By HyunCheon Kim
Translated SeungYeon Woo



Two Korean students, Jae-sub Lee (30) and Jun-hyuk Hwang (25), recently graduated from Boston University School of Dental Medicine, sharing valedictory honor and enhancing Korean students' reputation.

On May 17th, both Lee and Hwang delivered valedictory speeches as representatives of about 200 dental school graduates. First, they appreciated their families, who supported them now and said, “We created this with continuous effort.”
We interviewed Lee and Hwang, each of them with a different background and blueprint for the future.

Jae-sub Lee, who majored in Computer Science
Lee left his parents and moved to Florida after graduating from middle school. He majored in computer science and applied mathematics at the University of California Berkeley.

Although he graduated as a valedictorian, he was not one of the top students. Lee said, “I wasn't really a perfect student. I was more into playing online games.” He decided to major in computer science because he loved games, but he realized that computer science was whole lot different from online games. “Then I wanted to help out people so I applied to dental school,” said Lee.

“There was a lot of memorization when studying dental medicine and it was hard to experience the language barrier but I had to deal with it no matter what,”said Lee

Lee, who grew up in a Catholic family, is considering doing missionary work around the world for people in remote areas who are not able to receive dental treatment. Currently, his parents and sibling are involved in a missionary organization as volunteers.

Since he was very independent at a young age, his parents decided to send him to the U.S. early. However his father, Se-bum Lee, was always worried. His father said, “I'm glad my son endured every hardship he had and I think that he could be successful among American students and honored as a valedictorian because of his delicacy, patience, and effort.”

Jae-sub Lee's mottos is “Success is eventually achieved when there is continuous effort and challenge to realize one’s dream.”

Jun-hyuk Hwang, who majored in Life Science.
Jun-hyuk Hwang is a Canadian citizen, who majored in life science at Queen's University in Canada, and moved to Boston 4 years ago.

Hwang migrated to Canada with his family when he was 10 years old. He originally thought of entering medical school in Canada but he decided to move to BU School of Dental Medicine at his sister's suggestion.

Because he used to study for medical school, studying dental medicine was not tough to him, but Hwang said the only thing he remembers about graduate school is staying up all night studying for exams during his first and second years.

However, he said encountering patients at the clinic in school was much harder. It took 12 hours, from 8am to 8pm, to see 2 patients. There were many other students and he had to be supervised by professors every second he dealt with patients.

To become an orthodontist, Hwang has decided to study 3 more years at the University of Maryland School of Dentistry. He said, “I chose to study orthodontics because I would love to work with children and I think I will be able to enjoy music, which is my favorite hobby, for my leisure time.”

Hwang actually has a great musical talent, which once made him consider majoring in piano. He even appeared on a CBC broadcast when he performed with an orchestra in Canada. He seemed to be influenced by both of his parents, who are a doctor and a violinist.

“When I was young, I thought in positive ways. Whenever there was a hardship, I tried to overcome it by putting in more effort rather than becoming discouraged.” Although he lived in an English speaking country for 15 years, his Korean was very fluent.

Hwang said, he managed to speak Korean well by constantly writing journals in Korean, and reading and watching Korean fairy tales and dramas ever since he moved to Canada.

hckim@bostonkorea.com

ⓒ 보스톤코리아(http://www.bostonkorea.com), 무단전재 및 재배포 금지