Joy Yun (she/her/hers) is a junior from Fort Worth, Texas majoring in Neuroscience and Religious Studies. She has always been passionate about education, but she hadn’t had the opportunity to learn about the historical, cultural, and political contexts of education in the U.S. until she got to Yale, where she became a member of the YES Scholars Program. Joy is particularly interested in learning about the ways in which educators can strive to close the opportunity gap. “I love working with younger students and helping them feel empowered through education,” she writes, “because I know that I’ve been empowered through the mentors and role models I’ve been blessed with throughout my life.”
Joy has many fond memories of her EDST classes. Two of her favorites were “Being Human in STEM” with Professor Rona Ramos and “Child Development” with Professors Nancy Close and Carla Horwitz. She has really enjoyed getting to delve into STEM education and early childhood development, two areas in education that she had been interested to learn more about. Joy has a lot of love for the Ed Studies community as well, expressing that she feels “incredibly blessed to have met so many talented, brilliant, and caring individuals in the Education Studies Program.”
If you asked Joy a year ago what she envisions herself doing after college, she’d have told you about her plans to become a doctor. Today, she’s less sure, though she knows she’d like to be an educator in some capacity. She is grateful to be a part of the Scholars Program, where she finds she can surround herself with people equally as passionate and interested in the field of education as she is.
“Please feel free to reach out to me (even if I don’t know you),” Joy writes. “I love meeting new people and chatting about education.”