For senior Hyeon Jeong, home stretches beyond his birth town of Busan, South Korea. While rural Hamilton may seem like a far jump from South Korea, Jeong was already accustomed to geographical changes when he first came to Colgate. At age nine, Jeong and his family moved to Cape Town, South Africa. He now considers both countries and the Colgate community home.

“I’ve definitely formed a great community here and a set of friends that I rely on to provide me great support. I absolutely love Colgate. It’s become a home away from home,” Jeong said.

While he initially planned on attending a liberal arts college to study economics, Jeong is now a mathematical economics and philosophy concentrator.

Jeong’s love of philosophy stems from a desire to write. Outside of class, Jeong works at the Writing Center as a peer consultant. Jeong is also a member of Link Staff and the Konosioni Senior Honor Society.

Despite having many varied interests, Jeong especially enjoys his role as a Yes Means Yes facilitator. He feels the program benefits from growing “organically” and being run entirely by Colgate students.

Jeong feels his experience on campus has been overwhelmingly positive, but admits that complicated social and racial issues have played a role in his time here.

“Last year after the November election, it was difficult to see many people on campus reacting in ways I found unempathetic,” Jeong said.  

Ultimately, while Jeong feels he has learned from these less than positive experiences, he believes trying to make college the best four years of your life can set expectations too high.

“Especially as a first-year, when you don’t know the college, there’s this pressure for you to find a great group of friends quickly or adjust quickly. That just doesn’t happen. You just need to take things at your own pace,” he said. 

For Jeong, taking things at his own pace meant exploring classes outside of his concentration and appreciating exceptional professors. After taking a core class with Associate Professor of Classics Naomi Rood, he sought out her other classes even though some were unrelated to his interests.

Jeong is still making the most of his American home before hopefully pursuing a law degree after graduation.

Contact Lauren Hutton at [email protected].