s algorithm to solve a problem. He worked with his professor to try and create a quantum algorithm that could solve knapsack problems.
Community Service Panel
For this panel, Michelle Zong and Jack Mao discussed about their community service experiences. Michelle will be a sophomore going into MIT this fall while Jack will be studying computer science and MS&E as a freshman at Stanford University. Jack wasn’t really affiliated with AYLUS, but he did help around the community a lot. He mainly worked with non-profit organizations, the local government, and his school. Michelle founded the AYLUS Columbus Branch in 9th grade, and became National AYLUS President in 12th grade. They both contributed so much to helping the community that they earned a few hundred hours each year doing so. Michelle advises to try volunteering with your friends, and Jack suggested volunteering for things that interest you, such as taxing or coding. Based on his experience, he tells us that if you’re volunteering on something you’re passionate about, time goes by super fast. At the end of the day it may look like you didn’t do much of an impact, but when you look back after many days, you can see how much you’ve changed things. “The most rewarding thing is looking back after a few months and seeing the impact you made”, Jack Mao states. Michelle Zong adds on to this by saying, “If you want to see more of an impact, pursue in more activities that allow you to see your impact.” Not only did volunteering make both of them feel good about themselves, but it also allowed them to be introduced to new lifestyles, learn about new things, and learn about how their actions impacted them on a day to day basis. Volunteering also helped them develop leadership skills which are beneficial to have in the future as learning to be a leader through failure can help you become a better person. Trying to sort out time for volunteering and academic life can be stressful at times. They advise to not try to cram so many things into your schedule since that would only make life harder for you. It’s important to keep track of your time management, so you shouldn’t be afraid of missing out on something. You don’t have to worry about making it to every single event. Make sure to look at how much time you’re spending on something and maybe try to focus some of your time on something different.
College Applications Panel
Our special guests for the College Applications Panel were Areeb Alam, Sasha Tunsiricharoengul, Kaylee Yin, and Sung Cho. Areeb is a rising freshman at the University of Pennsylvania and plans to study computer science. Sasha is a rising freshman at Harvard University. She intends to study neuroscience and gender studies. Kaylee is a rising freshman at Cornell University and will be studying Applied Economics and Management at the Dyson School. Last but not least, Sung will be a first-year at Princeton this fall. He plans to study a mix of economics, engineering, and English. Everyone wants to stand out on their college applications, and in order to do so, it matters what you put on there. Areeb, Sasha, Kaylee, and Sung all explained what you should put on your application form so you can stand out. Adding things such as your GPA and test scores aren’t the only things you want to include. It’s important to focus on your essays, letters of recommendations, and interviews. Being truthful on your application and including extracurriculars that you took can be beneficial. They all had their regrets, one of the biggest ones being that they wished that they had managed their time better. They also wished that they had started their college essays earlier. They suggested starting your essays during the summer before your senior year so you won’t be as stressed when school starts. You have more free time during the summer after all. One of them advised applying to multiple small scholarships since they are easier to win due to the fact that less people apply to them than bigger ones. During stressful times, it’s easy to lose motivation to continue on. One way that motivated them was to think about their friends and colleagues who were working hard because they inspired them to keep on going.
Total participated hours: 7 hours
Reported by: Luna Chen