Welcome to Summer Spotlight: where HPA explores the summer experiences of our students.
Mindy Sim '27 spent her first-year summer completing a research internship in Seoul, South Korea which was supported by funding from the Streicker International Fellows Program.

Mindy Sim ‘27 completed a research internship in Seoul, South Korea this past summer which was supported by funding from the Streicker International Fellows Program. Mindy is originally from Carmel, Indiana and is prospectively majoring in Molecular Biology with minors in East
Asian Studies and Gender and Sexuality Studies. She is potentially interested in a career in medicine, but is also drawn to research.
During her time in Korea, Mindy worked in the Laboratory of Cancer Cell Biology at the Institute of Molecular Biology and Genetics at Seoul National University. There, she worked on a project investigating the mechanisms of immune response associated with BRCA2-mutated cancers. She really enjoyed the research process, especially brainstorming and troubleshooting with her mentor. Additionally, she appreciated the fact that she was able to apply much of what she had learned in her first-year classes at Princeton in the lab! Mindy formed meaningful relationships with her fellow lab members and has been staying in touch with them.
When she was thinking about what internships to apply to for the summer, Mindy knew she wanted to do a research-based internship. It was by taking into consideration her interest in East Asian Studies and her involvement with the Korean Language Program that she started to think about pursuing an internship in Korea. Although she initially looked in the IIPs offered by the OIP, none of the opportunities in Korea quite aligned with her interest in Molecular Biology research. From there, she started to consider designing her own internship. After narrowing down her internship location to South Korea and her intended industry to an academic research setting, she began to look into labs with research focuses that interested her. After a few cold emails to professors, she was able to connect with the Cancer Cell Biology Lab at SNU and then proceed to design the rest of her Streicker Fellowship.
Even though the Streicker Fellowship requires greater preparation and research in the initial application process and also greater independence once in the host country, Mindy would recommend this program for anyone who feels that any of the other IIPs do not quite fit their interests. Having the opportunity to design the whole internship experience allowed Mindy to really consider her priorities and interests and has also given her a lot of confidence to find and create opportunities that truly resonate with her! Her advice for anyone interested in the Streicker International Fellows Program (or other design-your-own experiences like the Bogle Fellows in Civic Service), is to make good use of winter break to get down as many details and specifications of your internship as possible, as well as to reach out to upperclassmen and advisors to talk things through!