Seunggyu Steve Lee
The image on the right shows me and represents my food brand, Freshly Picked. Although I like science, music, sports, and volunteering, this brand picture shows what I care about most: finding ways to help people, protecting the environment, and sharing success with farmers - producers of the crops. It shows my passion for making a difference in the world, one step at a time.
MY KEY PROJECTS
Since I was young, I’ve grown different plants like carrots, beans, vegetables, herbs, and berries. Growing them in my home garden and my grandfather’s summer house has made me love farming even more. My interest in farming has led me to try many activities, like cooking classes, farm stays, and outreach programs in farming communities. Farming is a big part of the industry, and it will definitely help guide my future goals.
While visiting local farmers around the globe, I realized how unrecognized and unacknowledged these people were in the society we live in. That helped me form an idea: why not create a food brand that uses the farmers' crops, turns them into appealing food products, and shares my profits with these farmers? That spark led me to start a serious brand development project, which required a lot of commitment — from building the brand image to studying food science techniques like fermentation. Although it was challenging, I loved every part of the project as it showed my true passion for not only farming, but the people and the community surrounding it.
To learn how to preserve and develop crops into food products, I took a course called Food Fermentation: The Science of Cooking with Microbes through HarvardX, and also participated in a Biotechnology Camp at the College of Agriculture & Life Sciences at Seoul National University. The coursework and camp were challenging and advanced, but I studied both passionately and thoroughly. I even developed my own science research paper on the concepts and applications of fermentation.
