Hello, I’m Yidam Park.
Hi there! I'm Yidam Park, a senior at Branham High
School, participating in the College Advantage
Program at West Valley College. With a focus on
Biology, I am dedicated to using science to uplift the
community. Throughout my academic path, I have
continuously delved into the connection between
STEM, healthcare, and society, and their impact on our
world.
When I'm not deeply engaged in my coursework or
contributing to research projects, you can find me
developing new initiatives to address community
health challenges.
My Interests
People and Their Stories
I prefer observing others and
listening to their stories over sharing
my own, a reflection of my shy
nature. I love watching my friends
and attentively listening to their
concerns, no matter the time
involved. This is why I'm often
described as a good listener.
Everything About the
Human Body
I am fascinated by the human
body and everything related to it,
which drives my keen interest in
observing people. Additionally, my
chronic joint pain of unknown
origin has further fueled my
passion for the medical field. So,
I've also earned the nickname
'Granny.’
Surgeon? Forensic Doctor?
As a senior enrolled in the College
Advantage Program at West Valley
College, I am on track to graduate
with both a high school diploma and
an A.S. degree in Biology. Next spring,
I will be taking a Human Anatomy
course, which will prepare me for my
future career as a surgeon or forensic
doctor.
My Values
Community Engagement
My commitment to serving and
enhancing my community is evident
through my initiatives in organizing
fundraisers, collaborating with local
schools and libraries to provide
educational opportunities, and
promoting community health
education.
Education
I value the power of education as a
tool for empowerment and change.
This is shown through my initiatives
to spread comprehensive health
education and my efforts to bring
legislative attention to educational
needs. I understand that educated
individuals are better equipped to
make informed decisions, which
can lead to healthier communities.
Leadership
In roles like President of the App
Development Club and Vice President
of the United Congressional Award
Club, I set a leading example by
guiding peers through tasks and
obstacles, fostering a collaborative
and motivating atmosphere.
Branham high school, 2021 - 2025
Branham high school, 2021 - 2025
AP and college courses
My Education
GPA: 4.2819(W)/3.7287(UW)
Earned Seal of Biliteracy - Korean
Branham high school, 2021 - 2025
GPA: 3.551(UW), Dean’s List,
AS in Biological Sciences, expected May 2025.
Enrolled in the Middle College Program, 2023
Enrolled in the College Advantage Program, 2024
- 2022, Branham High School
◦AP World History
◦AP Computer Science A
- 2022, West Valley College
◦HSCI 012, Understanding Stress
- 2023, Mission College
◦BIO 018H, The Biology of Cancer - Honors
- 2023, West Valley College
◦THEA 015, Intro to Film Studies
◦ANTH 055, Magic, Witchcraft, and Religion
◦MATH 003A, Calculus/Analytic Geometry
◦PHYS 001, Intro Physics Problem Solving
- 2023, LA Mission College
◦ENGLISH 101, College Reading and Composition I
- 2024, LA Mission College
◦MATH 262, Calculus 2
- 2024, West Valley College
◦BIOL 002, Environmental Biology
◦BIOL 002L, Environmental Biology Laboratory
◦POLI 001, American Government
◦BIOL 041, Principles of Animal Biology
◦CHEM 001A, General Chemistry
◦ENGL 001B, Critical Thinking Through Literature
◦MATH 004A, Intermediate Calculus
◦BIOL 043, Principles of Cell Biology
◦CHEM 001BH, Honors General Chemistry
◦MATH 010, Elementary Statistics
- 2025, West Valley College
◦ECON 001A, Principles of Macroeconomics
◦BIOL 042, Principles of Plant Biology
◦BIOL 047, Human Anatomy
◦PHYS 002A, General Physics - Mechanics
- 2025, Cañada College
◦TEAM 111.1, Basketball 1
Congressional Award Club
Branham High School
Our club is recognized by our school
district for our civic engagement and
community service this month.
Vice president/co-founder
2023-Present, 2 hrs/wk, 52 wks/yr
volunteering coordinator
Co-founded the inaugural Congressional Award
Club in California, strategically developing and
implementing the annual plan, and defining roles for
cabinet members to enhance club operations and
support over 40 students pursuing the
Congressional Award.
