Rina Yan

Rina Yan

Rina Yan

Residency: Nantou, Taiwan
School: Putai Senior High School
Intended Major: Business and Biology
Age: Grade 10

Rina wishes to attend NYU and BU. She is currently in the exploratory level, with interests in both business and biology. She is also a member of the school’s Robotics Club.


What challenges did she face?

  • Rina struggled to choose a precise research area and topic to work on during the investigation stage.
  • Rina ran into some difficulties with her longevity research and required help breaking down different components of a scientific paper for an easier understanding.


Matched professor:

The mentor works as a research assistant professor at Tufts University. Previously, he was a postdoctoral researcher at Columbia University. For his research work, he is listed on Forbes 30 Under 30 in Science.


How did our program help her?

  • Rina has been introduced to both academic and industry-side research as a potential future job or interest as a result of the program.
  • Rina pursued a fresh study area in the subfield of biology in longevity research with the help of the professor. She was also led to a better grasp of the cultural and ethical challenges that surround advanced biological research, which are rarely discussed at her level.


Below is part of an example work done during the program:

Program goals and objectives outlined by Dr. Hoel in the mid-point and final evaluation forms
The professor constantly provided relevant external resources to help Rina on her research paper
Some of the homework given was to listen and engage with relevant podcast and to list down any questions for the professor in the following session
The professor has expressed he will recommend Rina to selective universities when she is at the stage of application.
A follow-up email from Rina to the professor after 2 months. Rina has expressed her gratitude towards Dr. Hoel for inspiring her, and with a deepened interest after the program, she has now gone on to another internship in the filed of Biology.
An excerpt of the Final Research Paper from Rina on a novel biology research topic of longevity. The paper further touched on the theory of Calorie Restriction, NAD Level, and Blood Plasma Rejuvenation.
Rina has learnt about the different components of writing a research paper, such as reviewing past literatures, using a narrative hook in the introduction, using secondary data to support her arguments, building references and more.

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