Hyeok Joo Hwang '18

My name is Hyeok-Joo Hwang. I am currently on track to graduate from U.C. Berkeley in May 2018. My major is sociology, and here is my story.

I first came to the United States when I was 16 years old to attend high school in Chicago as an international student and attended Gordon Tech High School. When I lived in Chicago, I realized that the city, despite being one of the most popular and famous cities in the U.S., possessed many of the same social problems such as neighborhood inequality, poverty, and crimes present in less well-known places in the U.S. I began to wonder how this glamorous city at the heart of the U.S. can have such serious problems. These problems were truly mysteries to me until I became a sociology student at U.C. Berkeley. By examining various case studies and scholarships for classes and research projects, I have learned that there are certain sociological conditions and causes that contribute to these problems.

I have become passionate about doing more research regarding social problems of the United States and have decided to pursue my dream of becoming a research professor.

Thankfully, the Berkeley Club of Korea scholarship will help immensely in fulfilling my dreams, and now I can expect to graduate from Berkeley with less financial hardship. I hope to return the favor by helping Korean students of U.C. Berkeley in the future.

Hoyun Kim '19

My name is Hoyun Kim. Because my father was a graduate student in the United States, I spent most of my childhood in Colorado. My family moved to South Korea when I was 10 and I later came back to the United States to finish high school and attend college. I became an economics major because I appreciated its quantitative aspect despite being a social science. During the summer of 2017 I went to Beijing under UC Berkeley's Huang Program to further my studies in the Chinese language and have since developed a strong interest in development economics. I hope to further my studies in graduate school and perhaps in the future use my experiences to contribute to the development of communities and improving people's standard of living.

Being selected as a recipient of the Berkeley Club of Korea Alumni Scholarship is not only an honor but also an encouragement. Despite not having crystal-clear plans for my future, people were willing to support me and provide me with a community. For that I am very thankful.        

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              
                                                      

2017 Scholarship recipients luncheon with 2016 recipients in Berkeley                                                                                              

 

 

 

 

Scholarship recipient luncheon with Hoyun Kim in Seoul