I had a pretty rough senior year stress-wise, so my parents agreed to let me apply to the English Speaking Union program, which is a post-graduate student exchange between the U.S. and English-speaking boarding schools abroad. I ended up in Taunton, England, which is about two hours southwest of London by train. I took a few classes, worked as a teaching assistant in Spanish and did a lot of traveling. It was really great, and I encourage everyone to take a year off if they have the opportunity to do so.
How does the College compare to your high school?
I actually went to boarding school in Ohio, but it looked like it belonged in New England. The architect was the same one who designed the Amherst campus so the schools look very alike-in fact, I have a poster of my high school in my room and people always think it's Amherst. I guess I think of Amherst as a bigger and better version of my high school: less rules, less isolated and more fun people. Ohio itself was not the greatest place for me when my family moved there in 1995; I was one of two minority students in my entire grade and got picked on a lot for my appearance. It's a lot better now, though.
A friend of yours tells me that you're "like everyone's mom." How did you earn that title?
Ha ha, I've been trying to get rid of that title for a while now. I really despise the word "maternal."... I like to think that I'm an "other-centered" person; I tend to put the people I care about before me and help them in whatever ways I can. I also love giving hugs, which may be another reason why I'm supposedly like a "mom."
What did you gain from your experience studying abroad in Chile?
It seems weird, but what I learned most from being in Chile was what it meant to be Korean-American. I always got around my identity crisis by making jokes like, "Oh, I'm just a twinkie" (yellow on the outside, white on the inside) or a "pencil" (yellow on the outside, black on the inside). But when I got to Chile, people didn't recognize that I was American and didn't know the differences between Asians. Every time I made a friend, I had to go answer the same questions: What's the difference between Koreans and other Asians? Do you consider yourself to be Korean? How can you be American if you are Korean? It drove me crazy but forced me to do a lot of soul-searching that helped me understand myself better.
What's your thesis about?
I'm writing a Spanish thesis on undocumented Latino immigrant students in the U.S. who want to go to college. My interest began with an initiative in immigration reform called the DREAM Act. If passed, it would allow motivated, undocumented students with no criminal records to get on the fast track for a green card by attending college. What I wanted to find out was what these students go through in high school and in preparation for college. I'd like to send out a questionnaire to all the students in the College who have undocumented Latino friends so that their friends can fill it out anonymously and send it back to me through them. I would then "recreate" a hypothetical experience through their answers. The idea is to support the pursuit of higher education for undocumented immigrants (particularly Latino, since they make up 80 percent of that population) so that they can be positively acknowledged in the society in which they live.
Who are some of your heroes?
Nelson Mandela and Dietrich Bonhoeffer are two of them. I read Nelson Mandela's autobiography, "A Long Walk to Freedom," a few years back and came away in awe of the man. He writes with real humility and sincerity. And Bonhoeffer, who suffered in the concentration camps as a German Christian standing up against the wrongs of his own country, also inspires me. It's just more proof that you can make a difference by standing up for what you believe.
What are some of your guilty pleasures?
Seventy percent dark chocolate, shopping at Target, sangria, reading Madeleine L'Engle or "Harry Potter" (instead of studying), and listening to Mariah Carey.