Naval Academy appointee dedicated to challenging herself
Jaimie Kim has read and heard about what an enemy computer attack against American interests could do. Experts worry that a successful cyberattack could cripple our banks, energy pipelines and water supplies, sowing panic and even leading to loss of life.
What makes Kim, a recent high honors graduate of Coronado High School in Henderson, different from most of us is that the 19-year-old intends to find ways to stop such attacks from succeeding.
She has been appointed to the U.S. Naval Academy. Her schooling begins in Annapolis, Maryland, at the end of June. To be admitted, she had to succeed in the classroom, in extracurricular activities and secure a congressional nomination. In return for an all-expense paid education, she must serve at least five years in the U.S. Navy.
“I’m looking to major in fiber operations,” she says as she holds a nomination letter to the academy from U.S. Sen. Harry Reid. “I want to be an intelligence officer. The nation’s military is now looking very closely at cyberwarfare.”
The more you talk with Kim — she’s also an award-winning painter and hip hop dancer — the more you understand how, out of around 18,000 applicants to the Naval Academy, she was awarded one of the less than 1,500 slots.
What is most impressive isn’t her grades or test scores — nearly everyone applying to the nation’s service academies is exemplary in the classroom — it is her philosophy of life.
It is necessary, she says, for people to continually challenge themselves.
“That’s the only way you’ll ever find out what you’re really capable of,” she says, ” You have to keep testing yourself. I believe most of us can do far more than what we initially think. It is so sad if you live your life and never know what you can really do.”
She says that even though high-achieving students normally take a calculus honors class later in high school, she took it as a sophomore.
“I got a B and I was devastated for awhile,” she says. “I was disappointed in myself because I knew I could have worked harder. But it made me work harder the next year. And when I graduated early and took calculus at UNLV, I did fine. In the end, I don’t think that B hindered me, it made me realize that I had more to offer. “
She also got a B — all the rest of her Coronado grades were A’s — in advanced placement English.
“It was my second language, so I wasn’t as hard on myself,” she says. “My goal was to try my best and I did.”
Trying her best meant more than a few nights every school year without sleep.
“When I want something, I really go after it,” she says. “My grandfather taught me that.”
Kim was born in California to South Korean parents who were studying in the United States on visas. She lived in Korea and China prior to finishing pre-college education at Coronado. She is now fluent in Korean, Chinese, Japanese and English.
She’s sure — it’s hard to see how she could be wrong — that her language skills will help her as an intelligence officer.
“I might want to try to work for the CIA,” she says.
With her parents unable to obtain immigration visas, Kim has lived with guardians Steve and Lynn Shluker in Henderson.
When Kim wasn’t studying, she was performing hip hop with the Coronado dance team, directing an international club or teaching English to Korean immigrants in Las Vegas.
What has held Kim’s stress in check is her painting. Whenever she feels uptight, she picks up a brush and dreams of being able to use color like Picasso. She’s talented enough to have won first place awards in the U.S. Congressional Art Contest — her painting was displayed in the nation’s capital for a year — and from the American Chemical Society.
Kim is excited about her future.
“In America there is so much opportunity if you work hard. I want to give back to this country that’s allowed me to grow and learn.”
Paul Harasim’s column runs Sunday, Tuesday and Friday in the Nevada section and Thursday in the Life section. Contact him at pharasim@reviewjournal.