Mill Creek’s Senior Valedictorian of this year is Esther Jung. She is proud of her achievement, but says it doesn’t define her as a person, “It’s a reflection of my past four years, but it doesn’t define my success or my intellect, it’s just if I was good at school or not. Regardless, I feel like everyone who has achieved a high academic standing should be proud of where they are for how hard they have worked.”
Jung is involved in serval clubs at Mill Creek, the biggest ones being Interact Club, DECA, and Science Olympiad. Jung spends most of her time involved in Interact Club, where students do their best to help the community with their service. She is most passionate about the Young Authors Association, where students share their creative ideas and unique stories. Jung is passionate about the club because she loves to be able to see fellow students share their art that they are passionate about. Her least favorite subject is math, but she finds it very useful and rewarding when as she puts more time into the subject. She applied to college as a Public and International Affairs major, and she has been accepted to UGA, Georgia Tech, Vanderbilt, and Princeton. However, she has not settled on a college or major yet, she is torn between international relations or a STEM major. If she were to choose international relations she would be a lawyer and a writer on the side. As a STEM major she would want to go into materials engineering or neuroscience research. As the end of the year approaches, Jung is excited for this new chapter of her life, but at that point she sees herself as the leader of her life when she leaves home and becomes an adult in college. The idea of college being someone new that she will be experiencing is anticipating and exciting to her.
Jung is also this years STAR Student, where she has achieved the perfect SAT score for this year. She also expressed how she believes other students could achieve a perfect score as well if they were just given the right coaching and guidance. Jung also chose Greg Marr as her STAR Teacher, who she says has had the most impact on her high school journey. Jung chose Marr, who teaches AP Physics, because he teaches a difficult subject but does his best to make it understandable to his students. Jung says math is one of her least favorite subjects, but Marr is a great teacher and impacted her understanding in the class, “Mr. Marr is funny too, but anyone who’s had Mr. Marr will understand why I chose him as my STAR Teacher.”
Although, Jung says her academic achievements do not define her as a person. Out side of school, she spends time doing things she personally likes. Jung enjoys science fictions novels, runs a Dungeons and Dragons campaign, and writes as a way of winding down. During her free time, Jung plays games such as Minecraft outside of school as a past time. As a job, she currently tutors elementary students that have just moved into the country that do not know English. She tutors children that speak Korean as a first language that do not fluently know English. The Duncan Creek ESL (English as a Second Language) Program is currently overfilled due to them having more students than planned that do not speak English. She enjoys supporting these children and making them more comfortable in speaking and learning a new language as well as the different academic concepts in Georgia that are slightly different in Korea. Jung hopes that the language stress will alleviate in the area as new people arrive. Jung does not define herself by her academic achievements, but she strives to do well in her studies.
The most valuable lesson Jung learned from her parents was, “However much effort you put into something will will define how well it will turn out. You can’t expect to get a good outcome if you but the bare minimum effort into it.” Jung admits that she struggles with time management with all of her schoolwork, but she keeps this ideal in mind whenever she is working on something. It has influenced how she completes her work and how she approaches any problems that she has had to work through to achieve her goals.
