By JacQueline Loughney, JRN 111 STUDENT
Yeaeun Song is an only child from Daegu, South Korea. When she was in kindergarten, her English academy school would instruct their students to pick an “American” name. Her teacher put a list of girl and boy names on the board for the children to pick from. In an attempt to outshine her classmates, Song chose the name Caroline.
“I’m going to pick the longest one and be the smartest one in the class,” Song said. “Caroline was the longest one on the board, so I was like, ‘I’m going to pick that one’. It took me a week to memorize the spelling.”
Choosing a name was just the first step in Song’s journey toward self-discovery. Her path has led her to become an international student at Moraine Valley, where she continues to work to find her place in life.
“I just want to build a life so no matter where I move, I’m comfortable with my own self,” she said.
Song’s ambitious attitude has led to her become the president of the Moraine chapter of the honors society Phi Theta Kappa, president of International Students’ Association, and assistant editor for the student newspaper, The Glacier. She is the recipient of three Moraine Valley scholarships, including the the PTK Global Leaders of Promise scholarship, the Book Scholarship and the PTK Fall Scholarship.
“I just want to build my own life. I just want to be comfortable with my own cultural identity and my identity in general so that I am comfortable with just existing no matter where I go.”
Caroline Song, international student
Song loves computers and technology, interests she shares with her father. Before she moved to America for school, she was actively involved in research with her father to develop a technology to benefit his practice in nuclear medicine.
“It’s really fun–and I’m not being sarcastic about it. But it doesn’t sound fun, so let me try to explain it,” Song said. She said her father looks at CT scans or MRI scans of patients and “either diagnoses people after finding a cancerous area or tumor, or he redirects if they need further testing done.
“So, what we are trying to do is automate or expedite that process, because right now you have to go into that software and if you want to segment a certain tumor of that scan you have to click click click and segment it all by hand.” Song explains. “We were like yeah, we don’t want to do that, so we are basically training an AI model, a deep learning model, so that it automatically does that for you.”
Attending Moraine Valley is not Song’s first experience in the United States. Due to her father’s job, Song and her family lived in Pennsylvania for her middle school years. She preferred American school over Korean school because she loved the fun extracurricular opportunities. She was able to prosper in school while playing in an orchestra.
“It was really hard for me to have a well-rounded experience in Korea,” she said.
After moving back to Korea for high school, Song decided that she wanted to pursue higher education in America. Keeping her career goal in mind, she decided to attend Moraine Valley and go through the computer engineering pathways program for the University of Illinois.
Since Song already had been granted a full ride to a college in Korea, her father needed some convincing. “But Dad, Korea is just not my thing,” she told him.
“She’s a go-getter. She always takes charge in a lot of the events that we hold. She is always on top of things. She is very mature and reliable.”
International Student Specialist Gianna Kafka
Songs’ accomplishments at Moraine Valley have made that sacrifice worthwhile, though she had a bit of a hard time coming out of her shell when she first arrived. She describes herself as a very reserved and introverted “Tech Nerd.”
“In the first semester, I went to class, and then I went home immediately… and talked with my host mate,” she said.
After some thought, Song reminded herself why she had decided to pursue her education in America in the first place.
“I wanted to be more involved on campus, which is one of the reasons why I liked the American education system,” said Song. “I feel in Korea, you either do academics or sports; you can’t really do both.”
This attitude has paid off for Song, earning her not only many positions and scholarships, but also the approval of ISA staff.
“She’s a go-getter. She always takes charge in a lot of the events that we hold. She is always on top of things. She is very mature and reliable,” said International Student Specialist Gianna Kafka.
Kafka’s coworkers agree with her assessment of Song: “Oh, she is lovely. She is very calm and collected but also ready to take the lead on things and always has a great mindset on how to do things. She’s very creative and brings great ideas to our program,” said International Student Housing Specialist Sandra Monroy.
Most of Song’s friends also attend the same clubs she does, strengthening their bond.
“The reason why I like my current friend group so much is because most, if not all of us, are international students, so I really enjoy listening to their perspectives on things.”
Besides continuing her education and establishing her career, her biggest dream is to feel at home. She said she never felt at home in Korea because she was never happy there, but she also feels out of place here in America.
“I feel like a lot of immigrants or second-generation or international students can relate, but you never really feel like you’re at home,” she said. “So like when I’m in America, I’m too Korean, but when I’m in Korea, I’m too American.”
The most comfortable Song appears to be is when she is discussing her dream career in the computer engineering field. She sits up taller and her face lights up in a big smile when she talks about her aspirations, especially her research with her father.
“I just want to build my own life,” Song said. “I just want to be comfortable with my own cultural identity and my identity in general so that I am comfortable with just existing no matter where I go.”
Velocity 
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