Name: Ben C. Yu
Year: Second year
Major: As of right now, I’m a History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Science (HiPSS) Major, with a Minor in English and Creative Writing. I really can’t seem to limit myself to a narrow academic study…so the best that I seem to be able to do is combine a bunch of disciplines together. HiPSS majors have to pick a science to specialize in, and I’m currently debating between statistics and biology.
Extracurricular Activities: I’m an active member of Student Government, serving as a Student-Administration Liaison between various student leadership groups. I’m also active in various entrepreneurship groups and service groups on campus. Starting from the end of last year, and into this one (hopefully!), I’ve been considering consulting as a career. Because of that, I’m looking to join Eckhart Consulting and to participate in various consulting competitions.
Favorite Memory/Moment at UChicago: My fondest memory is related to a bunch of UChicago-folks, so I guess it counts. Early in the year during Fall Quarter, four buddies and I drove from Chicago to New Jersey in a hectic 3-day roadtrip. The purpose of the trip was for my roommate to reunite with his girlfriend before Thanksgiving. It was a crazy time and I won’t ever forget it!
Best Class You’ve Taken So Far: Continental Philosophy of Science. It might be super narrow-minded of me to have thought like this before, but I seriously used to believe that there were very few intersections between the hard sciences and the liberal arts. CPoS completely changed my views on that; each book I read for that class revamped my understanding about the relationship between things like chemistry and philosophy.
Favorite Book: This is a tough one…I can only narrow it down to “The Bell Jar” by Sylvia Plath and “The Sun Also Rises” by Ernest Hemingway. I’m a huge Hemingway fan, but “The Bell Jar” is painfully haunting (to say the least).
Your role models/heroes: My parents, without a doubt. Even if I don’t agree with many of the choices they’ve made, I recognize the complexity and difficulty of being confronted with making such decisions at all, and I respect and appreciate the strength with which they have dealt with life.
What’s one food you could never get sick of?: I’m going to have to go with dumplings. Whether you make them yourself, or if you buy them premade, there are so many different options and flavors! Plus, it’s SUPER easy to cook.
What’s the best advice you ever got?: I have to go with a quote on this one. I feel as if it implicitly tells you to ask deeper questions: “We did that often, asking each other questions whose answers we already knew. Perhaps it was so that we would not ask the other questions, the ones whose answers we did not want to know.”
— Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Purple Hibiscus
Fun Fact about Yourself: Gawsh, fun facts are usually difficult for me…I’ll go with the fact that I’m ambidextrous, but I was born left-handed. It was a pretty popular thing to do in China (where I was born), to try to get kids to use their right hand for ‘simplicity’s’ sake. Needless to say, the swap failed.