Reported by Jaein Cha
(KSEA-South Texas Chapter Texas A&M University Vice President)
Organizing Committee: Kyeongseo Choi, Jaein Cha, Yerim Kim, Raeyeon Park, Jeongwung Seo, Yang Hyun Auh, Seongjun Cho, Grace Kim, Alex Ahn, Eden Kim
The Career Development Forum (CDF) stands as one of the signature professional events organized by KSEA YG at Texas A&M University. During the 2024-25 academic year, the event took place on Saturday, March 22, 2025, at the Jack E. Brown Chemical Engineering Building in College Station, Texas, bringing together students eager to explore career opportunities in both academia and industry settings.
CDF is a half-day professional development event held every spring semester, designed to guide both undergraduate and graduate students on their career paths. The event created a platform where attendees could interact with accomplished professionals such as professors and engineers from diverse backgrounds, fostering valuable networking opportunities while gaining insights into various career trajectories.
The day of the event began at 12:00 PM with sign-in and buffet-style lunch, providing authentic Korean food as well as an informal setting for initial interactions among participants and the panelists. The formal program commenced at 1:00 PM with ice-breaking activities, where groups of five introduced themselves to the group members and shared fun facts about their backgrounds. This was followed by a brief KSEA presentation and an explanation of the day’s schedule.
From 1:30 to 2:15 PM, attendees gathered for a keynote presentation titled “My (Never- Ending) Crystallization Story,” given by Dr. Crystal Shin, focusing on her experiences in both personal and professional growth as a Korean American and the identity crisis she had between various roles she has had throughout the journey. The humorous and inspiring plenary talk concluded with a Q&A session, allowing participants to gain valuable insights directly from the speaker.
After a group photo and a brief transition period, the participants were divided, according to their interests, into two specialized breakout sessions of academia and industry from 2:30 to 4:00 PM. In separate rooms, distinguished panelists from both industry (Room 102) and academia (Room 104) shared their professional journeys, with each speaker given about ten minutes to present their experiences, followed by extended Q&A periods that enabled deeper discussions on career paths and professional development.
The academic panel featured accomplished scholars including Dr. Christal Shin, Assistant Professor at Baylor College of Medicine, whose research integrates nanotechnology and 3D bioprinting for surgical applications; Dr. Ryang-Hwa Lee, Associate Professor in Cell Biology and Genetics at Texas A&M University, who specializes in mesenchymal stem cell research; and Dr. Joseph Kwon, Texas A&M Chemical Engineering professor with expertise in multi-scale modeling and digital twin technology.
Industry perspectives were provided by Dr. Matt Kweon, Senior Product Development Engineer at ExxonMobil specializing in advanced polyolefin materials, and Jihyuk Kim, Customer and Application Development Engineer at ExxonMobil focusing on polyethylene-based consumer packaging films. Sua Bae, an undergraduate Computer Science student at Texas A&M, also joined and shared her career development experience as an undergraduate student including internship at Microsoft.
The forum concluded with an overall Q&A session, followed by an ending ceremony that included a raffle drawing and announcements about the optional happy hour at Buffalo Wild Wings, where networking continued in a more relaxed setting until 6:00 PM.
The 2025 Career Development Forum proved to be a remarkable success, achieving its core objective of connecting students with industry professionals and academic leaders. The combination of structured presentations, interactive discussions, and informal networking opportunities created numerous pathways for meaningful interactions. Feedback from participants was overwhelmingly positive, with many expressing appreciation for the valuable insights and connections made during the event.
This successful forum demonstrates the continuing importance of professional development gatherings in building a strong, connected academic community at Texas A&M University, and sets a positive precedent for future KSEA activities.
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