Joo-Yeon '08

What aspect of the transition to college are you most excited or nervous about?

As much as I'm going to miss the intimate community feeling at St. Andrew's, I'm so excited to meet lots of new people in college. I think being in a big student population will give me opportunities to seriously pursue what I want to do. I really want to focus on playing the trombone in college, and I'm looking forward to meeting other people who share my interests.

What will you miss most about St. Andrew's?

I'm going to miss the relationships I have with the faculty members here. In college, you need to wait in line and knock on doors to speak to professors. Just the other day, I really needed help in chemistry, so I stayed after class to ask Mr. Kemer a question. He and I ended up staying in the classroom discussing chemistry for an hour or so. He just kept explaining it to me until I finally got it. As I was walking out I thought, "Where else? Where else would a teacher be willing to be so generous with their time?"

How do you think you've changed over the course of your time at St. Andrew's?

Since I came here, I think I've become really open-minded about people and about trying new things. When I came here, I tried so many things that I'd never done before, like sports and singing in the musical and all that. I've been given so many opportunities here, whereas at my old school—a public school—if you wanted to be a part of any kind of production or team, you had to be exceptional. There were try-outs for everything and tons of people got cut. There were things I wanted to do, but I just didn't make the cut. Probably about a quarter of the student body didn't do extracurricular activities. And students who did had to choose one thing. Football players played off-season football during the winter and spring instead of playing three sports.

You recently attended the SDLC conference in Boston. Can you describe a particular aspect of that experience that was enlightening or moving for you?

At one point, the conference split up into affinity groups based on gender and race. Mine was the Asian-American Women affinity group. That was such an amazing experience because I got to talk to 20-year-olds, 30-year-olds, 60-year-olds and people my own age, all of whom were going through the same experiences I was as an Asian woman. It was nice to hear their reflections on how being Asian affects you at different stages of your life, in school and in the work place. I also got a lot of contacts through that group. I met people who invited me to contact them if I needed help or had questions about anything, and that was really comforting. This was actually the first time that I had a serious conversation about being Asian with Asian-American adults. My parents are first generation Koreans, so we don't discuss what it means to belong to two distinct cultures.

How did you become involved in St. Andrew's adaptive aquatics program?

I've been doing adaptive since junior year. I decided to get involved in it because working with people with disabilities has always been my passion. During freshman and sophomore years, at my old school, I was really involved in a club at school called “Wolfpack” whose mission was to connect the students of the special education program with the mainstream student body. When I came to St. Andrew's, I knew I wanted to still be involved in a community service program that involved people with disabilities.

What's the most rewarding aspect?

The most rewarding aspect of adaptive aquatics is Jeffrey. Jeffrey is a six year-old boy that Rachel (my partner for adaptive) and I teach together. He is the cutest, sweetest boy! When we first started working with him in the beginning of the year, he cried and wouldn't let go of his teacher, who was helping us at the time. Yesterday, he could hold on to the barbell all by himself! It is so amazing to watch his improvement.