My closing seminar just ended, with everyone sending love emojis, thank yous and shoutouts to the wonderful family time groups and friends!

Throughout the past two weeks of YYGS, despite starting and ending the sessions much later than the usual New Haven time, it really was an eye opening experience.

I remember the first day of YYGS being like, “Will I ever make any friends? Will this even be fun? Won’t the classes be too hard because of the professors?”

Well, looking back, I can’t express how much I’ve learned throughout this session. The diversity in YYGS really expanded my perspective to realize that there’s so many dimensions and ways to approach a certain problem, albeit even sharing the same interests and similarities!

My family group was really awesome, and everyone was so diverse!

There was…

• Maddy (our instructor <3, currently attending Dartmouth!)
• Sanjana (living in the States)
• Arjav (living in the States, Chicago)
• Ana (living in Maldova)
• Sara (living in Spain)
• Emily (living in New Zealand Australia HAHHAAHHAA)
• Alba (living in Spain)
• Emman (living in the Philippines!)
• Felipe (living in Brazil)
• Ermias (living in Dubai)
• Max (living in England)
• aaaaand lovely Veruka (living in the states)

Also shoutout to Kayla and Nikolay for simulations, and my love Ilaria HAHAHAHAA I LOVE YOU!

I could really sense my sleep deprived self energizing every moment of the lecture, and I remember often times when I would just look up from my computer screen and whisper to my mom, “YYGS is just.. so fun”

Yea, I was worried like the many other students in this program about it being online, and quite disappointed that we weren’t able to visit the Yale campus. However, the online program itself really outweighed the detriments that I thought existed.

The reason why YYGS gave me such a new perspective was because EVERYONE in the program is so curious about anything and all have really diverse perspectives in how they interpret the lectures or certain topics, that it really motivated me throughout the 2 weeks. At first, there was quite a lot of awkward silence in breakout rooms, but by the last family time today, everyone was so excited to share their opinions!

I really feel like entering a program like this enables me to think more intellectually like a scholar. I actually feel like I’ve been so encaged in this one fixed disciplinary after listening to all the great lectures!

My favorite was definitely the one hosted by Professor Scassellati about Robots and the one about Microbes (will post later)! I also loved how engaging all the professors were, and the willingness to support us!

I cannot forget the excitement I had from receiving my admissions letter into YYGS, and the moment of anticipation I had during the first seminar.

Today, as for the last Family Time, we played Gartic Phone, which was HILARIOUS!

I really learned that it never hurts to be more inquisitive and curious about anything! The more you try harder to learn, the more willing others are to help teach you, and the more you motivate the community to learn too!

Today, we also presented our Simulation Projects, and WOW I. WAS. AMAZED.

The topic of the simulation project was mainly how to solve issues of COVID-19’s effects on society?

Our group came up with a government proposal to solve three main relationship type issues, and I’m thinking of starting a petition where we could receive as many signatures we can to actually propose this.!

Group 2 (Emman, Ivory and Sara) came up with an educational implementation program.

Group 3(Arianna, Talia and Gretl) really amazed me. They created this Alleviate program where students could join a zoom link that was programmed by the algorithm to help students cope with mental disorders/destress with other teenagers around the world through Zoom!

Group 4(Fengming/Leo, Shamel and Josh) created a boardgames called Pandemaniac, which was kind of like monopoly, except the Flu-fighters (players) would earn points whenever they answered a COVID-19 safety policy related question correctly.

Everyone was so innovative in their own ways, and I was motivated to try much harder too. It also widened my perspective of the many other ways in which we can expand our visions and solutions.

And lastly, my family time:

Thank you for such a great time, YYGS, and I will never forget all the great memories we’ve made!

– Joanna Kim, July 17th, 2021, 1:54 AM KST –