A New Star Scholar, David D Kim's Essay

My name is David Dong Jin Kim and I have just completed my first year at Cornell University. As a second year student, I will declare my major in Economics while continuing to follow a Pre-Medical track. I choose to do this because “Pre-Med” is not a major at my school, and it is advised for all Pre-Med students to major in a field that is of interest to the student. For me, I was not exposed to Economics until my senior year of high school. However, I found that I had a natural affinity to it and knew that I wanted to further my understanding of it. I enjoy studying Economics because of the logical aspect of the subject as well as the fact that it can be applied to everyday issuess today. Economics at Cornell has made me more aware of domestic and global affairs and has opened my eyes to the macroeconomic problems of the government and the microeconomic problems of small firms and business; samll business such as my parents’.

Both of my parents are immigrants from South Korea and came to the United States in their late teens and early twenties. Without speaking a word of English, they managed to earn money to start anew and were able to raise a family. However, without a college degree, working to financially support two children who attend or have attended Ivy League colleges was very difficult. Thus,  I feel that it is my duty to reduce the financial burend as much as posiible by receiving aid from other places in the form of scholarships.

Although I am still very young and have just begun my journey as a young adult, it is my intention that I continue in my studies and evntually emerge as a doctor. It is very common for second generation Asian-Americans to purpue a career in medicine, law, or business. Although I fall into this generalization, there is one thing that makes me different. Although I want to study medicine, at the same time I do not want to turn a blind eye to the problems of our healthcare system. Using both my knowledge in medicine and economics, I want to become not only a doctor that acts as a provider of top quality health care, but also one that acknowledges and tries to rectify available and affordable will always be a concern for me.

This idea of providing health care where it is really needed first occurred to me when I read about Albert Schweitzer. After reading about him and his struggles in Lambarene, Africa, I was deeply moved. A doctor and musician, Schweitzer entered Lamberene with his wife at his own expense, founding the first hospital, which started as a chicken coop. Eventually, Schweitzer expanded into 70 buildings that could care for 500 patients at a time. He often returned to Europe to play concerts, which raised money for his hospital in Africa. Schweitzer unilized his medical and musical skills to aid those most in need.

Schweitzer’s example has inspired me to follow in his foorsteps: after comleting medical school, I intend to travel to a third-world country and put my skills to work helping others. Yet, as much as I have been inspired by great doctors whom I have never met, my desire to persure a career in medicine also stems from an intensely personal experience. My late grandfather, who essentially raised me as his own son, because very ill two years ago, and so the hospital became my second home. Watching nurses and doctors tend to him and others patients, I could see myself working and thriving in that same environment. To gain more hands-on experience and insight into the life of a doctor, I applied to a student-doctor medical career program in the summer. For eight hours a day, five days a week, four weeks in a row, I rotated through several dapartments of the Olive View UCLA Medical Center, shadowing doctors with different specialties through their daily routines. After college, I plan to pursure a medical dgree, as I have already stated. I believe that medicine, at its best, is a helping profession, in which service to others is the greatest reward. That is what my hero, Albert Schweitzer, believed, and that determination to help others is what impressed me most about the doctors I shadowed, as well as those who have treated my grandfather, my family and me.  

​ 미주 한인 커뮤니티의 젊고 유능한 인재들이 더욱 학업에 전념하고, 나눔의 희망과 목표를 세워 한인사회가 더욱 번창할 수 있도록 뉴스타장학재단과 함께 J.P Inspection의 Sam Park, Charles Yang이 적극 후원합니다.

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