Justin Jin

Student

Born in Busan Korea, raised primarily in Beijing China, attended International Schools since Grade 2. Loves sports, reading, traveling.

I am passionate about two things, learning/educating myself to become a person that I want to be and changing the world, beginning with baby steps. I will talk about the latter first. After a trip to the wild safaris of Kenya & Seychelles, Africa, my eyes opened to things I had never imagined. People were still living in houses built with mud and elephant dung, still making fire with wood, still hunting lions with spears. I was perplexed by the existence of these problems which should have long been gone. I grew up in a fairly wealthy background, always had opportunities to learn at my fingertips, always had delectable food to eat, always had extravagant clothing to wear. I had all the luxurious comforts of my home. I thought it was necessary and parents are obligated to supply their kids with an innocent, joyful childhood. People had said to me that we were the top 1% of the world and there are people without enough water, food, clothing scattered throughout the globe. I hadn’t believed it until I witnessed those children with mosquitos all over their bodies in Africa. Everyone I met until then had Louis Vuittons, Chanels, and Diors. Since then, the most rewarding experience to me has always been making someone else’s day with little things. Whether it was holding the door, offering my seat, giving my umbrella, all to strangers. Or other larger collaborative efforts like building a house with classmates, every brick I moved I envisioned one less homeless person, helping typhoon recovery with a charity organization, every rice sack I carried I envisioned someone no longer suffering the pains of hunger, painting the walls of a local school with a partner, every line of white I brushed I envisioned a student reading from a book they loved with a glamorous smile. Now learning and educating myself, of course, has to do with changing the world as well. Right now, from my limited knowledge of the world, there is so much I can do. Things I have done until now can only help people on a small scale and to do bigger things I must educate myself to further enlarge my horizons about how the world functions.