Getting International with Kyu-Po Pyun ’10

Diversity is just one of many reasons Lawrence is so great. We are fortunate to have students from literally all over the world, which makes Lawrence a wonderful multi-cultural community. One International student who is well known around campus is Junior Kyu-Po Pyun who hails from South Korea.  You have probably seen Kyu-Po walking around campus with a grin, or recognize him from one of his many campus activities. Having lived in the Midwest for most of my life, I was curious about Kyu-Po’s experience traveling thousands of miles to the other side of the world to go to college in Appleton Wisconsin. Kyu-Po sat down and talked to me about how America differed from his initial expectations and his experience at Lawrence. 

Kyu-Po originally comes from Pusan, the second largest city in South Korea (a far cry from Appleton!) He first came to Wisconsin on a rotary scholarship his last year of high school and lived in Minoqua Wisconsin, a northern town of only 5,000 people. Needless to say, life in American wasn’t exactly what he expected. “From living in Korea, I thought all Americans lived in big cities like Los Angeles, New York City, or Chicago. I thought America was a heaven filled  with night lights, clubs and shopping”. From the American movies and television shows he saw at home, his notions of Americans were different as well. “I thought that all the women in the United States looked like Jessica Alba, I found out this wasn’t true”. 

After a few months in America, Kyu-Po began to realize that moving from a metropolis to a small city did have its advantages. “I started to do things outside since the environment was so different than at home. I got into outdoor things like skiing in the winter,  jetskiing and water skiing on the lake.” This love of the outdoors carried over to Lawrence and Kyu-Po became involved in the Outdoor Recreation Club, which allowed him to go camping, canoeing and live with other outdoorsy people. Kyu-Po has also been part of many other organizations and clubs on campus  including LUCC, Lawrence International (LI), Mock Trial, Model UN and he was the president of Delta Tau Delta last year. 

After he graduates from  Lawrence, Kyu-po plans to serve as a lieutenant in the South Korean military.  Kuy-Po explains that joining the military in South Korea is an important rite of passage for men and most men join just  after their freshman year of college. He plans to spend three and a half years working for the military before he looks for a job in economics or government. Kyu-Po aspires to become a diplomat or work in international relations with the main goal of  creating cultural understanding between countries. Kyu-Po explains, “If countries understood and knew more about one another there would be less conflict around the world”. Clearly this campus celebrity is going to go far and really make a difference around the world. You go Kyu-Po!