Myoung Kim

Myoung Yee Kim received her master's degree in Computer Science at UTEP in May of 2004. She came to El Paso four years ago from Korea.

Her undergraduate work was in a totally different area, Anthropology. At that time, she wanted to understand everything in the world: What's happening now and how these events happen. She enjoyed studying Anthropology, but when she tried to find a job after graduating, she found herself wanting something else. A friend's sister worked as a computer programmer after getting six months of training from an institute despite the fact that her major was not computer science. Myoung Yee found computer programming attractive.

The first time she saw a computer was in middle school. She learned the computer language Basic, and created a program making a grade transcript, calculating averages and totals. Also, her father gave her an 8-bit Apple computer as a present. She often played games that helped her study Math and English. At University she wrote reports using Microsoft Word. When she was a senior, the internet was just beginning to spread. She went to an internet exhibition and met a friend from middle school. Her friend's father worked as a computer programmer and developed carpel tunnel syndrome. It was a scary story. Despite this fear, she started a six month training course and started her career as a computer programmer. She worked extremely hard. After three years, she wanted to learn more in-depth computer science concepts. At this time, she also started wondering about life in America.

Her sister was living in El Paso. Myoung Yee decided to join her sister there. She started learning English at El Paso Community College. After some time, she found that she could pursue a master's course in Computer Science at the University of Texas at El Paso through counseling with a CS graduate advisor. It was good news to her. She decided to
enter UTEP. She studied hard to pass the TOEFL and the GRE.

Through courses in CS at UTEP, she could learn data structures, theory, architecture,
operating systems, security, software development, human computer interaction (HCI) and so on. They were all interesting topics to her. They answered many questions that she had wondered during her career. It was like finding hidden treasure. HCI was kind of exciting because there she could see Computer Science merging with Anthropology. Of course, it was hard to understand everything. Her thesis experience was especially hard training, but it improved her research ability. After spending three years studying this field, she feels more comfortable about computer science in all its facets.

In addition to classes, she enjoyed many research group activities. She could see how professors do research. She found discussion with other students exciting and very helpful. Also, she worked as a volunteer for a program which encourages middle school girls to have an interest in science and engineering fields. It was a very rewarding experience.

The cost of living in El Paso is lower than many other cities and El Paso is the second safest city in America so she was able to support herself while she studied for her master's. She enjoyed the calm life which is different from metropolitan areas, such as Seoul, Korea where she grew up. The experience of a foreign country was her dream and it became real. She could use English in day to day life, not just in the classroom, and see American life directly: what they eat, what their family life is like, how they work, what they think, and so on. Not only America, she could see many other people from various cultures. Many students came from Europe, Middle Asia, Asia and Africa. The city of El Paso shares a border with Juarez, Mexico. Many students commute from Mexico everyday crossing the border to go to school and work. She could experience the life of a Korean American, too. These were all interesting to her. It was really an anthropological field trip.

She would really like to thank all of her UTEP CS professors. They really enjoy research and teaching students and are every kind. She takes to heart the words of Dr. Teller, "whatever you do or dream you can, begin it", so much so that she uses these words as her displayed name in the MSN Messenger.

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