Established successful partnerships with four
community organizations including Sacred Heart
Community Service, Valley Water, Sartorette
Elementary School, and San Jose Public Library,
leading volunteer initiatives that foster
community engagement and enhance student
development.
Leadership
Vice president/co-founder
⦿ Co-founded the first United Congressional Award Club, now
with over 140 members nationwide.
⦿ Social Impact:
- Expanded the Congressional Award Program's presence
throughout California, leading the state to have the highest
number of award recipients in the U.S. by fall 2024. - Established a strategic partnership with the Congressional
Award Foundation and organized medal presentations in the
Bay Area, receiving endorsements from California Senator
Dave Cortese. - Participated in the 'Pack A Back' fundraising event,
successfully raising $600 to support Sacred Heart
Community Service's Education Campaign, placing 2nd
among participating charity event teams. - Launched a health education initiative advocacy project
aimed at implementing mandatory and comprehensive
health education legislation and curricula, hosting three
webinars with Stanford REACH Lab that attracted over 140
global participants, including Senator Cortese and a
representative from the Michigan Department of Health and
Human Services. - Organized a Stock-A-Thon event and raised $3,600 for
Sacred Heart Community Service. - Currently involved in fundraising events for Hope Service and
LA wildfire victims..
Bay area
2023-Present, 3 hrs/wk, 52 wks/yr
Leadership
Presentation materials
to invite Senator Cortese,
one of the stakeholders in
our health education
initiative advocacy project
Session 3
Recording
0.0s
0.0s
App Development Club
Branham High School
- Organizing club activities and
tutored 10 members for the
Congressional App Challenge.
Explaining competition rules,
forming teams, and teaching
essential web design and coding
skills for app development.
president/founder
2022-present
2022-Present, 1 hrs/wk, 32 wks/yr
Leadership
Medical Club
- Organize monthly club meetings with the
presidential cabinet to discuss medical
cases and develop presentation slides. - Foster communication among 15 members
to collaboratively diagnose diseases and find
effective treatments, improving engagement
and understanding of medical diagnostics.
presidential cabinet member
2023-Present
2022-Present, 4 hrs/wk, 12 wks/yr
member
2022-2023
- Actively participated in monthly club
meetings, contributing to discussions on
medical case symptoms, potential diagnoses,
and treatment options. - Engaged in group discussions and
workshops to enhance understanding of
medical topics and diagnostic techniques.
Leadership
Science Research Club
- Actively participate in monthly club
meetings, taking on additional
responsibilities to review and edit
scientific research articles for 15
members. - Contribute research articles to the club
blog, enhancing the club’s online
presence and educational content.
senior editor
2023-Present
training specialist
2023
- Mentored new members by providing
guidance and support in writing scientific
research articles, fostering a
collaborative and supportive club
environment.
2023-Present, 2 hrs/wk, 52 wks/yr
Leadership
2.5 hrs/wk, 12 wks/yr
- Attend monthly meetings to learn
about social justice issues like
affordable housing. - Research ballot measures related
to economic, housing, and climate
justice. - Advocate for measures such as
minimum wage increase and rent
control. - Enhance fundraising skills and
recruit volunteers to aid community
needs. - "Stock-A-Thon"is my initiative to
increase student participation in
community fundraising through the
United Congressional Award Club
network. I co-hosted a national
instructional webinar about the
virtual stock platform with iANT
Education, resulting in a $3,600
contribution.
Youth Action Committee/
Volunteering Leader
2024-present
Sacred Heart
Community Service
Leadership
Stock-A-Thon
Webinar
0.0s
Helping Sharing Caring
NPO
Fundraising director
2022-2023
Volunteering director
2022-2023
Organized fundraisers like "Pack A Back" and
"Holiday Program" to support Sacred Heart
Community Service, resulting in raising more than
$1,000.
