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RECONNECTING WITH GILMOUR’S PACIFIC RIM ALUMNI (CONTINUED) United States. “Most of the time foreign students have a much more difficult time adjusting to the cultural differences than academics. I think Gilmour was an excellent place for both.” With the start of his new job, Lee has not had much time to travel, but he was able to visit Haiti as part of a reconstruction mission during his military service. He is an amateur Sahng Vin (Vincent) Lee ’03 photographer, a hobby he picked up while studying visual arts at Fordham. Thanks to social network platforms, he has stayed in touch with friends from Gilmour and college. Ji-Hun Kim ’98 lives in Korea where he works for the Hun Corporation. A graduate of University at BuffaloSUNY, he earned his bachelor’s degree in computer art. He feels his Gilmour experience helped him in college and beyond, especially because of the AP coursework he took while at the Academy. He fondly remembers the Lancer soccer team and keeps in touch with classmates, mostly members of the Gilmour Classes of ’97 and ’98. Kim enjoys climbing and recently traveled to Japan. Jeong Hoon Kim ’10 is currently working for the U.S. military under a program called KATUSA, which stands for Korean Augmentation to the U.S. Army. He joined last September and writes “life has not been too bad for me.” Myung -Won (Thomas) Lee ’07 is a junior majoring in anthropology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He began there as a freshman in 2007 and then entered mandatory military service in Korea for two years prior to returning to the university. Lee first came to the United States with his parents when he was only nine years old, while his father worked in a two-year research program at Harvard University. His family went back to Korea, but Lee realized he liked the American style of education better and returned to New Jersey with his mother for sixth and seventh grades until his acceptance to Gilmour.
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Lee believes that as a preparatory school, Gilmour helped smooth his transition to college. Gilmour’s “great atmosphere and setting” helped him plan for his future. “I was able to set personal life goals and dream,” he writes. His favorite memories are of making friends in the dormitory and enjoying small class settings that enabled him to interact with students in other grade levels. Gilmour students are “still some of my closest friends today,” which made his experience as an international student unique, he says. Facebook affords him the opportunity to keep in touch with fellow Gilmour alums. Lee enjoys watching sports games and still cheers for the Cleveland Indians! He listens to classical music and continues to play the cello, as he did at Gilmour. Mark Phong ’95 is married to Agnes Chew and lives in Singapore where he is earning his MBA at INSEAD, one of the world’s leading graduate business schools. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in bioengineering and economics and then went on to serve in the Singapore Armed Forces. He also earned a doctorate in pharmacology from the National University of Singapore. Prior to returning to school full time to complete his MBA, Phong worked for a year as vice president of research and development at Curiox Biosystems and spent eight years as a group leader and research scientist at Eli Lilly & Co. Reflecting on his Gilmour education, Phong believes it was “broad and well-rounded” and provided “enough flexibility in the curriculum with AP subjects that I could take more advanced classes if I was interested.” He remembers some classes being a lot of fun and enjoyed his time with the tennis team. Being the only Gilmour alum in Singapore, he doesn’t see many classmates regularly, but has connected through Facebook. Phong is passionate about sports and fitness and enjoys digital photography and reading about history and strategy. Anita Wong ’93 married Wilson Lai and now has two children: 3-year-old Aaron and 1-year-old Alicia. The family lives in Hong Kong where Wong joined the family business as director of Hollyland Co. Ltd., one of the world’s leading manufacturers of circuit protection.