Teen solves puzzle of schools option: Yale or Harvard?
Local student had choice of Ivy League schools, opts for one in Massachusetts
Some Grade 12 kids wrestle with the temptation of having a gap year as opposed to heading straight to university.
Woojin Lim’s dilemma was which Ivy League college to pick.
The Fraser Heights secondary school student was accepted by both Harvard and Yale; after visits to each campus this spring he chose Massachusetts over Connecticut.
“It was a difficult decision,” Lim said. “I just liked the vibe a bit more at the Harvard campus, and the professors.
“And some of the dining halls are like something out of Hogwarts.”
The accolades have piled up for the teen who turned 18 a few weeks ago: He’s been a recipient of awards for bilingual debating, poetry and essay writing (a HART prize for human rights for The Refugee Crisis, Burden Sharing and Moral Obligations).
What’s intriguing about Lim is his holistic approach, how he sees interconnections between poetry, film, music, politics and philosophy.
His entrance essay to Harvard, for example, was about jigsaw puzzles.
“When I was young I really enjoyed solving jigsaw puzzles,” he said. “I tied that into the philosophy behind why you solve jigsaw puzzles. You don’t do it just for the end goal, right? If you only wanted to see the end picture you might as well just buy a painting.
“It’s the process of solving each and every part. It’s the journey in and of itself that matters.
“I tied that into a couple of key ideas ... have you heard of the famous trial, ‘If the glove doesn’t fit you must acquit?’ ”
O.J. Simpson, yes.
“I’ve done some mock trials and I talked about that in the essay, a trial being like a puzzle.”
The essay also included a bit about community service (Lim did volunteer work in Mexico through his church, Kwanglim Methodist), about how that’s puzzle-like, as well. “Piecing together the different ideas of philosophy and poverty, those types of things all come together.
“So, yeah, that’s what I wrote.” Vicky Liu and Matthew Li were big influences — Fraser Heights grads a couple years ahead of him who went on to Yale and Harvard. Fairview Heights teacher Chris Pocock was a mentor.
And, of course, his mom and dad — Sun Kim and Dongwhee Lim — played a huge role. They emigrated from South Korea when Lim was five.
There’s a stereotype about harddriving Asian parents, abetted by books such as Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, but Lim said his folks were “really chill, actually.”
There were the usual kids’ music lessons (violin) and sports (taekwondo, swimming, skating), leaving it up to Lim whether he continued those pursuits. He never felt pushed.
“I was doing the things I loved. My parents were like, ‘Just do what you want to do.’ It’s an open-minded approach to parenting that’s led me here.”
To kick back he watches films on Netflix, neo-noir psychological thrillers like the South Korean Oldboy and Bong-June Ho’s Mother, or relaxes to the mellow beats of chill-hop. Always with his pen and a notepad nearby, of course, to jot down the essay and poem ideas he gets from the screen or the airwaves.
A Lim poem that won the Dr. John Felstiner award is called Nature & Harmony.
A poem that was shortlisted by the Claremont Review is called The Pentateuch (Greek for the first five books of Jewish and Christian scripture: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy).
Lim fell in love with poetry after encountering T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land, a 3,700-word ditty that begins, ‘April is the cruellest month ...’ and ends with a Sanskrit mantra.
“I was like wow, this is really good, I really want to write a poem like this,” he said. “I drew inspiration from that and after school I’d write my own poems.
“I just enjoy what poetry is. I love the theory, not just the esthetic intention of the artist, but how it relates to us and furthers our understanding of the world, of human nature.”
He will study social studies and comparative literature at Harvard. Which brings us back full circle to Lim’s holistic approach.
“The reason I’ve chosen humanities is because I enjoy the abstract nature of it all. In math and science, there’s one right answer, you’re pursuing an empirical, calculative, categorical, objective goal.
“I enjoy the open-mindedness and freedom of thought in literature and philosophy. The thing is with philosophy, literature, politics, there are so many things that are intertwined.”
Like how Australian philosopher Peter Singer’s ideas on global moral obligation, for instance, can tie in with a book about a man pulling a two-wheeled cart in Beijing in the 1920s (Rickshaw Boy).
“Everything interacts, there are so many overlaps. Even reading poetry or watching films or listening to music, so much can be tied altogether.
“That’s something I find incredible.”
My parents were like, ‘Just do what you want to do.’ It’s an open-minded approach to parenting that’s led me here.