Hi! My name is Juni, and I’m currently a PhD student at Columbia in the Biomedical Engineering Department. I graduated from Caltech with a bachelor’s degree in Bioengineering and a minor in English. I received a 2025 NSF GRFP fellowship, and my undergraduate research focused on studying Autism Spectrum Disorder candidate risk genes in zebrafish. In graduate school, my focus is on chick embryo development.
My dream is to one day become a professor, and throughout my undergrad I cultivated a love for teaching. I was a teaching assistant for Cell Biology for two years and a teaching assistant for Genetics for another. In addition to college-level teaching, I have also been privately tutoring students since high school, covering a range of subjects from middle school math to high school precalculus, calculus, and biology.
In addition to math and science, I tutor SAT and ACT preparation, as well as provide humanities and essay writing (such as college essay) support. While at Caltech, I spent four years working for the Admission’s Office, leading prospective student tours and co-leading our blog page, experiences that have given me insight into the college admission process.
In my free time, I love playing soccer, running, practicing guitar, and expanding my already vast collection of houseplants.
College:
Education: California Institute of Technology
Undergrad Major: B.S. Bioengineering
Other Degrees/Minors: Minor in English (California Institute of Technology), Incoming PhD student in Biomedical Engineering (Columbia University)
High School:
Awards & Honors: National Merit Finalist, Equitable Excellence Scholarship, Carson Scholarship, Girl Scout Gold Award, Korean American Scholarship, 5th place at Maryland Junior Science and Humanities Symposium (JSHS) and presented research at the National Symposium
Interests & Activities: National Honor Society (President), Science Olympiad, Varsity Soccer (Captain), Varsity Lacrosse (Captain), Varsity Indoor Track, Varsity Swim, Co-Founded Global Gardens (a climate initiative in Baltimore City that continues today)
SAT Scores: 1550 (800 Math, 750 Verbal)
AP Exams: 5 World History, 5 US Government, 5 US History, 5 Economics, 5 Literature, 4 Calculus AB
Other:
Other Awards: Columbia University Presidential Fellow at The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science (2025), National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) Award (2025), Life Sciences Division Poster Presentation Award at SACNAS Conference (2024), Caltech Y Hastrup Award (2024), Miles White Scholarship (awarded in 2024 and 2023), SanPietro Travel Prize (2024), Academic All-District Women’s Soccer Team (awarded in 2024 and 2023)
Other Interests & Activities: At Caltech, I served as both a Peer Advocate and a Title IX Advocate, roles designed to support students in issues related to mental health, sexual assault, and race/sex/gender-based discrimination. I also served as Events Co-Director for the Community in Biology and Biological Engineering (BBE) Committee, where I started a mentorship program between BBE graduate and undergraduate students that will continue even after I graduate. Additionally, I chaired the Bioengineering Committee for the Annual Student-Faculty Conference (SFC), where I wrote and administered major option feedback surveys to students in the bioengineering division and facilitated communication with faculty to hold open discussions regarding the trajectory of the option and improvements that could be made to the BBE course requirements.
In terms of student life, I was president of Caltech's Asian Pacific Islander Desi American (APIDA+) Club and secretary of Caltech's chapter of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE). I also competed as a two-sport NCAA Division III athlete, playing varsity soccer from freshman through senior year and running track from sophomore through senior year.
Outside of school, I volunteered for the past two years as a tennis instructor for Aceing Autism, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping children with autism grow through the sport of tennis.
Academically, I served as an undergraduate Teaching Assistant for Genetics (Fall 2023) and Cell Biology (Spring 2023 and 2024).
Location: Other
