Alumni
Eunice Jun
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Molded by her intense ballet training in childhood, dedication to journalism in high school, and exposure to computer science in high school, Eunice finds surprising mixtures of ideas and passions refreshing and exciting.
Her first two years in college Eunice involved herself in numerous mentorship activities, most notably Moneythink (financial literacy), Vanderbilt-Pakistan Connection (teaching English lessons to students in Pakistan via Skype), and Vanderbilt Visions/VUcept (support for first-year students).
During this time, the human-centered design process and its emphasis on understanding and empathizing with the user, the person, resonated deeply with Eunice’s valuing of the individual. Thus, she lead an interdisciplinary project team to encourage more girls to try computer science through Design for America, a national network of university-based studios using a human-centered design process for local social impact. Design for America gave her the opportunity to develop as a leader and researcher.
Design thinking and a curiosity of how the individual makes meaning about the world for him/herself and through communities influence Eunice’s research interests. Through a Littlejohn Undergraduate Research Fellowship in her second year, Eunice collaborated with Prof. Edward Fischer to design educational nutrition materials for ManíPlus, a Guatemalan social enterprise dedicated to preventing and treating malnutrition. Eunice has also conducted experiments on perception in virtual reality environments and human-computer interaction.
This past summer Eunice completed her Ingram project working with the Insight Centre for Data Analytics at University College Dublin and Waternomics (an EU-funded research group) in order to study the effect of water data visualizations in public spaces on environmental/sustainable behavior in Dublin, Ireland.
Enthusiastic about the possibilities of applying human- and community-focused methodologies in her computer science and psychology research, Eunice looks forward to further exploring the role of academia in knowledge-creation and service during her senior year.
Eunice is inexpressibly honored and grateful to be a part of the Ingram Scholarship Program. The community of current and past scholars has challenged her to become more self-aware; honest and open; and eager to try, fail, and learn. She values their support and authenticity incredibly and looks forward to letting her understanding and definition of service evolve her last year as an Ingram scholar and throughout her life.