MUKILTEO — Yoo Jung Kim’s name appeared atop an article entitled “A Three-Dimensional Model of the Yeast Genome” in Nature, a prestigious international science journal.
That was in May. Two weeks later, she graduated from Kamiak High School.
While her Kamiak classmates might have been selling shoes or serving fast food last summer, Kim was a part of a research team at the University of Washington’s Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine. She was given credit along with several accomplished scientists in the article that provided “a new way to map the structure of yeast chromosomes.”
The Kamiak valedictorian is one of thousands of high school graduates from Snohomish County this spring.
For every graduate, there is a story.
There’s the Mariner student who was flunking out and expelled after hitting an assistant principal her freshman year, but earned a scholarship by her senior year; the Hispanic student from Everett High School who will be the first in his family to attend college; and the Arlington High School singer and actor who aspires to be a pastor.
Kim did not miss a chance to challenge herself at Kamiak.
“I love learning so much,” she said.
She took 14 college-level Advanced Placement classes and earned a 4.0 grade-point average. She speaks English and Korean and has taken five years of Spanish.
She scored a perfect 800 on each of the critical reading and math portions of the SAT and missed just one question on the writing section.
She served as president of the Mukilteo Youth Advisory Council and wrote guest opinion pieces for local newspapers as well for the Korean Times in Seoul, South Korea.
Next fall, she will attend Dartmouth College on a full-ride scholarship, which is worth more than $200,000. She plans to major in biology and English at the Ivy League school and eventually hopes to simultaneously earn her medical and doctorate degrees — “one of the most competitive degrees in the world.”
Kim has always thrived on academic competition, but that source of motivation since has been overshadowed by a simple joy of learning.
“The pursuit of knowledge is one of the most noble goals there is,” she said.
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