- Planned regular monthly 3-hour warehouse
volunteering at Sacred Heart Community
Service. - Organized a summer book club camp and two
monthly after-school programs volunteering
for 3rd to 5th graders, providing MIT App
Inventor and online math tutoring at
Sartorette Elementary School.
2022-2023, 2 hrs/wk, 20wks/yr
Teaching volunteer
2023-present
- Conduct weekly two-hour sessions teaching
introductory app development to over ten 4th
and 5th grade students using MIT App Inventor
with digital curriculum I created. - Supplied Chromebooks to students by utilizing
the profits from stock investments and
contributions from fundraising efforts.
2 hrs/wk, 29 wks/yr
Volunteer
4hrs/wk, 29 wks/yr
San Jose Public Library
Educational Park Branch
Teaching volunteer
2023-present
- Creating a class website for implementing MIT
App Inventor and conducting weekly one-hour
sessions to teach introductory app development
to 20+ kids. - The total number of students taught MIT App
Inventor through library volunteering exceeds
100. - Creating a class website for teaching Korean and
conducting weekly one-hour sessions to teach
introductory Korean to 5 kids.
Volunteer
- Engaging in the Youth Action
Committee as a volunteer leader,
learning leadership skills and
advocating for various measures. - Participating in three-hour shifts
at the warehouse every month,
organizing donated items and
repackaging vegetables and
pantry essentials to assist the
community. - Participating in biannual
fundraising to help individuals
and families in financial need, and
contributed $3,600 toward
Sacred Heart Community
Service's 2024 Holiday
fundraising goal of $18,000.
community service
volunteer
2023-present
3hrs/wk, 12 wks/yr
Sacred Heart
Community Service
Volunteer
teaching volunteer
2021-2023
- Assisted five elementary students with their homework
for 2-4 hours weekly, providing resources and
supplemental materials to motivate their learning of
Korean.
4hrs/wk, 28 wks/yr
Volunteer
community service
volunteer
2023-present
- Adopted a one-mile section of a creek near
the school and cleaned the area for 2 to 4
hours monthly.
1 hr/wk, 40 wks/yr
Volunteer
- Conducted English lessons for a
group of 10 middle school
students in Myanmar weekly
over Zoom, utilizing Wordly
Wise and Success with
Grammar textbooks and the
curriculum I prepared. - Conducted English lessons for a
group of 10 elementary school
students in Bangladesh weekly
over Zoom, utilizing the
curriculum I prepared.
Teaching volunteer
2022-2023
1 hr/wk, 20 wks/yr
Volunteer
Research
Summer Research Symposium,
Mission College
- Recognized as the top student in the
Honors Biology of Cancer class, and
presented an extensive literature review
poster on adaptive T-cell therapy
techniques, highlighting recent
advancements in cancer immunotherapy.
Honors recognition
August - September, 2023
3hrs/wk, 8 wks/yr
UCSD Research Scholars:
Bioengineering
- Engaged in the Research
Scholars program at UCSD,
designed for high school
students excelling in research
through comprehensive
literature reviews, lab
experiments, data acquisition,
and analysis, including a team
project. - Subsequently authored
“Designing a Mechanobiology
Apparatus for Precise Cartilage
Stretching” under the
mentorship of Professor Robert
Sah, and presented a poster at
the regional Science Fair.
6 hrs/wk, 38 wks/yr
Research
Research for the science fair
fall, 2024 - Present
Synopsys Science &
Technology Championship
- I am currently engaged in a research
project titled “Co-Optimizing Hardware
and Algorithms: Dynamic Vision Sensor
Integration with Convolutional Neural
Networks for Image Recognition” for the
science fair. - The project explores integrating DVS
outputs with CNNs to enhance image
recognition and classification. - Aims to test various DVS transformations
(single-channel and multi-channel) with
CNN models trained on datasets like
CIFAR-10 or Fashion-MNIST.
