Discuss some issue of personal, local, or national concern and its importance to you. (Hood)

I think the major issue which most of the Koreans are facing is ‘Study’. Not in sense of their requirement of graduating from school, but other work which have been done out the school hours. Since Korea start to industrialize they people started to believe that their children should get into a high level college in Korea. As the time went by people started to go out of country to than out of continent. It isn’t hard for the parents to make the decision, but the stressed out students no matter how old they are they are sent to a ‘police station’, the academies, where they were trained to go to the jail, colleges, and was told do the same to their children. The crazy cycle never seem to stop it didn’t get better, but worse. By the time it got to the 21^st century students start to suicide. It just destroyed people’s life cycle and life. I don’t see the point of making the children study. My cousins who are only in elementary school go to academies everyday from 2pm to 11pm. I thought, if I ever get children would they have to live in this cycle? Well I don’t want them to grow up in such a condition. I think Korean government should find a way to solve this problem by changing the school system or even making a law not allowing the people to send their children to a academies after 7pm. The system should change like Woodstock, the school I study in, they respect what people think and do, they do not force the student to study, school let students do what they want. This opens up new world for the students and they won’t be stressed out or will suicide.

Describe an intellectual experience of the past two years that has given you great satisfaction. (Amherst)

One of the intellectual experiences I have had past two years which have given me the greatest satisfaction is my English grade in Grade 11. I started off the semester with C, however getting towards the end of semester I have decided to work harder and success my goal of getting B as my final grade in English. I didn’t even have a month left to pull up my total grade from C to B. Which had about 10% differences and at the end of semester it is much harder to pull up the final grade. After knowing that there is only a tiny chance of pulling my grade up to B, I first thought of giving up, but the lecture given by my parents have motivated me to study harder and achieve higher grade. So I decided to work my a**off at the end of the semester. I still had a major project which contained formal writing and oral presentation and also had my final exam, which is 20% of my final grade. First thing I did was to prepare well for my final project, Mr. Plonka, my English teacher, asked our class for two extra sources, but I gave in 12of them and I also spent most of my time preparing for the speech. And it was successful, I achieved one of the highest grades, I was really surprised and one more thing which have surprised me was the comment of the paper, it was written “Excellent presentation” that was only two words listed for my presentation. Also in my final exam I once again trusted in myself and got B+ and A in my two essay writing. Then I surly realized that trusting in myself will help me to achieve my goals. I even achieved a position in Alumni office at the end of the semester, lots of the people tried out for the position which I went for, Alumni touring, however I believed in myself and had confidence in each word I said in the interview. Trusting and believing in myself helped me to achieve these goals. The lesson I learned after this experience is that, “ Whatever people say isn’t what you are, you need to believe in yourself and trust in yourself to achieve your goal.

Discuss how your travel experiences have affected you as a student and a citizen of the world.

This holiday as soon as I came back from the school I had to leave Korea again for traveling. First I wasn’t really happy about it, since I was exhausted with school for I have done for the past four month and also the traveling I had to go through while coming back to Korea. I thought ‘why can’t we travel later in the holiday?’ however I got to find out that my parents have scheduled me for summer academic programs which takes up 10~12hours of my everyday’s life. When I left for the travel first I was worried about what I should do after coming back and so on, but in the airport I decided to leave back all the worries and think about it when I get back. When I finally reached the country, Singapore, I was surprised with how organized government is and how clean the streets are. I also went to the Indian town in Singapore, and I obviously thought they will be lazy, surprisingly not even a single Indians were lazy. They are all in time for meetings, work and so on, our guide told us that Indians are one of the most prepared and time keeping people in Singapore. Than I thought ‘A country can change the personality and characteristic of people’ I am not saying all Indians are lazy, but as far as the ones I have seen are definitely lazy. I stayed in the country for one week and I have surly learned one thing “No matter where you come from or what type of person you are, you can always change yourself and fit into the new society.” After thinking for a while all my worries of attending academies was gone, I realized that even me, Sang Who Park can change and fit into the new cycle which I will be living it for two month.

december 5th

Once you have completed your education, would you return to your hometown to begin your adult life? Why or why not? (William and Mary)

Once I have completed all my education, I would like to begin my adult life in my country, not because I love Korea so much, but because of my family. I always wanted to get a doctor degree and help out my family’s community, social community helping over 500people, and spread the community all over South Korea. If possible I would also want to spread this idea all over the world, so no one has to suffer from poverty. Since I am only 17 people might think that I don’t know or understand the poverty in Korea, however, I grew up with poor people helping them, I learned many things with orphans when I was in kindergarten. I have this in my blood, when my grandfather was 17 he could lead about 70 people into the mountain in start off the community. And when I grow up I want to spread out this idea all around South Korea. Some people might think that Korea is developed country and there is not much problem with poverty, however, there are lots of children and aged people who are still suffering from hunger. And I want to change this, and make Korea a better place to live. I think the main reason why I am motivated to do this is the trip I just had to Singapore. This trip totally changed my point of view, since I didn’t see any poverty in Singapore it even motivated me more to at least change the city I live in Korea. Well in old Korean sayings, it is clearly mentioned “when you start a job you should start off at small place with small job and build up” and if I as a person help out the poor people and spread the idea, I think it can spread throughout not only Korea, but Asia or even all around the world.

What do you think people who know you would be surprised to learn about you? Limit your response to one page.(Rice University)

Even though I have my close friends they don’t know what my parents do. I didn’t like telling people what my parents do because it seems like our family is uneducated and poor. However, my mother graduated Seoul University and my father also got a degree from USA. My friends always asks me what business they do or what company they work in, however, it is neither of them. My whole family work as social worker, the community is the largest in South Korea and my grandfather was the first one to start off the community. Today, I am not shy or worried to tell others about our family’s community because I know it helps many people in South Korea and it actually changes and have changed many people’s life, therefore I am proud to tell other people about my family’s work now. I also work in the community during the holidays, reading English books for the Orphans and even tutor the little kids to play soccer. In dorms I am one of the laziest people who get up really late in weekends and who refuse to work. However, in holidays I am not Sang Who Park ones know of in Woodstock school. I get up early in the morning and get ready to attend the academy, study in academy till 7pm then return home. My day doesn’t end there; I go outside to play soccer with my brother than come back home and rest. I also volunteer to help our family’s community, such as translating the English documents and even tutoring the little kids. I am sure people will be shocked when I tell them about what I do in holidays other than lying on the bed. Not even a single person knows about me working in a social community during the holidays. Some people might think it is waste of time, since they can study more while I am working in the community, however, I think differently. I think gaining experiences are much more important and valuable compare to getting higher scores in grades.