Joseph Kang

 

 

Kang, Joseph

Villa Park High School, Senior

Villa Park, California

(USC/New York University/UC San Diego/UC Irvine 합격; 2012년 9월 USC 입학 예정)

 

Compassion, empathy, uniqueness. Not only have these words come to describe Min, but they have also come to define him. Math in Junior High was difficult and devastating. With test scores at a C average in Algebra I, I was both humiliated and depressed due to my personal lack of understanding in the material. In hopes of raising my grade, my mother searched for a tutor. Through both luck and what I see as fate at this point of my life, I met Min. During our first meeting, I expected the routine that mostly all tutors follow, which included asking if I had any homework or problems that I did not understand and then merely solving them while looking at textbooks for reference. My expectations were completely shattered when I started understanding problems that seemed foreign merely seconds ago. Min began teaching me new methods to solve problems, which allowed me to arrive to solutions twice as fast and as accurate as school-taught methods. Furthermore, the way he taught me seemed as if a friend was teaching me as opposed to a strict teacher, which soothed me and allowed me to stay focused. I was hooked. Algebra II became a breeze and math in general became “fun.” As the tutoring sessions progressed, I came to realize that minor errors were eradicated and crucial mathematical rules that I would use in the future were becoming internalized. Not only were my math skills increasing, but also my awareness of the importance of doing well in school increased. However, during my second semester of my sophomore year, Min moved to Korea, making routine tutor sessions impossible. I panicked and began to wonder how I would maintain my A in my current math class without Min’s aid. After discussing my issue with Min over a program called Skype, I realized that over the past three years with Min, I had learned a plethora of mathematical knowledge. From this amount of knowledge, I felt that branching off from his teachings would be a cinch. I was right. I ended up with A’s in AP Calculus AB, AP Calculus BC, and AP Statistics over my Junior and Senior year of High School without Min’s help. Looking back at the past and remembering my difficulties in Algebra seemed comical. From my success, it became apparent that Min’s teachings had clearly laid out a strong foundation to my mathematical knowledge that ultimately allowed me to succeed in any math course, regardless of the difficulty. I can only say that now, after knowing Min for about seven years, he is a person I will always see as a life-changer, a mentor, and most importantly—a life-long friend.