6 hrs/wk
Research
intern
July-August, 2024
UCSD OPALS Internship
- Outreach Program for Advancing
Learning in STEM(OPALS)
Internship at UC San Diego
Institute of Engineering in
Medicine. - Conducted experiment
observations and data analysis on
the potential for laser-induced
shock waves to induce reactive
astrogliosis in Professor Wu's lab
within the Neuroscience
Department. - Contributed to creating a
comprehensive team poster
presentation and taught five
team members how to analyze
data using ImageJ. - Submitted the abstract(biology),
'Can Laser-Induced Shockwave
Induce Reactive Astrogliosis?' to
the BioMedical Engineering
Society(BMES) 2024 Annual
Conference in the High School
Poster Expo category.
Internship
35 hrs/wk, 4 wks/yr
Stanford University
- Be nominated by the counselor
at Campbell Union High School
District to participate in and be
accepted as one of the 40
participants in the program in
the Bay Area. - Engaged in a career exploration
initiative designed for young
women interested in orthopedic
surgery, medicine, and related
STEM fields, where I practiced
mock orthopedic surgery on a
model of a broken leg.
nominated participant
January, 2
6 hrs/wk, 1 wks/yr
Others
0.0s
Others
medical experience
- Conducting surgical simulations in
general surgery and neurosurgery.
1.5 hrs/wk, 40 wks/yr
Touch Surgery Simulations,
2023-Present
- Conducting virtual clinical shadowing in
Neurological Surgery and Pediatric
Neurology.
1.5 hrs/wk, 40 wks/yr
Med School Coach,
2024-Present
2 hrs/wk
Medical scribe training,
Present
- Engaging in medical scribe training to
expand my knowledge of medical
terminology and anatomy & physiology
for clinical shadowing and community
medical services, and advancing my
medical career.
- Released an Android app that
analyzes users’ incorrect
answer types in the English and
Math sections for SAT study
and visually displays areas
needing improvement through
graphs.
Study Bee, 2022
HarmoniClari, 2023
- Developed a clarinet tutorial
app tailored for individuals with
hearing impairments, offering
accuracy feedback for each
note played by the user through
a pitch graph.
Mental Health App, 2024
- TherapEase is a web platform
that connects users with
therapists through 10 yes/no
questions, enabling direct chat
for better communication. It
provides mental health resources,
such as articles on anxiety and
depression, and includes an AI
tool for efficient article
summarization.
2022-2024, 3 hrs/wk, 35 wks/yr
Others
0.0s
Others
- Maintained strong academic
performance to become an active initial
member of Alpha Gamma Sigma, the
honor society for academically proficient
students in California community
colleges. - Actively engaged in networking, civic
activities, and club events, contributing to
a cumulative fundraising total of $500
and achieving the second-highest
volunteer hours among members.
active initial Member
2023-Present
1 hr/wk, 28 wks/yr
Others
- Actively participated in creating various
mini-coding projects, such as calculators
and search bars, during club meetings. - Solved coding challenges and enhanced
proficiency in Java, Python, HTML,
JavaScript, and basic application
development skills.
member
2022-2023
1 hr/wk, 52 wks/yr
Awards
American Computer
Science League
2023-Intermediate
Group Finalist
Biomedical Engineering Society High School Poster Expo
2024
Medal Presentation
September 3rd, 2024
Nominated for contributions to the
Cambrian School District through
educational initiatives from Sartorette
Elementary School.
selected to participate in the 2024 BMES High School Poster Expo and present the group poster titled "Can Laser-Induced Shockwave Induce Reactive Astrogliosis?"
Certificates
MATLAB Academy at
MathWorks
July, 2024
Fundamentals of AI/ML in
Precision Medicine
March, 2024
- Earned 20 certificates
- Public health datasets using Jupyter
Notebooks for biomedical research and
diagnosis
Fundamentals of data
science in Precision Medicine
and cloud computing
December, 2023
- Research ethics, programming, statistics,
and advanced topics in precision
medicine
Medlytics Course
March, 2022
- Medical data analytics, focusing on
probabilities, statistics, and data analysis
Cervical Cancer Risk Prediction
March, 2022
- Machine learning guided project
predicting cervical cancer risks using
machine learning techniques
An Introduction to
Programming the Internet of
Things (IOT)
July, 2021
- UC Irvine Coursework on IoT