"It’s my second home," says Hye Sun Kim. Originally from Korea, Hye Sun is referring to Bruce Hall, the on campus residence where she has lived since commencing her Bachelor of Science (Advanced) (Honours). "Staying on campus is really good," she says. "Your friends are always around you."

Hye Sun says moving to Australia was a big but exciting change in culture. "In Korea you are always with family so once I moved here, I got to learn to do things independently," she says. "I got to meet a lot of people who I could not have met if I had stayed in Korea and ANU is a really good study environment. There are lots of interactions between students and lecturers, events for students to get close to each other, and a lot of societies for you to meet people other than your course mates."

During the first two years of her degree Hye Sun took advantage of the breadth of courses available at the University, studying, amongst many things, biology, physics, chemistry and Japanese.  "My degree is really flexible," she says. "You can actually check what science you like the most. I find chemistry most interesting because it’s really everywhere all around us in our life."

Hye Sun is pursuing her love of chemistry in the lab. Taking on two research projects, one in computational chemistry, using computer modelling to design compounds, and a second in organic synthesis, determining the reactions required to create a desired product in the lab. "I think it’s a really good thing, getting the chance to do research as an undergraduate student," she says. "To prepare us for honours, and how we’re going to cope with it."

Hye Sun enjoys the research side of her degree, and is already set on pursuing a PhD after she completes her honours project, also in organic synthesis, next year. "The good thing about research is it’s not only about the theory," she says. "It can be applied to industry, it can be applied to real life."