What I've Grown

I started in a high school greenhouse with a question about hunger: could genetically modified crops help close nutritional gaps in vulnerable regions? I tested it methodically, growing hundreds of beans and turning the greenhouse into a laboratory. At the same time, I researched how feasible it would be to actually replace what farmers were growing, agronomically and practically.

I sought out mentorship from research leaders at the USDA's Robert W. Holley Center for Agriculture & Health. The work was named a Top 3 National Finalist by the National FFA and won the Biology category at the AT&T Young Science Achievers Program, among other national, regional, and state awards.

Research taught me how big systems work. EarthTote was my first try at changing small, everyday habits.

I founded EarthTote, a nonprofit encouraging sustainable habits in my hometown's largely Korean American community in New Jersey. I raised and managed over $2,400, partnered with local Korean supermarkets, and designed our own reusable shopping bags. We gave away 1,000 of them to families, including during the early months of COVID, two years before New Jersey's statewide plastic bag ban took effect.

At Harvard, I brought the same interest into business strategy. As a member of HUCBE, I developed 3-, 6-, and 10-year sustainability roadmaps for a leading global prestige beauty retailer, with recommendations spanning operations, communications, and marketing.

I co-led an evaluation of a restaurant serving a low-income NYC area, one working to prove that free, healthy meals could also be genuinely delicious, when many still default to less nutritious options. I helped turn hard-to-measure goals like community impact and health outcomes into clear, assessable criteria, informed by conversations with everyone from frontline staff to founders.

As part of that work, I researched whether sustainable agriculture could realistically supply New York City's fine-dining kitchens, work that was later published as an internal knowledge resource at the firm. More than a decade after my first agriscience project, I was back to the question that started it all: how what we grow reaches the people who need it, and how good it can taste along the way.