The mission of the Asian Pacific American Law Students Association (APALSA) of Chicago-Kent College of Law is to increase social and professional opportunities for Asian and Asian-American law students. APALSA seeks to promote Asian and Asian-American interests both within Chicago-Kent and the greater legal community. Chicago-Kent students of all backgrounds are welcome to participate in our activities.
Even though the Board firmly rejected her otherwise entirely brilliant idea to retain her first-year bio blurb and to continue masquerading as a 1L, there was nothing stopping her from cannibalizing her previous information a little.
Cynthia Sun nation-hopped one too many times as a child and has only continued to meander across state borders like an ADD goldfish in more recent years. Having graduated from Washington University in St. Louis in 2009 with a double major in Biology and Anthropology, Cynthia is still very much a science nerd at heart. She is currently also serving as a research assistant to Professor Lori Andrews, Treasurer of the Intellectual Property Law Society, and an associate editor for the Chicago-Kent Journal of Intellectual Property.
In addition to being awesome at wielding Chinese cleavers for great culinary justice, Cynthia moonlights as a freelance digital illustrator (note: all unsolicited requests to view her portfolio will be subject to suspicion). She enjoys seasoning her foods with weapon-grade sources of capsaicin, questionable humour disguised as highbrow discourse, and paradoxes. As for the fact that she is sailing this fine ship with a fantastic crew of legends and rockstars: tally ho.
A native of Oklahoma, Nina graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a bachelor’s degree in International and Area Studies and a minor degree in French. She is currently a 2L at Chicago-Kent. Along with her position as Vice President of APALSA, she also serves as Secretary of the Art and Culture Law Student Society. Additionally, Nina was a participant of the Association of Corporate Counsel’s Minority Law Student Program this past summer, working in-house at Kaplan Higher Education's legal department. She hopes to pursue a career in labor and employment law or fashion law. Yes, FASHION LAW.
More importantly, her interests are gastronomy (fancy word for eating out…a lot), Oklahoma City Thunder basketball, and occasional crafting.
Kyom is a 2L, who is interested in international commercial transactions, copyright, and trademark. Having been asked to introduce himself, Kyom opened his backpack. Inside there was Sony PD170 camcorder with a MiniDV tape in which the documentary, A Chicken can fly, is recorded. On the top of them, there was a book of poetry titled, Reborn, written by Kyom Bae.
There were also two boarding tickets from Vladivostok and Seoul; three student IDs: Hankuk University of Foreign Studies with a major in Russian, University of Minnesota with a major in Journalism, and Chicago-Kent College of Law. At the bottom, there was his old business card that read, Korean International Student Organization and President as his title.
In the outside pocket, there were three frozen KitKats, a snowboard season pass for 2011, and a torn sheet of paper with some scribbles that read “u’ve gotta buy a new backpack.”
Joyce Choi is a 3L who relieves her stress by cooking, baking, and watching the Bulls. She graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and majored in English Literature. She also volunteered as an usher for the Krannert Center of Performing Arts, where she watched performances by the Moscow Ballet and the Martha Graham Dance Company. As a law student, she is interested in the international field, and she plans to one day live and work in Europe. In her free time, Joyce likes to remind herself why she enjoys reading so much and takes a night off every week to do some relaxing yoga. Joyce also enjoys going to NRB (karaoke) and baking and cooking for others. If you ask, she just might take you up on a request, but not if the Bulls are playing.
Christine Kim is a 2L at Chicago-Kent. A graduate of University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, she is currently using her degrees in Economics and Political Science in devising schemes to take over the fourth floor of 565 W Adams and make it her own territory. After wreaking havoc as a 1L Representative last year, she is now APALSA's Programming Director. (You're welcome, APALSA.) She has recently taken up falconry as a hobby, and during school breaks she retires to her countryside retreat in Boxelder, Wyoming. Her favorite class is Property.
From 1L Representative to President, James Vergara has, throughout his law school career, put himself through the gauntlet known as the Asian Pacific American Law Students Association and lived to tell the tale. Now, as a 3L, he prefers to take the backseat as APALSA Godfather, or at least, that's what he calls himself. The actual title we're giving him is Executive Senior Advisor. He is a law student and a runner, though not always in that order. He's currently training for his fourth marathon while also wading through the minutiae of the United States Patent Act.
At Purdue University, he majored in Computer Science and minored in Japanese and Management. After graduation, he spent three years in the countryside of Japan, going through the entire menu of Mister Donut while studying for the LSAT. Although James is an Executive Articles Editor of the Chicago-Kent Law Review and the Editor-in-Chief of the Chicago-Kent Journal of Intellectual Property, he's Team APALSA at the core. In his free time he runs races, cooks, and writes short stories. Like the rest of APALSA's fine membership, he is also a perpetual rockstar.
INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT CHARLES PARK
Eunice is a 2L currently interested in Criminal Law. She graduated from the great University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign double majoring in English and Spanish. She also studied at the Universitat de Barcelona in Barcelona, Spain for one year. Among her favorite authors are Shakespeare, Jane Austen, John Donne and C.S. Lewis. She is currently reading The Lord of the Rings trilogy and invites any and all discussion regarding….THE LOTR!
