By Walter Villa, Special to STU
Courageous.
Intelligent.
Innovative.
Mina Park is on brand for St. Thomas University, which is all about limitless potential.
Park, now 41, was 39 when she – for the first time in her life – left her native South Korea. She made that courageous leap of faith to study at STU’s Benjamin L. Crump College of Law.
Due to her intellect and her innovative mind, she recently passed — with flying colors — the bar exam in Washington D.C., scoring 314, which ranks in the 90th percentile.
Park credits STU’s dedicated professors with helping her pass the bar.
In fact, she highly recommends STU for students who want to make a similar journey in their lives.
“At first, you might feel intimidated, especially if you’re the only foreign student in the class,” Park said. “However, the professors at STU are very friendly and open-minded.
“Plus, it’s wonderful to study under the Florida sunshine.”
Park, who is married and has a son, is a patent attorney with 15 years of experience in South Korea.
Her company gave her the opportunity to study law in the U.S. as long as it was for two years, sponsoring her tuition and helping with some living expenses.
Some U.S. schools – such as STU – offer a two-year law-degree program for foreign attorneys. That is one year less than the standard law-school program.
Park researched her choices and chose STU Law, with its location in Miami-Dade County serving as a one of the key factors in her decision.
She arrived in Miami with her family as her husband made the sacrifice and took paternity leave. Having her family with her eased her transition.
“The only challenge was the food,” Park said. “Compared to Los Angeles, New York or Atlanta, there are few Koreans in Miami. Finding authentic Korean restaurants was hard.”
Similarly, walking into her first class at STU was difficult.
“I was really nervous because it seemed like there weren’t many foreign students like me,” Park said. “I was afraid I would get kicked out of school if I failed to earn good grades.
“However, my professors were supportive. Thanks to their help, I quickly got familiar with American law, and I finished my first year with very high grades.”
Park’s second year was even better as she focused on subjects that would help her practice for the bar exam.
Maria F. Cornu Laport, STU’s Director and Associate Professor of Academic Success and Bar Preparation, was particularly helpful, Park said.
“I often saw her encouraging students and providing study resources,” Park said. “She helped create efficient study schedules for the bar exam.”
Park also took a bar-prep course with STU professor Jonathan Grossman.
“He’s a renowned professor,” Park said. “He provided a big-picture outline for all MBE (multi-state bar exam) subjects, which helped me grasp the key concepts.”
Park, though, felt she had to attack her weakness, which was essay writing.
To improve, she started practicing essays early on, using past bar questions and sample answers.
In addition, she took an essay-writing class with STU Adjunct Professor of Law Billi K. Pollack.
“She’s a dedicated and hard-working professor,” Park said. “We did many practice essays. Due to her feedback and instruction, my essay writing improved a lot.”
Although Park’s company in South Korea did not require her to pass the bar exam in order to fulfill her part of the sponsorship deal, she felt a “sense of responsibility” given their generous support.
Now that she has passed the test, she has made the trek from South Florida back to South Korea.
But she still dreams of returning to the U.S. one day to serve as a patent attorney.
“I love working as a patent attorney,” Park said. “It allows me to work with technology and the law. It’s exciting to work with cutting-edge technologies.”
Courageous.
Intelligent.
Innovative.
Mina Park is on brand for St. Thomas University.
