Oracle Online

O: Did you like it there?

KA: It was okay. It’s a very conservative state and I’m sort of the opposite of that, yet I’m very open to the conservative mind. But it was very difficult.

O: Was that hard at school, too?

KA: School was actually very similar to the atmosphere at Hamline, lots of diversity when it came to politics.

O: What do you do in your free time?

KA: I am a proud member of the Sorin Bums, people who hang out in Sorin lounge until five a.m. for no reason except it’s a nice place to be. It has a nice t.v., a nice atmosphere, we have lots of very nice and accepting people therečlots of different backgrounds, different fields they’re in, they’re just overall very fun people.

O: What do you do until five in the morning?

KA: Some of us try to study, we have the occasional nerf war we know how to have our fun. We also have snowball fights [and] go sledding at Como Park.

O: Other than the Sorin Bums, are you involved in any orgs?

KA: I am the public relations person of APAC (Asian Pacific-American Coalition). Therefore, I am also the HUSC representative for them. In HUSC, I am also on the Public Relations Committee.

O: I’ve heard you’ve been to Korea. Is that true?

KA: My dad was an international student from Korea when he attended Hamline, and therefore I go back to Korea every summer to visit my family that lives there. My mom was also an international student from Singapore at the time, so they met here. She lives in Singapore now. I’m actually going to visit her
this summer as well, that’ll be fun.

O: What’s it like in Korea when you visit your familyčis it really different from the U.S.?

KA: I have been raised in a very traditional Korean way. It’s a very, very different atmosphere in Korea, but I make it through. All the summers are pretty fun.

O: Do you stay the whole summer?

KA: Pretty much, because I actually didn’t live with my parents during my high school years. My dad finished his PhD at the University of Utah and sort of left me there, he just took care of me financially. Other than that, I took care of myself. I don’t get to spend much time with my family which is a very big problem for me.

O: Did you live at home by yourself?

KA: I rented at one point. I paid my friend to live in their basement. All three years I moved around. It was a hectic three years.

O: So Hamline’s kind of stable for you, then, isn’t it?

KA: Overall, college wasn’t a big transition for me because I was taking care of myself anyway. I was taking four college courses my senior year. Socially, it is nice to be very stable instead of moving around constantly.

O: Do you think you’ll stay at Hamline all four years?

KA: Yes, I feel this is the perfect community for me. I love the small atmosphere, I love the contact with my professors and it has great orgs. Because they’re smaller, [you’re] more involved, you don’t just go to meetings and say “Hmmm, that was a nice hour,” you actually want to dedicate your time to it. You end up going to its events, setting up for events... I like Hamline. It’s my home on earth right now, it’s very dear to me.