Alumni Spotlight: Emily Kao ’10

Emily Kao has lived and studied in Taiwan, Indiana, and California. She is a graduate of the Indiana Academy class of 2010. The close-knit Academy community became the source of life-long friendships. While at the Academy, Emily was privileged to be chosen to serve as a Peer Assistant. Given her great interest in science and technology, she participated as one of the Animation Team members for the Muncie Delaware Robotics Team. As with many IA alumni, Emily credits her Academy experience with preparing her to juggle multiple priorities simultaneously as well as improving her time management skills. In 2010, Emily chose the University of California at Berkeley for her undergraduate studies in engineering. As a Berkeley undergrad she gained significant industrial experience while working as a summer intern in Pharmacology group for Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals, produced renewable chemicals through metabolic engineering as an undergraduate research assistant in Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and was one of the founding members of the Berkeley professional service organization: Young Chinese Institute of Engineers. Emily graduated in 2014 with a B.S. degree in Bioengineering. In July 2014 Emily joined the firm Baxter International. Baxter’s BioScience business aims to provide life-saving and life-sustaining specialty therapies. Emily is presently among Baxter BioScience’s Operations Development Program (ODP) Associates. Baxter’s ODP Associates build leadership and technical skills for two years via a series of three varying rotational assignments at Baxter facilities across the country.