Myongsun Kim
ePortfolio
University Honors Program
Honors Housing Community (2020-21)
Why I Became a Sophomore Advisor​
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Throughout my freshman year, the Honors Housing Community helped me greatly to transition to college and fine relief on campus. I struggled to find new friend group in college and often found myself isolated. However, the weekly UGST 181 class let me vent the frustration of college life and share advice and wisdom to resolve such frustrations. To continue to be involved with the Honors Housing Community, I decided to become a Sophomore Advisor and hold the UGST 181 class for the freshman like me. I designed the t-shirt for the newly incoming freshman, and brainstormed howdy week events that let the participants physically gather and have fun.
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Becoming a Peer Mentor in Mist of Pandemic
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But as the COVID-19 pandemic hit, it turned out that now I had to deal with completely different things from what I signed up for. The LAUNCH program had to cut the HHC shirt, so the design I made lost its purpose. The SAs were supposed to be given post-final retreat and entire summer to prepare for Howdy Week events and Murder Mystery, but we were left on hold until few weeks before the classes started.
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However, the difficulties did not deter the SA team from doing their best. We came up with new zoom-versions of howdy week events and prepared for Murder Mystery. As a marketing head of the Murder Mystery, I designed flyers and information sheets to give out to the participants. Despite the time crunch, preparing the Murder Mystery gave me a valuable opportunity to develop skills for graphic design, teamwork, and time management.
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As if to respond to the work I dedicated to the HHC, the honor advisors contacted me in March - they got enough funding for the shirt! The design I created in August was modified and was printed on more than 200 shirts for the HHC.
One of the pieces of wisdom I gained by becoming a peer mentor is being able to understand a more diverse scope of people. As a student, it is difficult to empathize with the instructors and understand the situation from the instructor's perspective. By instructing a group of freshmen for the UGST 181 class, I learned there are unique needs and difficulties of instructors, and gained insight on why/how the needs of students and the instructors collide.
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Overcoming Leadership Challenges
What I struggled to deal with though, was the disparity between the expectations and the reality. Some of the mentees were indifferent from the beginning. As the year went by, people, both mentors and the other mentees became more and more indifferent. One of the freshmen attended a weekly seminar on a bus returning from a class. It turned out that more than half of them joined HHC because their parents told them to, or just because the honor program is something they think is a cool line to have in a resume. They didn’t want to engage in any extra activities or meaningful conversations with me. More and more SAs started to join zoom meetings while they are driving somewhere. The supervisors of Sophomore Advisors, the Junior Advisors, became less and less available or enthusiastic during the meeting. And as I was able to probe out the justification behind their exhaustion – the faculty advisors were even less enthusiastic or helpful to them. In a summary, people I once looked up to and became coworkers with didn’t turn out to be the person I thought they were. And as just a student, I felt powerless not to be able to change any structure of HHC. The helplessness gradually turned into indifference.
Going Forward
But perhaps all was not lost. When the time came to apply for a Junior Advisor role, the JAs wanted me to apply. But out of everyone’s surprise, I didn’t. Instead, I concentrated on finishing the semester strong and doing my best to keep my freshmen engaged, at least becoming closer to me. I didn’t see a hope of changing the HHC as a JA. Instead, I decided to become an Honors Student Council officer and seek out different opportunities while I keep my connection to the honors community strong. Yes, the end of the year might have been rather depressing, but I made good friends with some of the SAs, and I wanted to continue to serve the honor community for making me feel belonged somewhere. I sincerely hoped that my effort made someone else feel included as I wished as a freshman. I saw that my opinion mattered, and my choices can make a difference. I saw that my whimsical choice to become an SA opened my eyes to so many different aspects of myself. Although the end was unfortunate, my year as an SA gave me a chance to change the way approach leadership roles, which I will cherish as I move on with my career.
Honors Student Council (2021-23
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