Likes: Cafes, Paris, cats, books, pastries, raw fish and Civil Procedure (her favorite class)
Dislikes: Cheese, loud people in libraries, body odor
Who would want to befriend this weirdo? Not sure, but she promises to be the best historian in the WORLD.
Annette Kim is an evening student at Chicago-Kent. Her interests lie in Labor and Employment Law. She is excited to be the Minority Bar Association Liaison for APALSA.
Jawayria is starting her 2L year at Chicago-Kent. She has always proudly called Chicago home. After leaving the suburbs to study Political Science at the University of Chicago, she joined the Kent community. Here she is considering studying criminal or civil rights law. In addition to her devotion to APALSA, Jawayria spends time with the Labor and Employment Law Society and Phi Alpha Delta. In her spare time she enjoys staying active, by running, playing volleyball and soccer, and dancing. On some occassions, you may see her performing with her guitar.
Jawayria looks forward to an exciting year with APALSA, and is honored to serve on its board.
Duka Baatarchuluun is currently a 2L at Chicago-Kent. She studied at the University of IL and majored in finance and international business before attending law school. She hopes one day to incorporate her business background with her legal career and work in-house or as a corporate lawyer. During her free time, she enjoys playing sports and watching movies.
Jessie is a 2L and a graduate of Tianjin University, China, with double majors in Biomedical Engineering and Law. After watching Boston Legal (yes, it’s one of her favorites), she traveled a long way to the States and studied in the L.L.M. program at Indiana University Bloomington. She found that she missed the city life and came to Chicago for its great lake view, nice people, Chinatown, and of course, the amazing Chicago-Kent.
She worked as an extern in the Illinois Appellate Court in the past summer. For her second year, she will be focusing on both intellectual property law and corporation law.
After serving as a 1L representative last year, she find that she absolutely loves APALSA (well, as much as she loves cocktails, cooking and travel)! She looks forward to continuing working with her fellow members and friends and having fun during this post-1L year.
Linda Lei is currently a 2L student at Chicago-Kent Law. She graduated with a top 4% grade from Wuhan University majoring in Biomedical Sciences, which encompasses a large range of different bio-related areas, such as physics, chemistry, technology, and biology. During her fourth year in college, she was selected as representative of Wuhan University to study in National University of Singapore (of which there was a total of five students) to exchange values and cultures. This precious experience, including joining the start-up company, “ExoroGame,” created by five NUS students, motivated her to explore more of the world. After graduation, she attended University of Michigan and worked as a laboratory technician for “Center of Arrhythmia,” a renowned laboratory that focuses on heart disease research. Being a law student quite differs from her previous experiences. But she enjoyed a lot and she learned like a happy sponge. Travel, yoga, exercise and stage acting performance has become her own way of relaxing. She loves law and she believes becoming a good attorney was the right choice for her.
full of energy, inside and outside;
full of romance, in China and US;
full of challenge, before and after.
Micah is a 1L attempting to learn more about "the law." He graduated from the University of Illinois at Chicago and majored in Political Science. While at UIC, Micah spent a semester in Tokyo, Japan and spent two summers working in Manila, Philippines. In his "spare" time as a 1L, Micah enjoys biking on the Lakeshore Path, trying out new restaurants, eating food in general and sleeping in the library.
Once upon a time Di wanted to be an astronomer or astronaut, but finally was beaten by her terrible physics grade. Now she is in law school to be an attorney. At least, all of her aspirations start with the letter A. Graduated from The Ohio State University, double majors in Economics and International Relations in June 2011 (and yes, she is a Buckeye). She is interested in international-related law but does not have any specific ideas yet. She hopes to figure it out within the next three years.
She enjoys anything that makes life colorful, and she is very passionate about traveling, photography, and food (cooking and eating). Currently she is doing a life-time project -- "jump around the world". So far, it's going very well. She likes reading biography books, especially about ancient Chinese emperor and politicians. She also likes different kinds of music and movies but has never and will never watch any scary movies.
Made in China, wrapping in U.S, and not sure where will be sold.
Helen is a 1L with an undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology (and yes that means she is a bit of a nerd). Helen grew up in Missouri, but she longs for the delicious korean food of her birth state of California. Helen is currently uncertain of the type of law she wants to study, but is interested in intellectual property law and international law, she may study international intellectual property law. She loves eating, shopping, and watching korean dramas. Reading is her hobby, but she has had little time to read because of the rigors of engineering and law school. Despite being Asian and well versed in East Asian history, she is very poor at playing a musical instrument. She has visited 4 out of the seven continents and hopes to continue her travels someday, but must first survive her first year of law school.
Battu hails from Ulaanbaatar Mongolia, the coldest capital city in the world, so he is not intimidated by the winters here in Chicago. He spent most of his childhood in Germany. He studied Political Science and US History at Dickinson State University, North Dakota. He hopes to pursue a career in International Transactions, Corporate and Finance Law, International Taxation, and Natural Resources preferably in Ulaanbaatar or Hong Kong.
His interests are fantasy basketball, NBA, eating good food, financial markets, and news. While in Chicago, besides finishing law school, he would like to add 20 pounds of muscles, learn to golf, watch as many Bulls games as possible, and would love to pick up rowing as well.
Minhye is a 1L at Chicago-Kent. Prior to coming to Chicago, she was a Korean-Mandarin-English interpreter for six years. She is excited to be a 1L representative for APALSA.