Jennifer Lin

Hometown: Tampa, FL

High School: C. Leon King High School

Intended Major: Neuroscience

Possible Career: Doctor with specialty in women's health, APIA issues or mental health

5 words: Compassionate, approachable, and occasionally quirky

What impact do you want to have on the world?

I want to go into fields of medicine that are particularly interconnected to current sociopolitical issues like providing services to under-served communities or going into specialties that require a more culturally-sensitive outlook on treatment rather than using solely a one-size-fits-all approach. Some of the goals I have after Swarthmore include joining the health service corps that will allow me to both work with those often need treatment the most. 

Name a person you admire.

I admire my past violin teacher, Mrs. Eden Vaning-Rosen, for teaching me how to be a more confident person and inciting me to be passionate in what I do. I learned that to enjoy anything I do in life, I need to look at it from a bottom-up perspective. That is, if I want to tackle something tough, I should not only start from the small, but to have fun in the process (if it means drawing funny cartoons or using a stuffed sock to learn vibrato, then by all means, do it). Do not let comparing yourself to others hinder your confidence or motivation. 

What is something you are proud of in your life so far?

Getting into the Evans Scholar program! Also, being able to pull myself out of a senior year slump by focusing on taking care of what's truly important to me: myself. I am proud to stand here not as something who is perfect in every way, as no one is, but as someone who aims to make the best of situations out of the worst of times. 

What have been the most valuable Evans Scholars program experiences for you?

As of now (spring 2016), my most valuable Evans Scholar experience is that of my summer 2015 volunteer/internship trip to the leprosy villages in southern China with the organization Joy in Action (JIA). During my trip, I learned not only to be more independent in terms of traveling and living, but also to embrace any uncertainty that may arise, and was able to make intimate relationships with the villagers, most of whom had experienced hardship from both poverty and leprosy discrimination. Although my first impression was that of pity, I discovered that we could see each other one-to-one listen to each others' stories and simply have a cup of tea and enjoy being together. "Everyone is family under the same sky," a message one of the villagers wrote to me as we communicated through chalk. I think this quote embodies everything the Evans program in particular stands for, and I am incredibly thankful to have been given the opportunity to experience another perspective on life, and to become more self-aware of what I have. 

What was the most transformative class you have taken and/or what subjects do you want to explore deeply?

I want to explore Asian/Asian-American issues, particularly those surrounding poverty in undocumented communities and of mental health stigmatization. In addition, I want to take more courses in the social sciences to really see how diverse our world is. Finally, I want to continue studying biology and psychology, and in particular, how each affects the other, through my intended neuroscience major. For fun, I want to take classes in cooking, crafting and Japanese animation!