Four Alumni Triumph in Rigorous Government Examinations

UIC Yonsei proudly congratulates Yeni Gam (PSIR, ’19), Ryangwon Kim (ECON, ’20), and Soomin Oh (PSIR, ’17) on passing the Foreign Service Candidate Selection Exam, alongside Hyuntae Jang (ECON, ’18) for acing the Open Competitive Exam for Grade 5.

Yeni Gam (PSIR, ‘19): What’s good about UIC?

Yonsei UIC is a liberal arts college so you get to do whatever you want and decide what whatever is going to be good for you. Even if like your parents tell you to be a civil servant or a diplomat, even when you start earlier, if you don’t have the motivation, you wouldn’t be able to move on when you’re stuck and you might not be able to make decisions on your own. I think, through UIC experiences, you get to decide whatever is going to be good for you, whatever job you would take. Just try out everything you can have. There’s UIC Career Center, so just go ask about how to get internships from there.

Another thing I really liked about UIC when I was studying for the exam were actually the seminars and CCs. I think your UIC experiences can be cherished through seminars. I took all the history-related or gender studies with Professor Seunghei Hong. Those experience helped me think about different perspectives of history and how we view the current situation. So I would say take as many seminars as possible while you can.

Soomin Oh (PSIR '17): How did you overcome the challenging exam prep months?

The biggest difficulty was that this was an entire lonely process. I felt like I was left on an island alone. And I had no one—no seniors, no peers, no friends in where I studied. I had no one to ask about this exam. I had no one to give me advice, and that’s the biggest hardship for me. There were some days that I didn’t talk even a word and that was like our everyday life, so I think that was the biggest challenge for me. But during those hard days, my parents encouraged me and my friends gave me a lot of support. And that was a big help for me to undergo those periods.

How did UIC help me achieve my diplomat dream?

The fact that there are many chances to interact with foreign students in UIC is a big advantage as an international student who does not have a foreign experience like me. We can have more interactions with foreign students, especially through team projects or even in dormitory experiences. I’m a freshman here, and I think those kinds of experiences gave me a lot of motivation to actually dream, a dream as a diplomat, and that was a big advantage for me as a UIC student.

Hyuntae Jang (ECON, ‘18): Advice for future exam takers

There’s a high chance I wouldn’t be able to make it even if I had tried my best because all the other students are very hardworking. Even if I had put in three, five, seven years, there’s a very high chance that I wouldn’t be able to get this job that I want. There’s honestly no perfect remedy for this. II kept going on because I had the belief that this job that would be satisfying—it will let me do the things that I want in life.

What I want to say to students who wish to study for this exam is that, it’s better to have a very high level of motivation and before studying for the exam, and it can take a long time. I started after my military service, so I had no idea of trying to study for the exam before that. There are some students who start from their freshman years, and that is also a good strategy—in terms of trying to finish an exam early in life. Having a high level of motivation would be very helpful for this kind of exam.

—

Interviewed by Professor Helen Lee & Professor Howard Kahm

Edited by Pho Vu (IID, ’20.5)