Blog Archives

  • Blog

The Architecture of Taste: Singapore’s History Preserved in Hawker Centres

GRIP: Business Development in Singapore, Singapore $4 kaya toast with two soft boiled eggs and an iced teh. I had just landed in Singapore the evening before, and this breakfast was my first glimpse into everyday local life. I found myself at K88 Kopitiam, a humble little coffeehouse tucked into a food court off the…

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One Word to Summarize Korea

GRIP: Media in Seoul, South Korea Welcoming. If I could choose one word to describe my summer experience in Korea, it would be welcoming. From getting recommendations on where to visit from my taxi driver to sharing a drink with the group of people next to me during Korean barbecue, many Koreans that I have…

  • Blog

My Glory Days Are Behind Me

GRIP: Sustainable Development in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam The Pencil Group, based in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, is more than a traditional branding agency—it integrates strategic planning, creative design, and digital marketing to deliver solutions for our clients. As part of the internal planning team, I am contributing to projects focused on developing…

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Building Mountains and Bridges: Three Memories That Shaped My GRIP Experience

GRIP: KK Fund, Taipei, Taiwan As my internship with KK Fund comes to a conclusion, I would like to share several great memories. Semiconductor Movie: A Chip OdysseyOne of the most memorable moments of my internship wasn’t at a pitch meeting or investor event—it was sitting in a dark theater, surrounded by fellow Penn alumni…

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Hard Work and Homelet

GRIP: Sustainable Development in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam My fellow interns at Nuoa aren’t just work colleagues. They are my Grab Car commute buddies and the first customers of Homelet! Well, Homelet isn’t technically a restaurant. It’s just me and my coworkers Shaomin and Marcus eating omelets in my apartment in Ho Chi Minh…

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5 Things You Need To Know Before Bustling Through Bangkok

GRIP: PR and Marketing in Bangkok, Thailand Bring Lightweight Clothing Before this program, I had never been anywhere near the Eastern Hemisphere, so you can imagine my surprise when the heat and humidity hit me like a truck. Even though I researched beforehand, the heat still caught me off guard. What saved me was packing…

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Catalysts, Courts, and Chilli: My Singapore Experience

GRIP: Engineering Research in Singapore Spending a summer in Singapore, I imagined long hours in the lab, challenging scientific problems, and maybe a few late-night reactions. I got all of that, and so much more. What I didn’t expect was how much I’d learn outside the lab: from the chaos of hawker centers to the…

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Founders, Food, and First Impressions

GRIP: KK FundTaipei, Taiwan When I first landed in Taiwan for my internship at the KK Fund, I had no idea what my day-to-day would look like. Venture capital was something I had only studied from the outside — pitch decks, public profiles, theoretical models. But within the first week, I realized VC is anything…