International nature of SIS Class of 2018 shines

Twenty-one seniors ended their academic journey at Saipan International School last week and will now head in different directions. Hyunji “Angie” Kim was the 2018 class valedictorian with Hyeong Chang Im as salutatorian.

School headmaster Ronald E. Snyder said the tightly knit Class of 2018 would remain Geckos forever, wherever their journey may lead them.

“I am proud of all our students in the Class of 2018. These students were an incredibly close group but now are going their separate ways. They truly represent the international nature of SIS as they will be going off to universities,” said Snyder.

He said the graduates would go to learning institutions located in four continents in the world where they would take on a wide range of majors.

Class valedictorian Kim is headed to University of California-Berkeley, while student council president Keehoon “Isaac” Jang, the No. 3 in class abd recipient of the Board of Directors Award for Outstanding Commitment to the Service of Others, will be taking up Hospitality and Leisure management at Hong Kong’s Polytechnical University.

“We are proud of all our students and their accomplishments. We wish them the best of luck in this next stage of their journey,” said Snyder.

Hyun Jun Chung will go to UC-Irvine, while reigning CNMI MathCourt champion Surui Hwang will be studying at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania. Yedam Huh will attend UC Davis, while Gio Hur will join Kim at UC Berkeley.

Hyeong Cham Im and Hyun Tae “Eric” Kim are planning to attend a university back in Korea and Julie Ishikawa’s next destination is University of Hawaii-Manoa, while Jeong Yeon Lee will go to the Korea campus of the State University of New York-Stony Brook.

Shuyang “Eric” Li was accepted at Penn State University with Yeon Soo “Jacqueline” Park will be attending University of Washington. Timothy Park, Tiajavika Salas, and Enpa Wang will stay on Saipan at the Northern Marianas College.

Andrea Ranjo will attend the University of Redlands in California, Arthur Sondheim will major in energy engineering at the Universidad Carlos II in Madrid, Spain, and Peter Tenorio will be studying at Grossmont Community College in El Cajon, California.

Linin Xu will be studying at University of Massachusetts in Boston, while Minami Sakai plans to attend a Japanese university. Michael Ren will be having a gap year and plans to attend University of Washington in the fall of 2019.