Hyangshim Kwak, Smitten by Service

Hyangshim Kwak isn't fazed by the early morning wake-up calls, the required push ups if she's late to class, having to make hospital corners on her bed, or the restrictions on her ability to leave campus to visit family and friends when she enrolls at West Point at the end of this month.

Kwak, a graduating Irvington High School senior, is more concerned that –unlike her high school friends who are happily shopping for their college dorms—she won't be able to decorate her room or even display her favorite stuffed animals.

"That'll be tough," Kwak said somewhat ruefully.

Still, one somehow gets the sense that even West Point's rigorous program won't be too tough for this high school phenom.

At Irvington High School, Kwak is in the top 10 percent of her class. She is first chair for violin in the orchestra, a fencer, and a member of the environmental club (she served as president her junior year).

Just as important to Kwak are the community service activities and projects she does, both through Irvington High School and through outside organizations.

"In my family, we value service and living for a higher purpose," she said. "I really like community service." Through the high school environmental club, for example, she and her friends have cleaned up the beach at Matthiessen Park. Through outside groups, Kwak has participated in Midnight Run, visited the elderly and done other park clean up projects.

Her academic and leadership qualities make Kwak a natural for West Point, even though attendance at one of the nation's service academies isn't a usual destination for top-performing students from the Rivertowns.

Although Kwak is the first girl to head to West Point from Irvington High School, principal Scott Mosenthal pointed out that the school has sent five or six of its alumni to the service academy since 9/11.

"Maybe there's a pipeline effect," Mosenthal said. The Irvington students who had previously gone on to West Point had been athletes, as well as Boy Scouts and Eagle Scouts.

Fixing her sights on West Point—the only place Kwak applied to for college-- wasn't as much of a disconnect for Kwak as it might appear at first. An older cousin goes there, and Kwak spent a week at West Point's high school leadership program the summer before her senior year.

"I really enjoyed the environment there," Kwak said. "They made leadership a priority. They put you in a situation where you could be challenged emotionally, mentally and physically. Every part of the day is jam packed. You had to have the discipline to be on time. They really stressed team work. I look at West Point as a really big challenge."

Plus she was also impressed by the people she met there, who were "willing to give up five prime years [post graduation] for their country."

While she doesn't downplay her apprehension about what waits for her across the Hudson River in a few weeks—admitting that "I'm really nervous" about the six weeks of basic training this summer—Kwak firmly believes that attending West Point and then devoting five years to the military is the right thing to do.

 The second-oldest of six children and attending Irvington schools since Dows Lane days, Kwak is a first generation American.

She's looking forward to pursuing engineering studies--"systems and operations engineering, for rebuilding"--and to serving her country someplace "exotic, that's different from America or Korea."

Kwak added, "The opportunities to travel the world and experience so many things" will be worth the demanding physical pace and academic rigor.

"This nation has given me so much," Kwak said. She is now more than ready to step up and give back.