Bethany Chen- the girl who’s done it all
By Kevin Ayala July 11, 2019
A chemist, robot programmer, computer scientist, hip-hop dancer, philosopher and blackbelt in Hapkido. Those are few things of many that Bethany Chen, a rising sophomore at USC, does both academically and on her downtime.
Chen is only 19 years old and has already done so many things that most seniors or graduates haven’t done during their college tenure. A lot of students come in worried about their future and what they want to do for life, meanwhile Chen is taking on all these challenges and isn’t afraid of taking on more.
When talking about how long she works in a previous interview she says she spends hours on her code and it only feels like one which shows her dedication to her work.“I feel like when I code, every seven hours feels like one hour. I’m hoping that’s indicative that I’m on the right path.” Chen also mentions in this interview that she spends most of her winter break practicing the basics of web design.
Other than robotics she also works a lot in chemistry one of her achievements is her first scientific paper she published alongside PHD Graduate, Tzu-Shyang “Kevin” Lin.
Lin started working on and contributing to the research for it at the age of 16 while she was an intern at USC’s Bridge Undergraduate Science Jr Program and she published it this spring. Her paper was about manipulating the DNA of fungi to try to get cures to diseases.
The Bridge Undergraduate Science program, BUGS for short, is a program that pairs undergrads and USC faculty to perform hands-on research in USC research labs. The BUGS Jr program is similar with the only difference being that instead of being an undergrad, you’re a highschool student.
As a student at BUGS jr, you would also have to focus your project entirely on understanding the human body or improving human health.
Although Chen has done all these things she admits in a previous interview that she is still not sure of her future career.
