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P7
December 2013
A
n emotional transition to
the United States helped
Suji Shin
become a leader at
Grand Canyon University.
Shin grew up in an agnostic home in Seoul, South
Korea, but preferred the Christian morals and family
atmosphere she found at friends’ churches. She
watched her peers leave Korea to study abroad in
middle school, and she moved to Manitowoc, Wis., in
2008 through a Christian student exchange program
in her sophomore year of high school.
Cultural assimilation and language proved difficult.
Shin could speak only broken English after her first
year in the United States. The language barrier made
her feel like an outcast and caused her to lose her
personality in a way, holding her back from serving
in student government leadership, as she had
throughout school in Korea.
Shin, now 21, often ate lunch alone in the high school
hallway during her first year and cried through the
frustration. She spent long hours studying English,
becoming fluent by the end of high school.
“I can’t imagine where I would be now if I hadn’t gone
through that process,” said Shin, a junior business
major who also works on campus as an enrollment
counselor for prospective students.
“God literally brought me back from rock bottom,”
she said.
Shin emerged this year as president of the Associated
Students of GCU student government. In her role,
she serves the largest ground-campus student
population in University history.
Shin and running mate
Samara Carlon
, a native
of Mexico, were elected by an overwhelming
majority of student votes last spring. Their efforts
to improve student life and outreach on campus
include organizing a Thanksgiving airport shuttle
service for out-of-state students, donating surplus
cafeteria food to St. Mary’s Food Bank and increasing
communication with commuter students.
After two years in public school in Wisconsin, Shin
transferred to a Lutheran high school to earn her
diploma. She was diligent in learning English to the
point of refusing to speak her native language to
other Korean exchange students.
Shin chose to stay in the country under a student
visa to attend college and was “adopted” by
Kris
and
Nick Doneff
, her exchange parents in
Wisconsin. Shin said she has two sets of parents,
describing the Doneffs as her “mom” and “dad” and
her Korean parents as her “mom-mom” and “dad-
dad.” Her American parents moved to Colorado in
2010 to be closer after she enrolled at GCU.
“Suji came here ready to assimilate and make
a difference and help people, and she has
accomplished that,” said Kris Doneff, who has housed
more than 20 exchange students from several
countries. “It has been a joy to watch her grow
because the real Suji is free now.”
This year is Shin’s sixth in the United States. While
she still calls South Korea home, she said she could
see herself living in the States to pursue an MBA or
serve in a leadership role at a college or university
after graduation.
“I have come a long way and I’m very humbled by that,”
Shin said. “I always ask myself if I would go back and
do it again with all the crying and years it took, but
yes, I would do it all again. ”
■
Student-body president learned
to love a new country
FROM ADVERSITY
to UNIVERSITY
– by Cooper Nelson
Suji Shin, president of
Associated Students of
GCU, says God brought
her through a difficult
time of learning a new
language and customs.
Photo by Darryl Webb