Welcome to my digital portfolio!

안녕하세요! Здравствуйте! Сәлеметсіз бе! Hello! Thank you so much for taking the time to check out my page and learn a little more about me. I am a graduate student studying Second Language Studies at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. I have a passion for learning languages, reading, and nurturing creativity in my students. I was born and raised in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, but I've been exploring the world since I first moved to South Korea at 16. Since then, I have achieved fluency in Korean, and am looking to expand my language journey further both as a learner and a teacher. Feel free to flip through my photos and memories below and take a little piece of me along with you.

My language journey.

From an early fascination with Greek to achieving professional fluency in Korean, my journey with language learning has been as dynamic as it is personal. Thinking back to 5th grade, the first language I tried to learn seriously was Greek, spurred on by an intense interest in Greek mythology. Within days, I had the entire alphabet memorized, but I didn’t realize that to truly learn Greek, I’d have to dig far below this superficial orthographic layer. As I moved on to middle school, I excelled in our world languages classes, and I now view my middle school years as the time when everything fell into place to spark a lifelong curiosity about the intricacies of language learning.

It wasn’t until my freshman year of high school that I began self-studying Korean in earnest, and even today, I can’t quite put my finger on why Korean has stuck so well for me. Drawn in by the language’s elegant orthography and intuitive grammar, I was endlessly motivated to study daily for upwards of two years. With practically no fluent speakers in South Dakota, I decided to pursue a spot in the U.S. Department of State's NSLI-Y Korean Academic Year immersion program in 2018, which allowed me to study Korean full time in an immersive environment throughout my junior year. This was an extremely formative experience, and it solidified my interest not only in Korean but also in the broader mechanics of language acquisition. This led me to the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, where my participation in the Korean Flagship program has helped me achieve professional fluency (ACTFL 3/3/2+) in Korean. Over the years, I have also explored other languages, including Spanish, Russian, Kazakh, and Lakota, continually seeking to expand my language repertoire and understanding of diverse linguistic systems.