This past May, Hyunah Kim (32·photo) passed the State of Minnesota bar exam. She was born blind and is “first-degree visually impaired.” During her years of study, until she became a U.S. lawyer, she repeatedly told herself, “I, too, can do it.” She is the first congenitally blind person in Korea to go to law school in the U.S. and to be admitted to a State bar. Kim attended neighborhood churches during her elementary, middle, and high school years in Changwon and Ulsan, Gyeongsangnam-do.
I met Kim on August 9 at a cafe in Yeouido, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul. She told me she wants to be a human rights lawyer and a law professor. “It was okay that I couldn’t see. What was most difficult was my struggle with myself. Every time things got hard, I thought of my parents, prayed, and repeated to myself, ‘I can do it.’ I want to live a right life in this world and be a friend to those who are suffering.”
Kim‘s 12 years of formal education through high school were spent at Busan School for the Blind. It was when she was a student at Kongju National University, pursuing a double major in special education and law, that she began focusing especially on education for the disabled and human rights. In 2007, as an exchange student at Columbia College, she began preparations to enter law school in the U.S.
“Since I was very young, I’ve always liked court dramas. In my second year of college, I began dreaming of becoming an attorney. And I chose to study in the U.S. because I wanted to experience firsthand a better situation of human rights in the wider world.”
Her choice, however, was accompanied by substantial challenges. First of all, it was difficult to get Braille textbooks. Kim said, “From the time I was in high school, my parents had been getting Braille books made for me. The translations cost a lot, and support for visually impaired persons is scarce.”
The education system for visually impaired persons likewise offered no constructive help. Schools for the blind are not designed to prepare their students for college. They usually teach massage or acupuncture to enable blind persons to get jobs. Those wishing to go to college must study for themselves.
“I’m really thankful and feel blessed to have received so much help from so many people,” Kim said. She received a scholarship from the Samsung Social Service Team for her studies. The law school at the University of Minnesota helped her generously. Asked what was her most memorable experience during her law school years, she named her internship working on issues related to low-income families, children in foster care, juvenile delinquents, and special education.
Recently Kim began appearing on “Blue Sky Tomorrow,” a radio program of the Korean Broadcasting System, where she shares her insights in discussions on human rights for disabled persons.
Article and photo by reporter Yeong Dae Yoo (ydyoo@kmib.co.kr), with Yeara Ahn-Park (yap@kmib.co.kr)
Original Article in Korean:
“볼 수 없지만 ‘나도 하면 된다’ 되새기며 기도”: 미국 변호사 합격한 1급 시각장애인 김현아씨
